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  • Glossary item | Last updated: 19 Mar 2025

Carbon capture, utilisation and storage

Bioeconomy
The term CCUS actually comprises a chain of technologies, with each of the steps (capture, transport, utilization and/or storage) being independent from the other ones and containing several sub-technology choices. The different steps involved in CCUS chains are:
  • Capture involves the extraction of CO2 emissions from various sources (process, fossil fuels or biogenic when referring to industrial and energy production facilities and air when referring to direct air capture).
  • Transport involves the movement of captured CO2 from the capture sites to the storage or utilisation locations. Typically, compression and liquefaction of the captured CO2 are considered within the transportation step.
  • The utilisation step (one of the two alternative last steps of the chain) involves converting captured CO2 into valuable products, for example using it as feedstock for fuels, chemicals or construction materials.
  • The alternative last step of the chain is permanent storage in onshore and offshore underground geological formations.
 
European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Martinez Castilla, G., Tumara, D., Mountraki, A., Letout, S., Jaxa-Rozen, M., Schmitz, A., Ince, E. and Georgakaki, A., Clean Energy Technology Observatory: Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage in the European Union - 2024 Status Report on Technology Development, Trends, Value Chains and Markets, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2024, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2760/0287566, JRC139285
 
Source category: EC Technical Documents