Experts show routes to recycling carbon dioxide and coal waste into useful products

Written by
Steven Schultz
Steven Schultz, School of Engineering and Applied Science
Sept. 13, 2024

A congressionally mandated study led by Professor Emily A. Carter has released a comprehensive roadmap for research and policies to enable large-scale recycling of carbon pollution into high-demand, useful products like fuels and construction materials.

The release follows a 2023 report by the same committee that found that a significant fraction of carbon emissions could be recycled but cautioned that accomplishing the task faced substantial challenges. The new report adds to the potential uses and details ways to approach those challenges through both research and policy.

Reusing carbon dioxide or permanently storing it are key strategies for reaching net-zero emissions (when carbon dioxide no longer accumulates in the atmosphere), said Carter, Princeton’s Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor in Energy and the Environment and senior strategic advisor and associate laboratory director at the Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.

“We are never going to decarbonize civilization completely, because we need carbon,” said Carter. “The question is, how do we create a sustainable, circular carbon economy?”

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