3. Technical and Industrial Applications of CO₂

These last decades, carbon dioxide emissions have drawn a lot of attention because of the greenhouse effect. According to the Kyoto protocol, the 15 European countries committed themselves to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by an average of 8% with respect to the 1990 level within the period 2008–2012. The more recent Paris Agreement [1] urges all parties to ratify and implement the second commitment period of this Kyoto Protocol up to 2020. In this context, the goal of this chapter is to analyze the technical and industrial applications of carbon dioxide as a possible contribution to CO₂ mitigation by supplanting less environmentally friendly technologies based on chemicals having a higher impact on soil, water and atmosphere. In this Chapter we make a distinction between different approaches on how and where carbon dioxide is being captured and used. The present text is an update of the previously published Chapter “Vansant J, Carbon Dioxide Emission and Merchant Market in the European Union.” In: Aresta M. (eds) Carbon Dioxide Recovery and Utilization, 2003, 3–50, Springer, Dordrecht.