Assessing Biogenic Carbon Dioxide Potentials in Europe for Valorisation

This study investigates the theoretical potential and limitations of green carbon dioxide sources for technical valorisation approaches. The emission of greenhouse gases, especially CO₂, must be rigorously reduced in order to achieve the European and global climate objectives. As CO₂ is an increasingly valuable resource for industries and new disrupting technologies on CO₂ utilization, the potential of CO₂ obtained from different green and fossil sources in Europe is discussed for a comparative evaluation. Biogenic or green and fossil CO₂ sources are classified according to their emitting processes and industry sectors, respectively. The CO₂ potentials are then calculated from statistical data for CO₂ generating processes in Europe, complemented and verified by relevant papers and reports. This study demonstrates the European potential of capturing and utilizing the biogenic and fossil CO₂. In Europe, 69.7 Mt/a CO₂ are estimated to be produced by biogas upgrading, biogas combustion, as well as bioethanol and other fermentation processes. Additionally, 437 Mt/a CO₂ are produced by solid biomass combustion. This accounts for a theoretical potential of 506.7 Mt/a CO₂ currently available, which is nearly seven times the amount of the current European industrial CO₂ demand. The CO₂ from biomass combustion is more difficult to capture and is mixed with impurities, which potentially reduces its technical and economic potential, whereas the 63 Mt/a from other high-purity sources are already partially utilized, e.g., by breweries or dry ice producers.