CCUS ZEN

The Horizon Europe project CCUS ZEN (Zero Emission Network to facilitate CCUS uptake in industrial clusters) aims at reducing CO₂ emissions from industrial clusters and hubs in Europe using carbon capture, use, and storage (CCUS). The overarching goal of CCUS ZEN is the accelerated deployment of CCUS throughout Europe, which will be achieved by sharing knowledge and disseminating information important for stakeholders to make informed decisions on CCUS and developing specific and actionable plans for the development of CCUS value chains. CCUS ZEN will explore the potential for CCUS value chain deployment focusing on two regions with lower maturity level for CCUS compared to the current development in the North Sea region: the Baltic Sea region and the Mediterranean Sea region.

CO2SMOS

The CO2SMOS project entitled “Advanced chemicals production from biogenic CO₂ emissions for circular bio-based industries” is a Horizon2020 project funded by the EU to help bio-based industries develop circular approaches and reduce their carbon footprint. In order to achieve this goal, CO₂SMOS will develop solutions to transform the carbon emissions generated from bioprocesses into different sustainable bioproducts like durable polymers, renewable biochemicals and biodegradable materials. With these compounds, it is possible to produce greener end-products such as packaging, coatings, textiles and materials for biomedical applications.

IMPACTS9 The European Strategic Energy Plan (SET-Plan) is a European initiative that brings together the European Commission, national authorities, industrial and research stakeholders to coordinate efforts towards climate neutral energy systems. The EU SET-PLAN recognises CCUS as one of the ten priority actions to help reach the EU’s climate goals. IMPACTS9 project accelerate the progress realised within the CCUS SET-Plan and supports the delivery of Research and Innovation (R&I) activities to achieve its goals.

INITIATE

The INITIATE project entitled “Valorisation of steel-making off-gases for the production of urea at demonstration scale” is funded by the Horizon 2020 EU program. It will advance the implementation of circular economy, industrial symbiosis and carbon capture and utilisation technologies by re-using residual steel gases as a resource for the cross-sectorial, more efficient and less wasteful manufacture of urea, at a significantly reduced carbon footprint. TRL7 piloting combines the continuous production of N₂ + H₂ and CO₂ streams with the innovative ammonia production as a precursor for urea, to be used as fertilizer and AdBlue®.

SUNER-C

The SUNER-C project entitled “SUNERGY Community and eco-system for accelerating the development of solar fuels and chemicals” is funded by the Horizon Europe research and innovation programme to strengthen the solar fuels and chemicals community within Europe. It will develop an innovation eco-system, uniting science, business, societal and other relevant stakeholders around a common vision and technological roadmap, to accelerate the introduction of solar fuels and chemicals as key element towards the EU 2050 target of net-zero emissions. SUNER-C will build upon the work of SUNERGY, a pan-European initiative on fossil-free fuels and chemicals from renewable power and solar energy, built by merging two previous CSA projects (SUNRISE & Energy-X) with over 300 supporting organisations across and beyond Europe to date.

TAKE-OFF

The TAKE-OFF project entitled “Production of synthetic renewable aviation fuel from CO₂ and H₂” is funded by the Horizon 2020 EU program. It will explore the development of a unique technology based on the conversion of CO₂ and renewable H₂ to Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) via olefins as an intermediate. The TAKE-OFF route consists of capturing CO₂ from industrial flue gas or directly from the air and make it react with H₂ produced by renewable electricity to create light olefins. These light olefins are subsequently chemically upgraded into SAF. All innovative steps upgrading CO₂.

BE-HyFE is a Belgian academic collaboration project, funded by the federal Energy Transition Fund, bringing together all Belgian knowledge institutes to join forces in fundamental research on the topic of hydrogen. The goal of this project is to achieve a Belgian hydrogen homebase of academic knowledge and expertise by establishing a core group of 16 broadly trained and highly networked early-stage researchers (ESRs) to support the Belgian industry in finding both technological and societal solutions, guaranteeing the security of supply and meeting our environmental targets.

D-CARBONIZE project, is a joint doctorate network that brings together a 15-partner consortium and aims at using circular chemistry approaches to design and build recyclable bioplastics using biomass as a starting material. The project is funded under the HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-DN programme and aims to educate the next generation of scientists that represent the future leaders in the field of sustainable polymers and depolymerisation strategies, biocarbon valorisation and innovative catalytic strategies, offering 12 Ph.D. positions. CO₂ Value Europe as an Associated Partner of this initiative will support dissemination and training actions.

DESIRED is an EU-funded project, focused on the direct co-processing of CO₂ and water to sustainable multicarbon energy products in a novel photocatalytic reactor. Solar fuels are synthetic fuels produced from CO₂ and water using sunlight as a primary energy source. Relying on the natural principle of transfer to CO₂ of a “proton plus electron” (PCET), the production of hydrogen will be avoided while CO₂ will be used as the sole source of carbon for sustainable fuels alternative to fossil fuels. DESIRED project plans to improve the photocatalyst and develop a new reactor technology to make solar fuels production scalable and affordable for the production of multi-carbon products for the chemical and energy industry. The DESIRED technology will develop a novel flow reactor utilizing recyclable hybrid electrocatalysts to produce CH3OH and C2+ solar fuels also usable as precursors of SAF. DESIRED targets sectors where a direct shift to the use of batteries or hydrogen is not yet viable.

MetCCUS has received funding from the European Partnership on Metrology and is addressing key measurement challenges related to flow metering, emissions monitoring, chemical metrology and the physical properties of CO₂, in order to facilitate efficient and safe usage of Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) technologies across Europe. The overall aim of the project is to develop new metrology tools in the form of Primary Standards and methods, as well as the relevant best practice/guidance, necessary to support industry in CCUS. Specific objectives include to develop a metrology infrastructure for monitoring the CO₂ gas-flow and CO₂ liquid-flow, metrological support to enable the measurement and reporting of emissions to air from different stages of the CCUS process, new standards and measurement methods to support European industries with performing the gas composition measurements required for carbon dioxide within CCUS, among others.

MuSe is a project funded by the federal Energy Transition Fund which aims to contribute to the collaboration of a circular economy based on renewable energy and sustainable chemical production. To do so, this project works towards identifying and resolving scientific and technical hurdles of producing and importing off-shore renewables e.g., hydrogen, methanol, and methane, with direct connection to off-shore energy production – (wind or solar farms). It is recognised that many technological developments are achieved, without considering the socio-economic or legal framework available. Within this consortium, is focused on shifting the technological research and including socio-economic questions already in the design phase.

PYROCO₂  is an EU-funded project which will demonstrate the scalability and economic viability of carbon capture and utilization (CCU) using the innovative PYROCO₂ bioprocess. Its aim is to produce climate-positive acetone out of industrial CO₂ and renewable electricity-derived hydrogen, as a platform for manufacturing chemicals and materials with a negative carbon footprint. The demonstrator plant to be built in the project will have a capacity of using 10,000 tonnes per year of industrial CO₂ as a raw material, equivalent to the annual CO₂ emissions of 2,200 conventional cars. The PYROCO₂ consortium intends for the broad market uptake of its innovative technologies for emissions savings of 17 Mt CO2eq by 2050.

SOREC₂ is an EU-funded project which will bring together expertise in photonic structure design and catalysis to ensure optimal sunlight harvesting. The sun is creating new opportunities to use the greenhouse gas CO₂ in the development of fuels like ethanol or ethylene. The process is key to accelerating the decarbonisation of the transport industry and slowing climate change. SOREC₂ will develop a new system that relies on light-trapping nano-configurations. It will enable fine-tuning of the potential energy needed for the reduction reactions. The project will also identify the non-technical barriers (political, economic, and societal) it may encounter and engage relevant stakeholders and citizens on the route towards market uptake.