Carbon Capture and Utilisation: Process Simulation, Modelling and Economics

Dear Colleagues,

Decarbonisation of the energy and industrial sectors is essential to meeting the Paris Agreement targets. These suggest keeping the global mean temperature increase below 2 °C and undertaking efforts to limit it to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. This is because the energy and industrial sectors are responsible for 60–70% of global CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels. To achieve such emissions reduction targets, novel technologies that will enable the energy and industrial sectors to remain competitive at near-zero or even negative CO₂ emissions, while ensuring sustainable utilisation of natural resources, need to be widely deployed.

Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) are considered as the least cost-intensive options towards achieving the emissions reduction target by 2050. Although the energy intensity of mature CO₂ capture and separation technologies has been significantly reduced over the past decade, these are still predicted to result in significant efficiency and economic penalties when retrofitted to power generation systems and industrial processes. Therefore, further development of less energy-intensive CO₂ capture and separation processes is essential. Importantly, these processes should not only focus on decarbonisation of a particular industry but should also form a foundation for the creation of new business models, considering the utilisation of CO₂ as a route for its permanent storage. Employing process simulation and modelling tools allows a cost-effective investigation of new concepts feasibility and applicability, as well as the development and optimisation of different process configurations.

It is, unfortunately, a common practice to evaluate novel technologies across the CCUS chain solely on the basis of their thermodynamic performance. Although this highlights the potential reduction in the energy intensity of the CO₂ capture and separation technologies, as well as the benefits of the CO₂ utilisation technologies, it does not fully support their commercial deployment, driven by economic feasibility. Therefore, the studies that will be selected for publication in this Special Issue, following a rigorous peer-review process, should address not only the thermodynamic feasibility but also the economic feasibility of the CCUS technologies. This Special Issue focuses on, but is not limited to:

• CO₂ capture—low-cost technologies for CO₂ separation from flue gases, syngas and direct air capture;
• CO₂ utilisation—competitive technologies for CO₂ utilisation as feedstock;
• Industrial decarbonisation—low-carbon process for cement, steel, chemicals production;
• Polygeneration of clean energy and chemicals—technologies for combined energy and chemicals production;
• Techno-economic analysis—novel approaches to assessing the techno-economic feasibility of the technologies across the CCUS chain.

Thank you for your contributions.

Assoc. Prof. Dawid P. Hanak
Guest Editor

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• process engineering
• carbon capture
• CO₂ utilisation
• process modelling
• process optimisation
• decarbonisation
• techno-economic analysis
• feasibility assessment
• low-carbon power generation
• low-carbon industrial processes