9
Circular Economy and Carbon Dioxide
Conversion
Abstract
In this chapter, the relevance of Carbon Dioxide Utilization (CCU) to Innovation
and Sustainability of the Chemical Industry and to the strategy of the Circular
Economy is discussed. A number of examples are presented of processes which
may convert CO 2 into added-value chemicals, polymeric materials, and fuels
which have each a market higher than 1 Mt/y, causing a significant reduction of
CO 2 emission. Only thermal processes are considered here, while solar-driven
processes are discussed in Chap. 10 and the integration of Chemical Catalysis
and Biotechnology is presented in Chap. 11.
9.1 The Circular Economy
Our society has increasingly adopted the “linear” economic model since the end of
1700s. The industrial development has pushed people to abandon the conservative
attitude of the agricultural society, close to Nature circularity. Nature does not
produce waste; all byproducts are recycled. In the old times, until the 1940s when
plastics were not yet massively around, all daily residues were reused: fresh vegetables and garden residues were dispersed in soil, bringing back carbon and other
nutrients to it, while glass and metals were recovered and reused. Residual biomass
in agriculture and in wood industry were used for producing heat (used in a variety of
applications, even at the manufacture level) and ashes returned to soil to which they
provided useful elements or used in a variety of applications, including washing.
Often in families, at night, hot-red coal was removed from fireplaces and stored in
closed iron vessels where it stopped burning and made coal to be employed in future
uses, instead of making ash in the fireplace. The introduction of plastics, changed
many habits. The “use once and throw away” attitude became more and more
popular. Plastics were extraneous to Nature which is unable (as we know very well
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. Aresta and A. Dibenedetto, The Carbon Dioxide Revolution,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59061-1_9
139
Circular Economy and Carbon Dioxide
Conversion
Abstract
In this chapter, the relevance of Carbon Dioxide Utilization (CCU) to Innovation
and Sustainability of the Chemical Industry and to the strategy of the Circular
Economy is discussed. A number of examples are presented of processes which
may convert CO 2 into added-value chemicals, polymeric materials, and fuels
which have each a market higher than 1 Mt/y, causing a significant reduction of
CO 2 emission. Only thermal processes are considered here, while solar-driven
processes are discussed in Chap. 10 and the integration of Chemical Catalysis
and Biotechnology is presented in Chap. 11.
9.1 The Circular Economy
Our society has increasingly adopted the “linear” economic model since the end of
1700s. The industrial development has pushed people to abandon the conservative
attitude of the agricultural society, close to Nature circularity. Nature does not
produce waste; all byproducts are recycled. In the old times, until the 1940s when
plastics were not yet massively around, all daily residues were reused: fresh vegetables and garden residues were dispersed in soil, bringing back carbon and other
nutrients to it, while glass and metals were recovered and reused. Residual biomass
in agriculture and in wood industry were used for producing heat (used in a variety of
applications, even at the manufacture level) and ashes returned to soil to which they
provided useful elements or used in a variety of applications, including washing.
Often in families, at night, hot-red coal was removed from fireplaces and stored in
closed iron vessels where it stopped burning and made coal to be employed in future
uses, instead of making ash in the fireplace. The introduction of plastics, changed
many habits. The “use once and throw away” attitude became more and more
popular. Plastics were extraneous to Nature which is unable (as we know very well
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. Aresta and A. Dibenedetto, The Carbon Dioxide Revolution,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59061-1_9
139