ICIQ joins the “CO₂ Value Europe” association

By January 2, 2018ICIQ

On 30 November 2017, 43 leading industrial and research stakeholders from across Europe –including the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ)– gathered in Brussels to launch CO2 Value Europe, the new European association dedicated to CO2 utilization. Its mission is to promote the development and market deployment of sustainable industrial solutions that convert COinto valuable products, in order to contribute to the net reduction of global CO2 emissions and to the diversification of the feedstock base.

CO2 utilization: an opportunity for a sustainable Europe

CO2 utilisation, commonly called Carbon Capture & Utilisation (CCU), is a broad term that covers all established and innovative industrial processes that transform CO2 into a variety of valuable products such as chemical building blocks, synthetic fuels or building materials.

CO2 utilization has the potential to become one of the major growth areas in Europe’s future low carbon economy by offering solutions to reduce the carbon footprint of hard-to-decarbonize sectors such as energy-intensive process industries or transportation, and by sequestering CO2 permanently in building materials produced by carbonation of mineral waste.

It can offer grid balancing and energy storage options to facilitate the necessary transition of EU energy systems. It can provide an alternative non-fossil feedstock for the chemical industry, thereby limiting import dependency. CO2 utilization can also enable the development of innovative products with environmental and/or societal benefits. Lastly, it can be a major source of economic growth, job creation and continued technological leadership for European industries.

Working together across the CO2 value chain

CO2 Value Europe is the only Association which gathers stakeholders from all the relevant sectors along the CO2 value chain: CO2 emitters from the main process industries, providers of decarbonated energy, industrial gas experts, transformation technology providers, users of CO2-based products and research organisations.

The 43 founding partners of the Association include 10 large industrial corporations, 12 innovative SMEs and startups, 10 Research & Technology Organizations (RTOs), 6 universities and 5 clusters, ports and associations. The Board of Directors is composed of 7 elected members.

More information can be found on the ICIQ website.