---
title: "Fact of the Week: There Are Only Three American Firms Among the World’s Top 10 Players in Carbon Capture and Sequestration Technology"
summary: |-
  Three American firms make the top ten list of leading innovators in carbon capture and sequestration technology, coming in third, seventh, and tenth, writes John Wu in Innovation Files.
date: "2017-04-25"
issues: ["Clean Energy Innovation"]
authors: ["John Wu"]
content_type: "Blogs"
canonical_url: "https://itif.org/publications/2017/04/25/fact-week-there-are-only-three-american-firms-among-worlds-top-10-players/"
---

# Fact of the Week: There Are Only Three American Firms Among the World’s Top 10 Players in Carbon Capture and Sequestration Technology

The United States is one of the world’s largest consumers of coal, second only to China. But while it is a clear leader in coal consumption, it has yet to dominate technological innovations to make it cleaner. In fact, [a list of the world’s](https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/145913/1/VfS_2016_pid_7048.pdf) 10 leading innovators in carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology includes only three American firms—Babcock & Wilcox, General Electric, and Combustion Engineering—which rank third, seventh, and 10th, respectively.

Mitsubishi, a Japanese firm, tops the list, having invented just under 5 percent of all CCS patents worldwide. Alstom, a French firm, comes in second with just above 3 percent. Meanwhile, the three American firms together have invented 6 percent of the world’s patents on carbon-mitigating technology for coal.

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*Source: Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF)*
*URL: https://itif.org/publications/2017/04/25/fact-week-there-are-only-three-american-firms-among-worlds-top-10-players/*