Rethinking Carbon Emissions: How CCU Enables Circularity

Liquid Wind releases “Carbon Capture and Utilisation, The Role of Bio-CCU in Reducing Carbon Emissions”, a new White Paper highlighting the critical role of Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) in accelerating the transition to a circular, low-emission economy. It covers the main carbon capture technologies, key CCU applications, environmental benefits, and the regulatory frameworks shaping its deployment across Europe.

To limit global warming to 1.5°C, CO₂ emissions must be halved by 2030 and reach net-zero by 2050. Achieving this calls for a major transformation across industries. Carbon capture strategies are key to this effort – either by storing captured CO₂ underground (CCS), or by using it as feedstock for products like fuels, chemicals, and building materials (CCU), thereby reducing the need for new fossil carbon.

By turning emissions into a resource, CCU supports a circular approach to carbon use and gives the CO₂ a renewed purpose. Although the carbon is eventually re-released (e.g., when a fuel is used), CCU helps avoid the extraction and use of new carbon thereby reducing overall emissions.

As a leading eFuel facility developer, Liquid Wind uses CCU to produce fossil-free eMethanol – an energy carrier that enables emissions reductions in hard-to-abate sectors like shipping and aviation. With this paper, the company aims to highlight the importance of CCU across industries, while also addressing the policy and scale-up challenges the technology faces.

Key insights from the White Paper include:

• Environmental Impact & Carbon Circularity: CCU enables a circular carbon economy by converting captured CO₂ into products – reducing reliance on fossil resources and potentially contributing with up to 15% of the emissions reductions needed to reach global net-zero goals by 2070¹⁾.
• Industrial Symbiosis: CCU supports cross-sector collaboration by turning emissions from one industry into feedstock for another, reducing waste and strengthening local value chains.
• Regulatory and Policy Landscape: The paper reviews key EU initiatives such as RED III, FuelEU Maritime, and ReFuel Aviation. It also identifies policy gaps that hinder CCU investment and deployment, such as the lack of recognition in the EU Taxonomy, limited incentives for certain CCU methods, challenges with mixed CO₂ streams, issues with EU ETS implementation, and insufficient public funding.

“CCU is all about circularity and rethinking carbon emissions by putting them back to work instead of letting them go to waste. For us at Liquid Wind, it’s an essential technology because it allows us to capture biogenic CO₂ from industrial flue gases and turn it into fossil-free eMethanol, a sustainable fuel alternative for hard-to-abate sectors,” says Claes Fredriksson, CEO and founder of Liquid Wind, and continues: “This White Paper outlines where the technology stands today, and what’s needed to scale it as a practical climate solution.”

Download the White Paper here - Rethinking Carbon Emissions: How CCU Enables Circularity.

¹⁾ International Energy Agency (IEA), CCUS in Clean Energy Transitions, 2024, https://www.iea.org/reports/ccus-in-clean-energy-transitions