Review of the current initiatives for carbon dioxide utilization technologies in europe and the prospects for romania – part i

Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) technologies comprise a set of proposed technological solutions (i.e. methods, measures, implementations, and policies) that seek to trap carbon dioxide – the main form of carbon carrier molecule responsible for the greenhouse effect, originating from human economic activities, and destabilizing the planetary climate – before its release into the atmosphere. The aim and function of CCUS manifest as either preventive measures that lock carbon dioxide permanently underground or in other suitable media (Carbon Capture and Storage, CCS), or as redirecting processes that feed it back to augmented industrial cycles for manufacturing products with positive financial impacts (Carbon Dioxide Utilization, CDU). Following recent initiatives at the European level and in view of the larger picture unfolding at the global theater, this digest review aims to deliver the main points, considerations, and dynamics that drive and formulate modern CCUS initiatives, focusing more on the recently surfaced CDU front. We will explore proposed pathways for materializing CDU by looking carefully on unfolding examples from such global and European arenas. We will then scrutinize plausible scenarios for transposing CDU to Romania to ask – and hopefully answer – the right questions as to how such scenarios can materialize.