The Global Knowledge Evolution of Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage Technology: A Network Analysis of Patent Mining

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) are crucial for mitigating CO₂ emissions. Exploring the evolution of CCUS technology can help accelerate the development of CCUS technology. This study aims to reveal the connections and interactions between technology topics, clarify the evolutionary path of CCUS technology, and understand the deep mechanism of technology evolution. To achieve these goals, this article adopts an integrated approach to analyze the evolution process of CCUS technology by combining patent mining and knowledge evolution theory. First, the BERT-LDA- model is used for fine-grained extraction of technology topics from CCUS patents; second, an evolution network depicting the topics’ evolution path is constructed based on their temporal correlations; finally, knowledge evolution theory is used to explain the characteristics of topic evolution and analyze potential technological opportunities. The results indicate that CCUS technology has gone through five major development periods with gradually enriched and deepened topics; newborn, inheritance, and temporary emergence are common topic evolution relationships in the evolution network; the evolution of these topics shows stability, heritability, and variability. These findings not only help enterprises to grasp the development trend and potential opportunities of CCUS technology but also provide policymakers with a basis for decision making.