Making CO2 valuable 

 With its carbon capture and use plants, Novis GmbH offers a cost-effective way to utilise CO₂ from exhaust gases. 

Decarbonisation as a Starting Point 

Many companies would like to completely decarbonise their business processes. Until now, this has been associated with high costs. Introducing new processes and new plants is expensive and often fails to achieve the goal of complete decarbonisation. 

Novis GmbH from Tübingen is overcoming this bottleneck with an exciting approach: CO₂ from exhaust gases is passed through a medium of a special carrier fluid. The CO₂ binds completely to the fluid and is separated from the medium again in a second stage by electrodialysis. In the final step, the CO₂ is then cooled and liquefied and is available as high-purity CO₂ for further use. The process requires only electricity to operate. This makes the process cost-effective compared to the state of the art. It is patented worldwide. 

Companies that want to use their own CO₂ can additionally set up photobioreactors (PBRs) on unused industrial side areas. Standard algae are cultivated in the PBRs and ‘fed’ with the CO₂. The algae are utilising CO₂ to build biomass. The patented PBRs work with direct light supply to the reactors and are therefore independent of ambient light. 

Novis purchases the biomass from producing companies at agreed conditions. This is giving CO₂ a real value. 

The biomass from algae is centrally processed by Novis into pigments and lipids. 

Clever: both plants are start-stop capable and can therefore buffer electricity peaks: if cheap electricity is available, all plant components run at full load. If electricity is traded high, the plant can be regulated to zero. Restarting is just as quick as shutting down the plant. 

If the process gases occur irregularly, flue gas peaks or production-free times can be buffered in the simplest possible way using the CO₂-loaded carrier fluid as storage. This enables the plant for continuous operation at lower cost. 

Thomas Helle, Managing Director of Novis GmbH: ‘With this radical CCU approach, we are giving CO₂ real added value.’ And Christopher Sommerauer-Oechsner, the project engineer responsible, adds: ‘The carrier fluid used used is food-grade. Even the storage of large quantities can be done without any problems.’ 

An initial pilot plant was delivered to a Continental AG factory. Another plant is being delivered to Portugal for installation at a chemical plant. 

Novis GmbH in Tübingen develops and delivers industrial plants for CO₂ extraction and processing and photobioreactors for algae cultivation, following their successful biotechnological research. 

Contact for enquiries: Dr Thomas Helle, Managing Director, Tel.: +49 7071 795 2500 or info@novis.com. 

Source

Novis GmbH, press release, 2026-01-13.

Supplier

Continental, Corp.
Novis GmbH

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