This study investigates the theoretical potential and limitations of green carbon dioxide sources for technical valorisation approaches. The emission of greenhouse gases, especially CO2, must be rigorously reduced in order to achieve the European and global climate objectives. As CO2 is an increasingly valuable resource for industries and new disrupting technologies on CO2 utilization, the potential of CO2 obtained from different green and fossil sources in Europe is discussed for a comparative evaluation. Biogenic or green and fossil CO2 sources are classified according to their emitting processes and industry sectors, respectively. The CO2 potentials are then calculated from statistical data for CO2 generating processes in Europe, complemented and verified by relevant papers and reports. This study demonstrates the European potential of capturing and utilizing the biogenic and fossil CO2. In Europe, 69.7 Mt/a CO2 are estimated to be produced by biogas upgrading, biogas combustion, as well as bioethanol and other fermentation processes. Additionally, 437 Mt/a CO2 are produced by solid biomass combustion. This accounts for a theoretical potential of 506.7 Mt/a CO2 currently available, which is nearly seven times the amount of the current European industrial CO2 demand. The CO2 from biomass combustion is more difficult to capture and is mixed with impurities, which potentially reduces its technical and economic potential, whereas the 63 Mt/a from other high-purity sources are already partially utilized, e.g., by breweries or dry ice producers.
Despite large amounts of available roof space, long pay-back periods for investments in photovoltaic (PV) power plants often hinder PV installations in industrial parks. Photovoltaic citizen participation initiatives (PV-CPI) are an alternative way of financing PV power plants that add non-financial benefits to these investments. This paper analyzed the feasibility of the installation of PV power plants focused on high rates of self-consumption financed by citizen participation initiatives on the roofs of five companies located in the Austrian Ennshafen industrial business park based on the net present value and the discounted pay-back period and compared it to a standard financing scheme, assuming a predetermined interest rate for participants as well as economies of scale with respect to the specific installation costs due to a joint purchase of the PV power plants. To calculate the feasibility, site-specific data and literature input have been used. The results show that despite an interest rate above the current interest rates of conservative forms of investments provided to (small-scale) investors, a payback-period of 17–23 years can be reached while the joint purchase can lead to a competitive feasibility of the PV-CPI compared to an individual purchase of PV power plants.
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