Carbon dioxide emissions are not just pollution, they cut the value of the stuff companies buy

company and we’re always looking  for lower cost routes to our most important raw materials.” Using CO2 as a feedstock should help lower 3M’s carbon footprint, especially if the company can capture and use its own. “The idea of us using our own CO2 emissions to make something that we need is very appealing, but I don’t know whether the scale will work out,” Nereng says. “Even if it mitigates CO2 at our supplier, that’s also a net win.” Both Liquid Light and Dioxide Materials can already produce  fuels from CO2. But they will not  be bringing them to market yet, as  it is cheaper to break down crude  oil into petrol and heating oil. That could soon change, though. Teamey  says wind power is nearly cheap enough for it to be economic to use  it to make fuel. We won’t be able to convert all the CO2 we capture into products, says Pamela Tomski of the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute in Docklands, Australia. Liquid Light’s 31 million tonnes a year would only use up a fraction. But if ethylene glycol proves successful, and new markets for CO2 can be found, humanity may end up handling its emissions in a whole new way.