{"id":178706,"date":"2026-07-20T07:37:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T05:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=178706"},"modified":"2026-07-15T11:32:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T09:32:00","slug":"empa-eu-project-pursues-electrochemical-co%e2%82%82-conversion-from-industrial-waste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/empa-eu-project-pursues-electrochemical-co%e2%82%82-conversion-from-industrial-waste\/","title":{"rendered":"EMPA: EU project pursues electrochemical CO\u2082 conversion from industrial waste"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\"The
The REACT project aims to convert industrial CO\u2082 emissions into useful chemicals. \u00a9 Adobe Stock<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Platform chemicals such as ethylene are most often made from fossil source materials and generate considerable CO\u2082 emissions. The EU-funded project REACT, in which Empa is one of the partners, aims to instead produce ethylene from industrial CO\u2082 waste, thus closing the carbon loop. The consortium is developing a functional electrolysis system for the conversion of CO\u2082 to ethylene.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many people know ethylene from their kitchen. This colorless, sweet-smelling gas is a natural plant hormone, responsible for ripening apples, tomatoes and bananas. But ethylene is also an important industrial chemical with global production exceeding 317 million tons annually. It is mainly used as a platform chemical: a precursor or reagent to create a multitude of chemical products, from plastics to pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than 95% of ethylene is currently produced through fossil-based steam cracking processes that generate approximately 260 million tons of CO\u2082 emissions each year. An EU project with Empa involvement aims to transform this carbon-intensive sector. The project, called REACT (short for Renewable Electrochemical Advanced Conversion of CO\u2082 to Target products), aims to provide a renewable alternative that converts industrial emissions into valuable resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project focuses on recycling CO\u2082 from hard-to-abate industries such as steel, cement, and chemical manufacturing. Through a novel impurity-tolerant tandem electrochemical process, REACT can directly convert low-purity industrial CO\u2082 streams into valuable chemical products while signi\ufb01cantly reducing the need for costly pre-treatment. Powered by renewable energy, the project takes previously unavoidable CO\u2082 emissions and turns them into a valuable feedstock for next-generation chemicals and materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Closer to implementation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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“We have been working on CO\u2082 conversion through electrolysis at lab scale for many years”, says Corsin Battaglia, head of Empa’s Materials for Energy Conversion laboratory<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The goal of the REACT project is to create a working prototype electrolyser for the CO\u2082 to ethylene conversion, bringing it to a much higher technology readiness level”, elaborates the researcher.<\/strong> <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Battaglia’s team will study how the impurities in the industrial waste CO\u2082 influence the activity and the longevity of the catalyst used in the electrolyser. The Empa team can rely on the parallel CO\u2082 electrolysis reactor, which they have previously developed. The automated system in their lab allows for up to ten simultaneous experiments.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"The
The parallel reactor for CO\u2082 electrolysis at Empa’s Materials for Energy Conversion laboratory will enable researchers to investigate the performance of the catalyst. \u00a9 Empa<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

REACT advances circular carbon value chains, strengthens European industrial autonomy, and contributes to the transition towards climate-neutral chemical production. The project also integrates innovative materials, advanced monitoring systems, and digital twin technologies to enhance efficiency, durability, scalability, and economic feasibility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“What we learn and develop during REACT will also help advance other CO\u2082 conversion technologies, for example into synthetic fuels”, summarizes Battaglia<\/strong>. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Valorizing CO\u2082 is a core concept in Empa’s research initiative, Mining the Atmosphere, which looks for ways to remove the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere and either store it long-term or convert it into useful chemical products, thus closing the cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

About REACT<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

REACT is a Horizon Europe project developing an innovative tandem electrochemical process to directly convert industrial CO\u2082 emissions into valuable ole\ufb01n-rich chemical mixtures for the sustainable production of polymers, chemicals, and fuels. REACT (Renewable Electrochemical Advanced Conversion of CO\u2082 to Target products) is running for 48 months from May 2026 to April 2030 and covers the entire value chain, from scienti\ufb01c institutions to raw material suppliers and manufacturers of polymers for the packaging sector. The consortium is coordinated by SINTEF (Norway) and includes 13 partners from 10 countries: VITO (Belgium), Johnson Matthey PLC (UK), eChemicles (Hungary), Procter & Gamble Services Company NV (Belgium), IDENER (Spain), Norner Research AS (Norway), Empa (Switzerland), K1-MET GmbH (Austria), FARPLAS (Turkey), Johnson Matthey Davy Technologies Ltd (UK), Holoss (Portugal), and ETA-Florence Renewable Energies (Italy).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Platform chemicals such as ethylene are most often made from fossil source materials and generate considerable CO\u2082 emissions. The EU-funded project REACT, in which Empa is one of the partners, aims to instead produce ethylene from industrial CO\u2082 waste, thus closing the carbon loop. The consortium is developing a functional electrolysis system for the conversion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":178723,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"Producing essential chemicals in a climate-neutral way ","footnotes":""},"categories":[5571],"tags":[6843,17280,12412,12447,10744,24190,12330,10416,10743],"supplier":[506,5585,24610],"class_list":["post-178706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-co2-based","tag-biochemicals","tag-bioethylene","tag-blockchemicals","tag-buildingmaterials","tag-carboncapture","tag-carbonemissions","tag-ccu","tag-circulareconomy","tag-useco2","supplier-eidgenoessische-materialpruefungs-und-forschungsanstalt-empa","supplier-european-union","supplier-horizon-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178706","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=178706"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":178727,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178706\/revisions\/178727"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178706"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=178706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}