In the quest for a comprehensive solution to carbon management, regenerating CO2 to make useful products that displace incumbent fossil fuel-based pathways is a more impactful process than CO2 sequestration. Though this method closely resembles natural mechanisms for CO2 removal, with the most familiar example being photosynthesis, the central challenge lies in determining what products should be synthesised from CO2 to achieve the most significant impact, most expeditiously, at the lowest cost.
While it’s technically feasible to produce a range of products from CO2, only those that are less expensive to make than fossil-based alternatives have a real chance to impact purchasing decisions. The key question remains economic feasibility: at scale, can CO2-derived carbon-based products compete cost-wise with carbon sourced from fossil fuels and refined using traditional petrochemical processes?
For almost all fuel, chemical, and material products today, the petrochemical approach is more economical. And not by a little bit. Thanks to highly optimised, mature, and large-scale fossil fuel-based processes, high-value commodities such as aviation fuel, ammonia, and methanol can be three to seven times cheaper than their less mature, lower-scale CO2-based counterparts. Who among us is willing to pay three to seven times more for something that is molecularly identical? The short answer is very few.
Read the full article at The Chemical Engineer – where it published in February 2025.
