CO2 Utilization

CO2 Utilization?  Concern over the increased CO2 concentration in the atmosphere and its effect on global climate change has increased the awareness and investigations for reducing CO2 emissions. Nearly half of all CO2 emitted will stay in the atmosphere for centuries. According to Intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC), CO2 emissions must be reduced by 30-85% by 2050 to be on track for stabilizing the atmospheric CO2 between 350-440 parts per million by volume (ppmv). To this end, most importantly, various governments and educational bodies have community outreach programs/policies to educate for responsible consumption of every day resources to reduce carbon footprint. This is a slow and long term effort. As one can imagine this daunting task cannot be met by a singular approach. As such, carbon capture (from ambient air, and flue gases), storage (EOR or saline formations), use of CO2 as a working fluid (waste heat recovery and use) and direct utilization as feedstock (by converting CO2 to valuable fuels, chemicals) are all being explored.

The emerging field of CO2 Utilization encompasses many possible products and applications: fuels, organic and inorganic chemicals, food and feeds, construction materials, enhanced resource recovery (e.g., oil, gas, water, and geothermal energy), energy storage, wastewater treatment, and others.

Given the nature of variety of potential products that can be derived from CO2, an expert in the field of CO2 utilization may come from different industrial experiences and background – a few notable ones are – Power generation, gas separations, advanced catalysis, syngas clean up and handling, organic chemists, oil drilling, carbonylation, electrochemical, algae growth, agriculture and forest management, Urea synthesis etc.

With greater emphasis on sustainability and reduction of GHG, industry, policy makers and various stakeholders need help in understanding the complex and challenging CO2 utilization landscape. This emerging field still faces technological obstacles in realizing low cost CO2 capture and utilization. However, several notable CO2 sources in regions and industries are more readily available and due to lack of understating are severely underutilized. A CO2 expert can help identify technology that is particularly more suitable for a certain product. Can guide policy makers in managing the landscape of emerging technologies and connect dots for short and long term deployments. Other areas of help include, due diligence, technology development/scale up, techno-economics and financial viability, life cycle analysis, availability of supporting technologies etc.

Lee Enterprises Consulting (LEC) offers a wide range of services in biofuels, biochemicals, biotechnologies, biomaterials, synthetic biology commercialization, feedstocks, and hemp/cannabis.  The company has business and financial services like due diligence, feedstock availability, grants and loans and bio market research.  The company also offers technical and engineering related services like techno economic analysis, environmental evaluations, feasibility studies, risk analysis and expert witness engagements.   The company also has strategic partnerships in place to assist clients with insurance, legal, accounting, plant fabrication, feedstock procurement.   With over 150 experts worldwide, Lee Enterprises Consulting also has experts in anaerobic digestion, fermentation, biomass, conversion technologies for things like tires and railroad ties, organic synthesis, fuel additives, ethanol gas, biodiesel fuel including algae biofuels, solid state and industrial fermentation, green energy grants, ag biotech, agricultural waste, alcohol fuels, alternative proteins and animal-free products, sustainable foods, beverage fermentation, biocatalysis, biodiesel conversion, biogas production, biomass power, carbon intensity, CO2 utilization, combined heat & power, Fischer-Tropsch technology, food waste, hydrothermal carbonization, industrial enzymes, landfill management, microbial fermentation, organic synthesis, plastic pyrolysis, plastic recycling, plastic waste, pyrolysis oil, reactor design, renewable identification number, the Renewable Fuel Standard (rfs2), solid recovered fuels, torrefaction and torrefied biomass, waste to energy, and waste-to-hydrogen.   This is a multidisciplinary group of green energy consultants that is a virtual “one stop shop” for any client need and handles projects of all types and sizes.

Look at our experts and the services we provide.  Most of our experts are also available to advise and serve as expert witnesses in bioeconomy litigation matters.  For the larger projects, we specialize in putting together full service, interdisciplinary teams with one point of contact.  See video about LEC here.  Call us at 1+ (501) 833-8511 or email us for more information.