Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT
Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT
Carbon2Chem-Konferenz 2025

Carbon2Chem®
Conference 2025

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Carbon2Chem – Key Building Block for Climate Protection

Carbon2Chem® – A Key Building Block for the Climate Protection

This joint project aims to lay the foundations for a circular carbon economy.

***Please note: Carbon2Chem® is entering its third phase. This page will be updated accordingly. It currently contains information from the second project phase.***

 

Facts and figures | Carbon2Chem® subprojects | Carbon2Chem® image film


Since 2016, Carbon2Chem® has been developing modular concepts and building blocks for the capture and utilization of carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2) from various industrial process gases as a contribution to climate protection. The joint research project, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space, is a technology platform for carbon dioxide capture and utilization (CCU) solutions. A consortium of companies and research institutions is working on solutions to support society, industry and politics in planning, designing and implementing the energy transition.

A key objective of Carbon2Chem® is to develop concepts, technologies and processes that enable 100% substitution of carbon from fossil raw materials. The carbon is separated from fossil or biogenic processes in the form of CO and CO2 and fed into a chemical synthesis. The aim is to use industrial point sources such as steelworks, lime works or thermal waste treatment plants as a source of carbon instead of fossil raw materials.

The process gases from the point sources have fluctuating compositions and impurities. The research and development in Carbon2Chem® provide solutions that ensure a stable synthesis under these conditions. The central building block here is gas cleaning and conditioning. Only with suitable gas pre-treatment can the catalysts used – e.g. in methanol synthesis – be protected from harmful impurities.

The third and final phase of Carbon2Chem® (2025 to 2028) will focus on the following work:

  • Supporting the energy transition and the defossilization of industry
  • Enabling a carbon cycle within the technosphere
  • Designing and verifying different concepts for carbon utilization from industrial point sources (steel/lime production and thermal waste treatment)
  • Verification of the results so far at the pilot scale in the Carbon2Chem® pilot plant
  • Deriving sustainable business models based on the developed and verified technology building blocks
  • Analysis and evaluation of the regulatory framework for carbon management

Fraunhofer UMSICHT is supporting the project in many areas as it moves from pilot application to industrial application.

Facts and figures

Image brochure

CO2 reduction through cross-industry cooperation between the steel, chemical and energy industries – a look at the second funding phase of Carbon2Chem®.

Download Carbon2Chem® brochure

Project structure

Fundamental research, applied research, and industry come together in Carbon2Chem®. A look at the structure of this collaboration.

to the project structure

Facts and figures

From the launch of the project to the present day: important key figures relating to Carbon2Chem®.

Glossary

What are steel mill gases? What are the benefits of a cross-industrial approach? And what role do renewable energies play in Carbon2Chem®? A brief explanation of important terms in the context of the joint project.

to the glossary carbon cycle

CIT issue

Chemie Ingenieur Technik – CIT
Carbon2Chem® Part 4 (September 2024)
Volume 96, Issue 9

Laboratory and technical center

Interviews

Whether highlights or challenges – project coordinators and partners offer insights into the research work in interviews.

to the interviews

FONA

Information from the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) on the status of the joint project Carbon2Chem®.

Read information of the BMFTR about the joint project Carbon2Chem®

Electronic press kit

Our electronic press kit offers you consolidated information on the Carbon2Chem® joint project and on our conferences. 

to the electronic press kit (GER)

Archive

 

Take a look at the first two phases of the Carbon2Chem® joint project. 

go to Archive

Carbon2Chem® subprojects

Second project phase | 1.6.2020 to 31.5.2024

 

Subproject L-KK

Coordination and Communication

The project’s own central office takes care of coordination and internal and external communication for the entire network. Solutions for achieving a climate-neutral industry by 2050, particularly with regard to the regulatory framework conditions, are additionally being developed.

 

Subproject L-0

System-Integration

The work focuses on bringing together the activities from the other subprojects. The available process concepts are developed and optimized according to process-related, energetic, and sustainable perspectives from the viewpoint of the overall system.

 

Subproject L-I

CO2 Sources and Infrastructure

Solutions that have already been developed should be transferred to other CO2-intensive industries such as the cement and lime industries as well as thermal waste treatment. Evidence should be provided here that the Carbon2Chem® technology modules are able to minimize cross-industrial CO2 emissions.

 

Subproject L-II

Dynamic Methanol Production from Steel Mill Gases

The aim is to specifically elaborate the process concepts developed in the first project term with regard to producing methanol from the byproduct gases from steel mills. The scale-up of the laboratory to the pilot plant in the technical center is a particular focal point.

 

Subproject L-III

Synthesis Gas

The aim is to demonstrate the robustness of the previously developed concepts to purify steel mill gases, to synthesize various chemicals and, in particular, for system integration. An industrial implementation should be feasible with the completion of the second project term.

 

Subproject L-IV

Higher Alcohols

The focus lies on developing an overall catalytic process to directly convert treated byproduct gas into short-chain alcohols, olefins, and synthetic fuels. This process should then progress to the demonstration stage.

 

Subproject L-V

Carbon2Polymers

The research and development of new (partial) processes to produce polycarbonates lie at the heart of the subproject. The use of byproduct gases as a material gives the chemical plastics industry access to an alternative raw material basis, thus reducing the use of fossil raw materials such as crude oil.

 

Subproject L-VIII

eMethanol car

The main goal of the subproject: to demonstrate the applicability of "green" methanol in the automotive sector as a CO2-neutral, emission-free fuel that can be used globally. One possible basis for this is methanol produced with CO2 from industrial point sources.

Carbon2Chem® image film

A look at the development of building blocks for the carbon cycle as part of the joint research project

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