New business opportunities based on biogenic carbon dioxide utilization

Biogenic CO2 converted into hydrocarbons with renewable electricity can simultaneously provide raw materials and fuels, a positive climate impact and a healthy business. Integrated CO2 capture and utilisation (CCU) options benefit from a local CO2 source substantially reducing the CO2 transportation costs, energy integration and the possibility to utilise the produced fuels and chemicals on-site. The key objective of this paper is to find feasible utilisation pathways for biogenic CO2 in biomass driven industry sectors. The study includes techno-economic feasibility analyses of specific system operations from the viewpoint of operator or investor in different market scenarios. As the main results, operational costs and incomes as well as profitability indicators are presented for each CCU-pathway. The results from this work show that CO2-based fuels or chemicals are generally not yet competitive with traditional processes, but business cases may be identified via efficient process integration and taking advantage of the process flexibility possibility. The results are also much dependent on the chosen market parameters, especially on the assumed electricity market price.