Carbon capture, utilization and storage technology Carbon capture, utilization and storage (hereinafter referred to as CCUs) refers to the sum of a series of technologies that separate CO2 from industrial processes, energy utilization or the atmosphere, directly utilize it or inject it into the formation to achieve permanent CO2 emission reduction. CCUs technology originated from the oil displacement and utilization of CO2 in the 1970s. From a global perspective, it has gone through three stages and has now entered commercialization The initial stage of rapid growth. CCUs is currently deployed in 25 countries around the world, with the United States and the European Union in a leading position.
As one of the carbon emission reduction technologies, CCUs has great potential for emission reduction and can promote the clean utilization of fossil energy such as coal. With the passage of time, the role of CCUs technology in achieving China’s carbon neutrality goal will gradually become prominent. CCUs technology is of great significance for China to achieve the goal of carbon neutralization, which is reflected in the following five aspects: 1) the only technical way to realize low-carbon utilization of fossil energy is CCUs; 2) CCUs can make up for the negative effects brought by some traditional carbon emission reduction methods, such as helping the power industry maintain flexibility; 3) Under the current technical situation, the net zero emission of steel, cement and other industries is inseparable from CCUs technology; 4) Negative carbon technology is one of the important emission reduction paths for some industrial processes and industries that are difficult to reduce emissions; 5) CCUs is an effective way to prepare low-carbon hydrogen.
Remarkable progress has been made in all technical links of CCUs in China, but most technologies are still at or below the level of industrial demonstration, and a few technologies have the potential for commercial application. In terms of links, China’s carbon capture and carbon transport technology has developed relatively rapidly, but the development of carbon utilization and carbon storage technology is relatively slow; Compared with foreign countries, most of the technological development stages have been the same as those abroad. In 2050, the scale of China’s CCUs market may exceed 330 billion yuan. According to the plan of China’s carbon capture, utilization and storage technology development roadmap (2019), with cost reduction, technological progress and policy incentives, the output value of CCUs technology will exceed 20 billion yuan / year in 2025 and 330 billion yuan / year in 2050. According to conservative estimates, the average annual growth rate from 2025 to 2050 will be 11.87%.
Although the current CCUs technology has not been commercialized on a large scale, in view of the large development space in the future, it is worth paying attention to the enterprises that have earlier deployed relevant technologies, especially the suppliers of carbon capture technology and carbon utilization technology or equipment. According to the foreign situation, the technology and equipment related to carbon capture and carbon utilization are the focus of venture capital funds at present, mainly because the cost of carbon capture technology accounts for more than half of the cost of the whole CCUs project, Carbon utilization technology has economic benefits (in particular, the economic benefit of a single ton of CO2 in the biological utilization of CO2 is the highest), the innovation of these two technologies will greatly improve the economy of CCUs project. In addition, with the gradual maturity of the national carbon market, we can pay attention to the relevant targets benefiting from the carbon market. As a emission reduction technology, CCUs technology may be included in the carbon emission reduction market such as CCER in the future, so relevant enterprises may obtain additional benefits through CCER profit.
Risk tip: the promotion of CCUs policy is less than expected, the construction progress of carbon trading market is less than expected, the progress of CCUs technology is less than expected, and the investment of CCUs is less than expected. There are safety accidents and environmental risks in CCUs technology, the risk of falling crude oil price and the risk of falling carbon price.
