The climate gas CO2 is a globally almost unlimited resource in the atmosphere, which can also be extracted from flue gas streams of industrial combustion processes. From the viewpoint of a producing company, a more reliable source of raw material, when atmospheric CO2 is considered, can hardly exist.
To date, the technology of adsorbing atmospheric CO2 from air exists in form of air washers, which for example the Suisse company Climeworks developed recently. Due to the low CO2 concentration (0.04 percent) in the air, the procedure is still energy and cost intensive.
In comparison to the atmosphere, for example, flue gas streams of cement- and steel facilities contain increased CO2 concentrations. Therefore, these point sources provide the opportunity to utilize CO2 as an intermediate in integrated value chains instead of discharging it as a waste product: The challenging waste product of the initial process turns into a useful feedstock for the second process and contributes to added value.