Carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS)

“Using captured carbon can create value. It does not necessarily keep carbon out of the atmosphere. ”

CCUS extends the CCS chain by including utilisation. Captured carbon dioxide may be used in chemicals, building materials, greenhouse cultivation, fuels or enhanced resource recovery. Some uses can displace conventionally produced carbon dioxide or store carbon in products; others return it quickly to the atmosphere. The word “utilisation” can make any use sound climate-positive.

The climate outcome depends on the counterfactual, energy source, product lifetime and whether the carbon is permanently embedded. Synthetic fuels made with captured carbon may recycle carbon rather than remove it. That can still reduce dependence on fossil feedstock, but the claim should match the actual effect.

Mineralisation and certain construction products may store carbon for long periods, although scale, feedstock and life-cycle impacts matter.

Enhanced oil recovery can generate storage but may also increase fossil production; assessing only injected tonnes ignores the wider system. CCUS projects often combine revenue, industrial policy and climate objectives. That can accelerate infrastructure but also complicate claims. A tonne captured for use is not automatically equivalent to a tonne geologically stored.

Accounting should separate routes by duration and fate. For organisations, utilisation should be evaluated through life-cycle analysis and comparison with the product or service it replaces. Avoided-emissions claims require a credible baseline; removal claims require atmospheric origin and durable storage. CCUS is best understood as a family of pathways, not one climate outcome.

Its value depends on where carbon came from, what happens to it, and what alternative the project displaces.

Practical application

Track captured carbon by origin and destination. For each utilisation route, document product lifetime, release pathway, substitution assumption, energy use and end-of-life fate. Report geological storage separately from temporary use.

Why it matters

CCUS can support industrial transition, but bundling unlike uses under one number can turn temporary carbon circulation into an apparent permanent benefit.

Common misconception

All carbon utilisation counts as storage. Many uses delay release only briefly; storage claims require evidence of durable containment.

Connections

CCS covers geological storage. Life Cycle Assessment tests substitution claims. Comparative Assertion requires aligned methods when claiming one pathway is better.

A question worth asking

Where is the captured carbon ten, fifty and one hundred years after your utilisation claim?

Selected references

International Energy Agency, CCUS in Clean Energy Transitions. IPCC, Sixth Assessment Report. ISO 14040 and ISO 14044, life-cycle assessment.