While the priority is to reduce CO2 emissions by means of the use of carbon-free energy sources, CO2 capture represents nowadays the most efficient technology in terms of tons of CO2 removed from the atmosphere. Vis-à-vis CO2 capture followed by storage (CCS), CO2 utilization (CCU) involves the use of the already emitted carbon dioxide to create new products. When combined with the use of renewables and/or Direct Air Capture (DAC), CO2 utilization can clearly contribute to stabilize, even globally reduce CO2 emissions. In this approach, CO2 is no longer considered as a pollutant but as an infinite reservoir of carbon and a raw material, either for its direct use or for its transformation into platform molecules for the chemical industry and/or synthetic fuels, by means of different biological or chemical processes.
Not one single technologies will be able to adress the whole issue of CO2 emission. Among the technolgies that are being explored, the use of non thermal plasmas coupled with catalytic materials is certainly one of the most promising.