Trends and Prospects in Greenhouse Gases Capture, Utilization and Storage

Dear Colleagues,

Nowadays, ecological, environmental and political efforts seek to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions in all sectors of the industry. The necessity of achieving the state of climate neutrality by 2050 is mentioned in the reports of the IPCC—the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—as well as the UN Environment Program. The European Union has aspired to this goal for many years, and recently Japan, South Korea or even China, with the later goal of 2060, have also begun working towards this aim. The most difficult problem to solve in relation to the greenhouse effect on Earth is the result of the ever-increasing concentration of methane (CH₄) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere. More than 100 countries representing 70% of the world economy and almost half of the anthropogenic CH₄ emissions have signed the Global Methane Pledge to reduce methane emissions. The EU-ETS reduced total stationary emissions by 29% between 2005 and 2018, and we are committed to maintaining further GHG emissions reductions by 2030.

All human-generated emissions are to be compensated with increased sequestration of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere through natural (ecosystem restoration) and technological (GHG capture and storage) solutions. Meeting the requirements set by the climate packages to reduce GHG emissions to the atmosphere requires research and development of existing methods, as well as the search for new materials for GHG capture and new technologies for its storage. CH₄ production is mainly based on methods that capture it directly from emission sources. Well-known methods to produce CH₄ from coal seams are sorption-enhanced coalbed methane (ECBM) recovery technologies. Conventional carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) solutions mainly use geological, chemical, separation and sorption technologies. Non-conventional CCUS technologies are also being developed, among which BECCS, enhanced weathering, forestry techniques, soil carbon sequestration and biochar are being tested.

This Special Issue focuses on works that describe both the well-known methods of capturing, utilizing and storing greenhouse gases, as well as research and searching for new solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere.

Dr. Mateusz Kudasik
Dr. Anna Pajdak
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.