Our vision is to get CO2 capture and use recognized and implemented as a mainstream climate solution
Evaluation
The Techno-Economic Assessment & Life Cycle Assessment Guidelines for CO2 Utilization address the need for harmonized procedures that ensure rigorous, transparent, and uniform analysis of environmental and economic impacts.
Research
Development and commercialization of new carbon dioxide capture and utilization technologies is conducted with financial support from the College of Engineering’s Blue Sky Initiative.
Read about Global CO2 Initiative research and commercialization
Education
Courses, student (team) projects, and student research projects across the University of Michigan provide the learning environment needed to build the workforce for a new carbon economy.
Latest News
CCU Activity Hub Now Live
As the issue of climate change surges on, along with many other challenges we face, the U-M Global CO2 Initiative…
Recycling CO2 Transforming climate risk into opportunity and CO2 into valuable products
A framework and positioning paper on Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU) by Sophia Hamblin Wang (Mineral Carbonation International and CO2…
Events
Learn about concrete and its role in climate change in an OpenAir Collective “Twenty-Something Minutes … ” event
Prof. Victor Li talks with University of Michigan Global CO2 Initiative postdoctoral researcher and OpenAir collector Lucca Henrion. In this recording the two discuss the near and long-term future of concrete as a factor in climate change; key questions surrounding carbon utilization methods in concrete, and the end game goal of reaching “carbon negativity”; and how current research is laying the foundation for radical transformations to this most used building material on earth.
CO2 Products and Utilization
From concrete to plastics, there is a tremendous opportunity for captured and utilized carbon dioxide to reduce emission footprints as well as create market opportunity for critical sectors around the world.
Construction Materials
- Cement and concrete
- Asphalt
- Timber/super hardwood
Industrial Fluids
- Enhanced oil recovery
- Enhanced coal bed methane recovery
- Enhanced water recovery
- Semiconductor fabrication
- Power cycles
Fuels
- Synthetic (methanol, butanol, natural gas, syngas, etc.)
- Micro-algae fuel
- Macro-algae fuel
Plastics
- Polyurethene foams
- Polycarbonate (glass replacement)
- Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene
- Many more
Chemicals
- Preservatives (formic acid)
- Medicinal
- Antifreeze (ethylene glycol)
- Carbon black
- Many more
New Materials
- Carbon fiber
- Carbon nanotubes and fullerenes
Agriculture & Food
- Algae-based food or animal feed
- Microbial fertilizer
- Biochar, bio-pesticides, and bio-cosmetics
Why Carbon Removal and Utilization?
