Defossilizing Industry Scaling-up CCU 2025

TBM to accelerate commercial deployment through cross-industry networks BOX 7 TBM is a Japanese start-up developing and commercializing CCU technology through strategic partnerships. The company has optimized a process to produce high value-added, CO2- derived calcium carbonate that can be used for TBM’s unique product, CR LIMEX. This product is a new material made mainly from calcium carbonate, combined with resin as a binder, which can be used for both interior and exterior building materials, as well as various plastic fittings – thereby fixing CO2 for the long-term in an economically viable way. TBM collaborates with multiple upstream and downstream CCU technology companies across the world, including the CO2-emitting industry, CCU technology companies, converters and end-users of CR LIMEX. To accelerate the commercialization of its CCU projects, TBM established the resource recycling council (RRC), which now numbers 2,415 members, as a platform for cross-industrial collaboration. The directors and members of RRC include companies and organizations engaged in the steel, energy and construction sectors, in addition to municipalities, ministries and carbon recycling associations – all of whom are all enthusiastic about resource circularity and CCU. Utilizing this robust network, TBM has connected with construction industry players and other corporations looking to reuse their emissions, creating partnerships that are planning to launch CCU projects together, accelerating commercial deployment and de-risking the scale- up of CCU technology. Source: Wood Mackenzie, expert interview with TBM. From an infrastructure perspective, collaboration can also unlock economies of scale through demand aggregation. For example, CCU projects at pre-commercial scale usually generate small volumes of product compared to established industrial production; meanwhile, downstream processing infrastructure and equipment has been optimized to operate at full commercial scale, often at orders of greater magnitude. Active coordination between companies can help bridge scale imbalance through the combination of outputs into pooled processing batches to improve the economics. Managing risk through public and private collaborations High capital expenditure requirements for CCU technology and associated infrastructure create a level of risk that is hard for certain industries to overcome. This proves particularly acute for low-margin sectors such as cement and steel, where abundant opportunities exist to valorize feedstocks or reduce carbon intensity through CCU approaches. Collaborative efforts to mitigate risk or redistribute costs could unlock deployment opportunities to apply CCU technologies which benefit the whole value chain. The public sector plays an important role in managing this type of risk, through supporting research and development (see Box 8), funding to back specific projects (Box 5), and facilitating shared infrastructure solutions that enable economic viability for multiple participants. In the carbon sequestration sector, there are precedents for government funding for anchor coalitions and underwriting for shared infrastructure that has enabled CCS value chains to emerge. While there are important distinctions between CCS and CCU, examples such as Norway’s Northern Lights project demonstrate the potential for public private partnerships in delivering high-risk, infrastructure- led carbon management projects.66 Collaborative efforts to mitigate risk or redistribute costs could unlock deployment opportunities to apply CCU technologies which benefit the whole value chain. Public sector funding in Japan helps foster development partnerships between industry and researchers Japan’s Green Innovation Fund (GIF) is a leading example of how public sector funding can help de- risk and accelerate CCU technology development. The fund has a budget of $3.9 billion over 10 years targeted towards recycled carbon fuels and chemicals, cement/concrete, bioconversion and capture technologies. The quasi-governmental New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) manages the GIF, including supporting a CCU-specific R&D and demonstration base at Osakikamijima, Hiroshima. The centre was established in 2019 and is anchored around the Osaki CoolGen coal gasification plant, which supplies CO2 to surrounding demonstration facilities. The Hiroshima base brings together universities and industrial companies, including Mitsubishi, Kajima and Nippon Steel, for joint demonstration projects to bring CCU technologies to maturity. Source: Wood Mackenzie, expert interview with GIF.BOX 8 Defossilizing Industry: Considerations for Scaling-up Carbon Capture and Utilization Pathways 31