{"id":173794,"date":"2026-02-24T07:41:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T06:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=173794"},"modified":"2026-02-25T15:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T14:46:09","slug":"eu-funded-research-project-unico%e2%82%82rn-converts-biogenic-co2-into-proteins-and-bioplastics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/eu-funded-research-project-unico%e2%82%82rn-converts-biogenic-co2-into-proteins-and-bioplastics\/","title":{"rendered":"EU-funded Research Project UNICO\u2082RN Converts Biogenic CO\u2082 into Proteins and Bioplastics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\"\"
\u00a9 UNICO2<\/sub>RN<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The EU-funded research project UNICO2<\/sub>RN<\/a> has officially started in June of 2025, bringing together European research organisations and industrial partners to demonstrate how biogenic carbon dioxide (CO2<\/sub>) can be used as a feedstock for producing proteins and bioplastics. The project focuses on CO2<\/sub> from biological sources such as biomass processing, fermentation and organic waste treatment, where CO2<\/sub> is generated as an unavoidable by-product of existing industrial processes.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike fossil-based CO2<\/sub> emissions, biogenic CO2<\/sub> is part of the short-term carbon cycle and does not introduce additional carbon into the atmosphere. By targeting these streams, UNICO2<\/sub>RN builds on existing bio-based infrastructures and enables the integration of CO\u2082 utilisation into established industrial value chains.
UNICO2<\/sub>RN uses captured biogenic CO2<\/sub> as a carbon source to produce microbial proteins for food and animal feed and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), biopolymers for biodegradable plastics and for durable material applications. In doing so, the project demonstrates how unavoidable CO2<\/sub> emissions from bio-based industries can be converted into market-relevant products.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
\u00a9 UNICO2<\/sub>RN<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Combining CO2<\/sub> Capture with Industrial Bioconversion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

UNICO2RN integrates two complementary technological approaches. While metal-organic framework (MOF)-based systems are used for the efficient capture of CO2<\/sub> in high purity from biogenic point sources, the CO2<\/sub> is then converted through aerobic gas fermentation using hydrogen-oxidising bacteria, which transform CO2<\/sub> and hydrogen into microbial biomass and biopolymers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The process chain is designed as a modular and flexible system enabling it to handle CO2<\/sub> streams of different concentrations and purities. UNICO2<\/sub>RN will demonstrate the process chain at two industrial sites under near-commercial conditions (Technology Readiness Level 7), covering CO2<\/sub> capture, bioconversion and downstream processing. These demonstrations will validate the production of microbial proteins suitable for food and feed applications as well as PHA-based materials that can replace conventional fossil-based plastics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

European Cooperation with a Focus on Safety and Sustainability<\/h3>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Alongside technological development, UNICO2<\/sub>RN includes comprehensive safety, environmental and sustainability assessments. Life cycle, techno-economic and social impact analyses will support safe process design, responsible scale-up and alignment with emerging EU sustainability and certification frameworks for CO2<\/sub>-based products.
With these objectives ahead, the UNICO\u2082RN consortium brings together ten partners from across Europe combining expertise from industry and research. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project is coordinated by VITO (BE) and implemented by a European consortium consisting of AERBIO (NL), CO2BioClean (DE), IDENER (ES), Lesaffre (FR), NIZO Food Research (NL), nova-Institute (DE), NUADA (UK), SABIO Biomaterials (IT) and Veolia (BE).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further information about the project is available at https:\/\/unico2rn.eu<\/a>. Interested readers may also register for the project newsletter via the website to receive updates on project activities and results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Funded by the European Union under the Grant Agreement No. 10121426. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the granting authority. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

About nova Institute<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Since the mid-1990s, the nova-Institute has been dedicated to sustainability and today focuses primarily on renewable carbon cycles. As an independent research institute, it supports companies \u2013 particularly from the chemical, plastics, and materials industries \u2013 in the use of renewable carbon derived from biomass, direct CO\u2082 utilisation (CCU), and recycling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a multidisciplinary team of scientists, the nova-Institute participates in international innovation projects and provides science-based management consulting. The institute follows a holistic approach: its experts analyse which technologies and raw materials are suitable for specific products, in which markets their application is feasible, which regulatory frameworks apply, how sustainable the solutions are, and how they can be successfully positioned in the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on these analyses, the team develops tailored strategies to support the transformation from fossil to renewable carbon. Around 50 experts from various disciplines work together to drive the defossilisation of industry \u2013 for a climate-neutral future. More information: www.nova-institute.eu<\/a> \u2013 www.renewable-carbon.eu<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The EU-funded research project UNICO2RN has officially started in June of 2025, bringing together European research organisations and industrial partners to demonstrate how biogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) can be used as a feedstock for producing proteins and bioplastics. The project focuses on CO2 from biological sources such as biomass processing, fermentation and organic waste treatment, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":173816,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"Utilising biogenic CO\u2082 emissions through circular solutions","footnotes":""},"categories":[5571,7192],"tags":[11270,5847,6026,10744,12330,10416,10743],"supplier":[27580,21774,5585,2622,13998,7628,27579,4,24501,27578,22176],"class_list":["post-173794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-co2-based","category-novapress","tag-biodegradability","tag-bioplastics","tag-biopolymers","tag-carboncapture","tag-ccu","tag-circulareconomy","tag-useco2","supplier-aerbio","supplier-co2bioclean","supplier-european-union","supplier-flemish-institute-for-technological-research-vito","supplier-idener","supplier-lesaffre","supplier-nizo-food-research","supplier-nova-institut-gmbh","supplier-nuada-carbon-capture","supplier-sabio-biomaterials","supplier-veolia-belgique"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173794","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=173794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173794"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=173794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}