CO₂ emissions from thermal power plants account for about 30 % of Japan's total emissions, and since thermal power plants will continue to be important as a base load power source, measures to reduce their CO₂ emissions are an urgent issue. Therefore, research has been promoted on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology for recovering the low-concentration, low-quality CO₂ in thermal power plant exhaust gases and storing it underground, and Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU) technology for converting it into useful chemicals. However, existing techniques have the issues of low incentives for operators and high costs and energy consumption, and there are major barriers to the active entry of private companies that own thermal power plants.

In collaboration with Tosoh Corporation, researchers in AIST developed a catalytic reaction for producing urea derivatives from low-concentration CO₂ equivalent to thermal power plant exhaust gas. Urea derivatives are useful chemicals as raw materials for resins, solvents, and pharmaceuticals. In the NEDO project "NEDO Feasibility Study Program/Uncharted Territory Challenge 2050/Direct Conversion of Low-concentration CO₂ Derived from Exhaust Gases into Useful Chemicals," R&D was performed on a synthesis process that directly converts low-concentration CO₂ into useful chemicals such as polyurethane raw materials and led to development of this technology. This technology can efficiently synthesize various urea derivatives, such as the useful chemical ethylene urea, by acting a titanium catalyst on ammonium carbamate, which is easily obtained from amines and low-concentration CO₂ (volume ratio 15 %) equivalent to the exhaust gas at coal-fired power plants, which are the main type in Japan. In addition, low-concentration CO₂ in thermal power plant exhaust gas, which had been difficult to use directly, can be efficiently converted into useful chemicals without passing through costly and energy-demanding concentration, compression, and purification processes. As a result, this technology is expected to contribute to the reduction of CO₂ emissions, which are considered to cause global warming.