Can We Afford to Waste Carbon Dioxide? Carbon Dioxide as a Valuable Source of Carbon for the Production of Light Olefins

Concerns about climate change have increased the amount of activity on carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) as one of the solutions to the problem of rising levels of CO(2) in the troposphere, while the reuse of CO(2) (carbon capture and recycling; CCR) has only recently received more attention. CCR is focused on the possibility of using CO(2) as a cheap (or even negative-value) raw material. This Concept paper analyzes this possibility from a different perspective: In a sustainable vision, can we afford to waste CO(2) as a source of carbon in a changing world faced with a fast depletion of natural carbon sources and in need of a low-carbon, resource-efficient economy? One of the points emerging from this discussion concerns the use of CO(2) for the production of olefins (substituting into or integrating with current energy-intensive methodologies that start from oil or syngas from other fossil fuel resources) if H(2) from renewable resources were available at competitive costs. This offers an opportunity to accelerate the introduction of renewable energy into the chemical production chain, and thus to improve resource efficiency in this important manufacturing sector.