Can CO2 be given value by using it to make plastics?

The one huge aspect this article doesn't even mention are the thermodynamics of the process. Of course CO2 can be used as a building block for plastic, but it contains far less energy than the plastic you want to create. That means you have to supply that energy difference somehow.

The reason we use mostly oil to synthesize plastic is that someone else already put in the energy to convert CO2: the plants.

Even though you can't avoid the thermodynamics here and cheat the energy difference, of course there could be more efficient, cheaper and cleaner ways to go from CO2 to plastic, and those would be interesting in terms of dealing with climate change.

CO2 already has value, if it's concentrated enough (stack emissions, unfortunately, aren't). There are CO2 mines in multiple western US states where the CO2 is dug up, sent through pipelines, and reinjected into oil wells. "Enhanced oil recovery", they call it, and it's big business. So big, in fact, that the supply from the McElmo dome in the SW corner of Colorado, pipelined across the entirety of New Mexico, into Texas, is oversubscribed and you can't buy any.

CO2 needs hydrogen, pure and simple, to become almost any other substance of value (I suppose lithium extraction could use the gas instead of trona, but not a big market there considering the supply). Any plastic, polymer, or vegetation needs hydrogen to exist.

So the CO2 problem is the hydrogen problem, but on steroids. You can't get reduced atmospheric CO2 with hydrogen if making that same hydrogen molecule created 2 or 3 CO2 molecules. This leaves you with plant-based approaches (photosynthesis is ridiculously inefficient, which itself is probably a good thing considering how much we like some of the greenhouse effect), or "clean" hydrogen.

Appart from things other comments have already mentioned there's some issue that the article doesn't properly reflect: Where does the CO2 come from?

You can grab the CO2 from the atmosphere and thus produce (temporary) negative emissions. But then you need even more energy in the first place. So naturally you'd get the CO2 from somewhere where you already have large amounts of CO2, e.g. a coal power plant. So you have created a justification to keep the coal plant running (with a supposedly imperfect co2 extraction process). How's that going to work out in a supposedly CO2 free energy future?

Also it should be considered that the CO2 in the plastic isn't gone for good. Plastic has a limited lifetime and will eventually end up in a landfill or a waste processing plant where it'll release its stored carbon back to the atmosphere.

So if your process is "burn coal -> capture CO2 -> use CO2 to create plastics -> plastic ends up in waste processing plant" you have delayed the emissions from the coal plant and you can argue that you have used the coal in a more efficient way, but the CO2 still ends up in the atmosphere.

This was debunked years ago. Making plastics from CO2 is possible, but an energy hungry process which does not suck up any relevant amount of carbondioxide from our atmosphere. It isn't going to be the climatesaver they claim it to be. This is not a manufacturing issue, but depends on basic thermodynamics.

I don't know of any process that makes plastics directly from CO2, but the gas can be used to produce several intermediates.

Saudi Aramco recently acquired Novomer's Converge polyol technology, which uses CO2 to make polypropylene carbonate polyols. Polyols are a main component of polyurethanes. The Converge-based polyurethanes are used in coatings, adhesives, sealants and elastomers.

Covestro is also producing polyols made from carbon dioxide.

As mchannon noted, these companies cannot use the CO2 emitted from power plants. The gas needs to be pure so companies can do chemistry on it.

There are also some renewable routes to making plastics from CO2.

We already produce ethanol from sugar fermentation. This ethanol can be dehydrated to produce ethylene, the building block for polyethylene. Braskem is already doing this in Brazil. I believe Braskem is the ONLY company doing this, so that should tell you how cost effective the process is.

A company called Proterro was in the early stages of using a cyanobacteria that consumes bacteria to produce sugar. This sugar could then be fermented to produce ethanol, which could then be the feedstock for polyethylene.

Other companies have developed microorganisms that can ferment sugar to produce lactic acid. Polymerise this and you get polylactic acid (PLA), another plastic. This is one of the plastics used to make filament for 3D printers.

Other companies were developing micro-organisms that could produce polyhydroxalkanoates (PHAs).

I really hope this comes into fruition.There was a great radio 4 program that highlight the potential uses of CO2 in the production of various items. The problem was that the cost of production, and how we are used to low cost plastics.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b081lkm1

  Ted Grozier, flagship programme manager on the EnCO2re initiative, explains the thinking. He says: “The idea of a hackathon is you basically lock people in a room, you give them pizza and energy drinks, and they solve problems quickly.”

I always makes me sad when I see people talking about hackatons as a "tool" the can use by giving "pizza and energy" drinks. Hackatons have become a corporate tool.

Well of course. Plastics are syntasized from hydrocarbons and given sufficient electric power you can turn atmospheric CO2 and water into hydrocarbons. We've known how to do this with simple methane for over a hundred years and we have pilot plants for more complex hydrocarbons. The problem is where that electric energy comes from.

Here's hoping for continued progress in reducing the cost of solar panels, etc.

> The CO2 is captured from a neighbouring facility, thought to be producing ammonia.

Nobody knows what it's really producing.

> The Polyol is 80% petroleum and 20% CO2 based.

The 20% CO2 is great, but I'd rather see more innovation in replacing that 80% Petroleum with bioplastics. When the oil runs out we can solar up the wazoo, but if we can't find something alternative plastic sources we're going to have problems

Yes, see PLA made from corn starch.

Great Stuff.

I have thought about this... and an even worse problem, if this were to be successful, would be CO2 depletion. Plants need CO2 to "breathe"