{"id":168533,"date":"2025-10-06T07:20:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T05:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=168533"},"modified":"2025-09-30T13:45:32","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T11:45:32","slug":"turning-co%e2%82%82-waste-into-a-resource-the-ico2nic-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/turning-co%e2%82%82-waste-into-a-resource-the-ico2nic-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Turning CO\u2082 Waste into a Resource: The ICO2NIC Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

ICO2<\/sub>NIC is part of the EU\u2019s Horizon Europe Process4Planet partnership, a programme focused on decarbonising energy-intensive and hard-to-abate industries. The project not only develops and demonstrates new methods to capture CO2<\/sub> from industrial processes and convert it into formic acid, a versatile chemical building block, but also takes this a step further by showcasing these technologies at a large-scale operational industrial site, utilising real flue gas. This demonstration will mark a significant milestone in advancing scalable CO2<\/sub> capture solutions. The formic acid is then further processed into high-value products, potentially used in areas such as sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and consumer products (e.g. laundry detergents and beauty care products).<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u00a9 Euractiv<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

At the core of the project is Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU), a technology that helps reduce the carbon footprint of products whose production processes still heavily rely on fossil energy carriers and non-renewable raw materials. CCU captures and repurposes emitted CO\u2082, preventing it from becoming a waste product. By combining this approach with renewable electricity and advanced electrochemical conversion techniques, ICO2<\/sub>NIC aims to support hard-to-abate industries in reducing emissions and improving energy efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy integrating renewable energy and innovative technologies, we aim to make CCU economically viable, significantly reducing emissions while creating high-value products,\u201d <\/em>said Bernd Wittgens, ICO2<\/sub>NIC Project Coordinator. \u201cThis project is a crucial step toward achieving the EU\u2019s climate goals.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Complete Industrial Value Chain<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Led by Norwegian research institute SINTEF<\/a>, the ICO2<\/sub>NIC consortium brings together a range of partners from across Europe, including industry actors, technology developers, and research institutions. Turkiye Petrol Rafinerileri Anonim Sirketi (TUPRAS)<\/strong>, a major oil refiner, is participating as a potential CO2<\/sub>-provider and producer of SAF. Cool Planet Technologies<\/strong> focuses on CO\u2082 capture and purification, while Avantium<\/strong> is developing a first-of-a-kind electrochemical cell stack with a designed capacity of 100 t\/Y to convert CO\u2082 into formic acid. b.fab<\/strong> and NoPalm Ingredients<\/strong> are using biotechnology to convert formic acid into bio-based products, and Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant (BBEPP)<\/strong> is responsible for scaling up the bioprocess to produce microbial oils and proteins. Procter & Gamble<\/strong> will evaluate the end products for use in sustainable consumer goods. Idener<\/strong> is implementing digital monitoring and control systems, also evaluating the use of renewable energy to power the ICO2<\/sub>NIC solution, and Nederlandse Organisatie voor toegepast-natuurwetenschappelijk onderzoek (TNO)<\/strong> and SINTEF<\/strong> will conduct life cycle and techno-economic assessments. The consortium also includes CO\u2082 Value Europe<\/strong>, which will lead communication and outreach efforts to ensure the project\u2019s impact is widely shared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By proving that CO\u2082 waste can be converted into a profitable and non-biological sustainable feedstock, ICO2<\/sub>NIC could help hard-to-abate industries transition away from fossil-based resources, becoming more competitive and environmentally responsible in line with the EU\u2019s climate goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Acknowledgements <\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The ICO2<\/sub>NIC<\/a> project has received funding from the European Commission under the Horizon Europe program Ref: 101177459<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ICO2NIC is part of the EU\u2019s Horizon Europe Process4Planet partnership, a programme focused on decarbonising energy-intensive and hard-to-abate industries. The project not only develops and demonstrates new methods to capture CO2 from industrial processes and convert it into formic acid, a versatile chemical building block, but also takes this a step further by showcasing these technologies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":168549,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"The European Union (EU) awarded \u20ac14 million to a new EU-funded project, ICO2NIC (Innovative electrochemical CO2 Conversion to Versatile Feedstock), which aims to transform industrial CO2 waste into valuable materials through innovative climate technologies. Launched in January 2025, the project represents a key step in the EU\u2019s goals for a more sustainable industrial future","footnotes":""},"categories":[5571],"tags":[10744,12330,10416,12312,13064,16792,10743],"supplier":[742,15479,21793,21884,4127,5585,24610,26959,13998,25831,600,512,2624,24941],"class_list":["post-168533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-co2-based","tag-carboncapture","tag-ccu","tag-circulareconomy","tag-detergents","tag-personalcare","tag-saf","tag-useco2","supplier-avantium-technologies-bv","supplier-b-fab-gmbh","supplier-bio-base-europe-pilot-plant-vzw","supplier-co2value-europe","supplier-cool-planet","supplier-european-union","supplier-horizon-europe","supplier-ico2nic-eu-project","supplier-idener","supplier-nopalm-ingredients","supplier-procter-gamble","supplier-sintef","supplier-tno","supplier-tupras-tupras"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168533"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=168533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}