The global carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) market will reach $13.53 billion by 2031, according to a fresh forecast from the research firm MarketsandMarkets.

That figure is the headline number in the firm's newly published market outlook, which sizes the sector across capture equipment, utilization pathways and geological storage through the end of the decade. For anyone tracking industrial decarbonization — cement, steel, chemicals, waste-to-energy — it's the benchmark analysts will now cite when they argue CCUS is scaling from pilot projects into bankable infrastructure.

What does the $13.53 billion figure actually cover?

The MarketsandMarkets outlook spans the three segments that make up the CCUS value chain:

• Capture — separation of CO2 from industrial flue gas and process streams
• Utilization — converting captured CO2 into fuels, chemicals, building materials and other products
• Storage — permanent geological injection in depleted reservoirs and saline formations

The $13.53 billion valuation is the market's projected size in 2031, the terminal year of the forecast. It's a market-sizing number, not a cumulative investment figure — a distinction that matters when comparing it against capital-expenditure announcements from individual operators.

Why waste and recycling readers should care

CCUS sits close to several material streams this site follows. Waste-to-energy plants are increasingly discussed as capture candidates, and CO2 utilization in construction materials — where captured carbon gets mineralized into aggregates and concrete — overlaps directly with recycled and secondary aggregates markets.

If utilization of CO2 in building products scales, it creates a new offtake channel tied to the same procurement decisions that drive recycled-content demand. That's the crossover worth watching.

A caveat on what one number can tell you

A single terminal-year figure is a starting point, not a verdict. What it doesn't show on its own:

• The base-year value and implied compound annual growth rate
• Segment-level splits between capture, utilization and storage
• Regional breakdowns and which jurisdictions are pulling demand

Each of those details sits in the full MarketsandMarkets report, and each will shape whether $13.53 billion reads as aggressive or conservative once project-level data starts landing.

What to watch next

Forecast credibility in CCUS gets tested by final investment decisions, not slide decks. The milestones that will confirm or break this trajectory are 45Q-eligible project commissioning in the U.S., storage permitting throughput in the North Sea and Gulf Coast, and whether CO2-to-materials ventures sign binding offtake contracts rather than pilot agreements.

In plain terms: the analysts have set the target — now the project pipeline has to deliver against it.