Current State of the Carbon Capture Industry

As of 2024, global operational carbon capture capacity stands at just over 50 MtCO2 per year, but announced projects and policy-backed pipelines indicate a rapid expansion to around 430 MtCO2 per year by 2030. This gap between installed capacity and permitted pipeline defines the central execution challenge of the market today.

At the same time, government interventions have transformed carbon capture from a voluntary decarbonization option into a compliance-critical industrial system. This is driven by mandates like the EU’s binding target of 50 MtCO2 per year of storage capacity by 2030 under the Net-Zero Industry Act, and large-scale public funding programs in the US and UK.

In parallel, cumulative capture capacity in the global project pipeline has reached over 416 Mtpa, growing at a 32% CAGR since 2017. This underscores how quickly governments and heavy industry have aligned around scale deployment.

Despite accelerating momentum, scale remains constrained by execution realities. Storage permitting, CO2 pipeline build-out, and long-term monitoring and verification frameworks are emerging as rate-limiting steps. For example, fewer than ten Class VI CO2 injection permits have been issued to date in the US. This highlights the mismatch between capture ambition and subsurface readiness.

From 50 MtCO2 Today to a 430 MtCO2 Pipeline: Carbon Capture’s Scale Gap

The IEA tracks around 45 commercial capture facilities in operation globally, with a total annual capture capacity of more than 50 MtCO2. This provides a clean installed base benchmark to contrast against 2030 pipeline ambitions and highlight the gap between demonstrated operations and scale required for industrial decarbonization pathways.

There are 77 CCS projects now operating, with 47 under construction (reported in 2025). This indicates that operational scale is increasing quickly once projects reach construction, and that supply chains for compressors, heat integration, and CO2 conditioning are becoming material bottlenecks.

From a utilization lens, the IEA estimates that ~230 Mt of CO2 are currently used each year globally, largely for urea manufacturing (~130 Mt) and enhanced oil recovery (~80 Mt). This positions CCU demand as large in volume terms, while clarifying that much of today’s CO2 use is tied to incumbent industrial processes rather than newer mineralization or synthetic fuels pathways.

Our database tracks approximately 3.6K companies active across the value chain, including 1100+ startups.

The sector is experiencing growth momentum, with a yearly industry growth rate of 5.66%. This expansion reflects deployment of capture technologies, pilot projects transitioning into commercial-scale facilities, and rising corporate and government investment for emissions reduction and compliance.

The global carbon capture and storage market size increased from USD 8.1 billion in 2025 to USD 18.1 billion in 2032 at a CAGR of 13% between 2023 and 2032.

 

 

Representative Startup Innovations in Carbon Capture

CemCycle – Waste to Mineral Conversion

US-based startup CemCycle converts organic waste into carbon-negative construction materials using permanent mineral sequestration. For this, the company mineralizes carbon contained in food waste, yard waste, and sewage sludge via energy-positive reactions that transform organic carbon into precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC).

The process produces usable energy instead of consuming it, and avoids landfill disposal pathways that generate greenhouse gas emissions. The resulting PCC functions as a concrete additive that permanently stores carbon while lowering the embodied carbon of construction materials.

Olivine Technologies – Carbon Mineralization Reactor Technology

Irish startup Olivine Technologies develops a carbon mineralization reactor that permanently stores CO2 while producing carbon-free critical minerals. It utilizes high-grade olivine (forsterite) in pressurized reactors to capture CO2 from industrial emitters like distilleries, ethanol plants, biogas facilities, and direct air capture (DAC) systems. Here, the carbon reacts and stabilizes as magnesite within hours.

During this mineralization process, the reactor simultaneously recovers commercially valuable by-products, including nickel-cobalt sulphate and amorphous silica, through ligand-assisted separation integrated into the primary sequestration pathway.

The modular and decentralized reactor design enables near-site deployment and avoids pipeline constraints. Also, it supports scalable operation in various emission volumes while achieving permanent and verifiable carbon sequestration.

Recoal – Biomass-based Carbon Removal

Swiss startup Recoal builds a biomass-based carbon dioxide removal and storage technology that permanently sequesters atmospheric CO2. It processes moist agricultural and food-industry waste through a controlled carbonization process. Here, the biomass is converted under high temperature and pressure into a coal-like carbonisate that locks in biogenic carbon captured from the atmosphere.

The carbonisate is then stored in shallow or deep underground geological layers below biologically active soil, while replicating natural coal formation processes to ensure long-term and verifiable carbon storage. The process achieves high carbon efficiency and relies on locally available waste biomass while enabling recovery of by-products such as nitrogen and phosphorus.

Verdygen – Flue Gas Carbon Capture

Malaysian startup Verdygen develops an industrial flue gas carbon capture solution that utilizes waste CO2 emissions to grow microalgae. It conditions hot, low-pressure flue gas through its proprietary TurboChill system, which increases pressure and reduces temperature.

Then, it feeds the treated gas into the AlgaeBloom continuous microalgae cultivation system, where most of the captured CO2 is absorbed and converted into dry microalgae via high-efficiency photobioreactors.

The system features high microalgae yield, reduced land footprint, and continuous operation aligned with industrial runtimes, while the produced biomass supports downstream uses such as nutrition, feed, biofuels, and bioplastics.

Thus, the startup’s low-cost, point-source carbon capture solution enables hard-to-abate industries to reduce emissions, generate economic returns, and convert carbon liabilities into sustainable resources.

Dark Earth Carbon – Agricultural Waste to Biochar Conversion

Tanzanian startup Dark Earth Carbon offers a carbon removal technology that converts agricultural waste into biochar using rotary kiln pyrolysis systems. Its modular, site-specific reactors thermally process biomass in the absence of oxygen under tightly controlled conditions.

The technology’s programmable logic controller (PLC) automation ensures consistent biochar quality while enabling cost-efficient scaling across different locations. The produced biochar permanently stores carbon and functions as a soil amendment that improves fertility, water retention, and drought resilience in degraded soils.

Understanding the Future Direction of Carbon Capture

The sector shows consistent and positive innovation momentum. Companies hold approximately 17.4K patents, filed by around 5.7K applicants. The yearly patent growth rate of 2.27% showcases R&D investment and incremental technological progress.

Discover the emerging trends in the carbon capture market along with their firmographic details:

 

Blue Hydrogen

The blue hydrogen segment comprises 155+ companies employing approximately 14.5K people, with 4+ new employees added in the last year.

The annual growth rate of 4.92% reflects steady adoption driven by industrial decarbonization strategies in sectors such as chemicals, refining, and heavy manufacturing. Blue hydrogen leverages existing natural gas infrastructure while integrating carbon capture to reduce emissions.

Carbon Sequestration

Carbon sequestration stands out as a scale-oriented domain. It includes 1900 companies with a workforce of approximately 60.8K employees and an addition of over 70 new employees in the last year.

With an annual growth rate of 10.38%, carbon sequestration benefits from increased policy support, rising carbon prices, and growing demand for permanent emissions storage.

Carbon Management

Carbon management represents a broad, system-level segment that measures, reduces, and optimizes emissions across value chains. It comprises 1400 companies employing approximately 88 300 people, with 55+ new employees added in the last year.

The annual trend growth rate of 8.07% highlights rising demand for integrated solutions that combine capture technologies with monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) frameworks. Carbon management platforms enable organizations to align carbon capture investments with regulatory compliance, reporting requirements, and long-term net-zero strategies.

Why Carbon Capture Is Attracting Infrastructure-Scale Capital

On private and project capital flows, BloombergNEF reports that global investment in carbon capture, transport, and storage reached a record USD 11.3 billion in 2023. This is nearly double for the second year in a row. This is a defensible recent-history anchor for explaining why EPC capacity, subsurface characterization, and CO2 transport permitting.

In the United States, incentives and public funding are material and quantifiable. The US DOE lists the Carbon Capture Demonstration Projects Funding Opportunity Announcement at USD 1.7 billion and positions it explicitly as commercial-scale demonstration support integrated with carbon transport and storage. This is useful for linking point-source capture scaling to federally supported risk reduction.

In the UK, the funding envelope is unusually explicit and long-dated. The UK Government states it has committed GBP 21.7 billion over 25 years to support CCUS clusters in the North West and North East of England. This justifies a regulated-infrastructure-style view of the sector in Britain.

Carbon capture dominated the deals in energy investing. About 7 startup deals were recorded in Q1 2024.

 

 

A clear signal of infrastructure-style capital entering CCUS is the strategic partnering around operating platforms.

BlackRock’s GIP has agreed to acquire a 49.99% stake in Eni’s CCUS business, with both parties set to jointly fund development across a portfolio that includes projects in the UK and the Netherlands.

Large industrial offtakers are also structuring CCUS into new-build capex. Reuters reports that CF Industries formed a USD 4 billion JV to build a low-carbon ammonia facility in Louisiana. It captures 2.3 million metric tons of CO2 annually for transport and sequestration via Occidental’s 1PointFive.

This is a high-clarity example of CCUS being embedded directly into commodity production capacity planning rather than treated as a retrofit.

Data Inputs and Filtering

This carbon capture market outlook utilizes the StartUs Insights Discovery Platform to analyze 9M+ companies, 25K+ technologies and trends, and 190M+ patents, news articles, and market reports to map how carbon capture is transitioning from demonstration projects to regulated, infrastructure-scale systems. The scope is capacity and constraint-led. It focuses on capture technologies, CO2 transport networks, geological storage availability, utilization pathways, and verification frameworks.

The analysis tracks how scale is being unlocked through policy-backed storage targets, hub-based project development, public co-funding mechanisms, and long-term offtake agreements. It also highlights execution bottlenecks like permitting timelines, pipeline build-out, and storage site qualification.