PCA Advances Carbon Capture Study Following Promising Trial According to a recent article in Packaging Dive , Lake For- est, Illinois based Packaging Corporation of America (PCA) is moving forward with an engineering and design study for a large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility after reporting promising results from a pilot project at one of its southern U.S. mills. “The results of this trial have been very promising, and we plan to proceed with a more detailed engineering and design study that will take around seven to nine months to complete. This study will provide us with a better idea of the capital cost and construction schedule for a large- scale facility,” said CEO Mark Kowlzan in the report. These technologies catch carbon dioxide emissions
and either reuse them or permanently store them to avoid entry into the atmosphere. In 2022, PCA introduced its sustainability target for net-zero emissions by 2050. The 2022 sustainability re- port also detailed the intention to invest in carbon capture technologies, along with the company’s goal to capture and permanently store 1.75 million metric tons of biogenic CO2 per year by 2040. At that time, the company projected that 2028 would be the earliest it could operate a plant for capturing and storing biogenic carbon dioxide, and it’s still sticking with that date. It also noted a longer-term goal of scaling this technology to multiple sites. PCA has described CCS as the “next frontier for our cir- cular bioeconomy” for its sustainability strategy, position- ing the technology alongside the natural carbon benefits of trees used in its manufacturing process. By capturing and permanently storing CO₂ from bio-
DESIGNS THAT INCREASE PRODUCTION
mass combustion at its mills, PCA says it could turn a carbon-neutral process into a carbon-negative one. Tapping Into Trees PCA has previously described its plan to permanently remove its own CO2 emis- sions from the atmosphere by harnessing benefits from both trees and CCS systems that involve saline aquifers. The paper and packaging company projects that the CO2 it removes from the atmosphere and stores will bump up to 4.1 million metric tons by 2050. “When PCA purchases a tree, whether as roundwood or wood chips, our man- ufacturing process begins from a ‘car- bon-negative’ standpoint because the tree has removed carbon atoms from the atmo- sphere and stored these within its struc- ture,” the report says. PCA uses a combination of virgin and recycled fiber to create its products. Gen- erally, the greater proportion of virgin fiber in its products, the “greater the availabil- ity of renewable fuel to power our manu- facturing processes,” the report says, be- cause the biomass in trees that can’t be
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September 8, 2025
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