
The German Federal Ministry of Economies and Energy (BMWi) has approved the application for founding the cooperative network “UseCO2” on July 28th 2016. The overall 18 network partners are going to develop sustainable products via biotechnological and chemical-physical processes, which fix and use carbon dioxide (CO2) as raw material. CO2 is permanently produced during industrial processes and which is present in the air everywhere.
The „Climate Gas“ CO2 and its application
Humanity exhausts more than 30 Billion tons of CO2 to the atmosphere by its activities year by year. The climate-effecting substance is beside others a byproduct during combustion of fossil energy raw materials like coal, crude oil and natural gas. The greenhouse effect is meant to be mainly caused by CO2. Hence, it is of extended ecological and economical importance to reduce the increase of atmospheric CO2 percentage.
„Nature has developed photosynthesis as efficient process solutions for the application of CO2 some billion years ago.” says B. U. Wilhelm, CEO of the participating bbi-biotech GmbH. The specialized company from Berlin, Germany, supplies bioreactors and fermenters for application in all biotechnology areas. “Our xCUBIO series is the technological platform, which allows adapting to novel approaches from the network to supply reliable systems for the further process development.” continues Mr. Wilhelm. Besides the existing algae- resp. photobioreactors (type xCUBIO phar), anaerobic applications could be imagined, which take benefit from even older archaea bacteria. “These experts use e.g. hydrogen together with CO2 as raw materials and the produced biomass can be processed afterwards.”
About the Cooperative Network „CO2“
Being coordinated by IBB Netzwerk GmbH, the ZIM-cooperative network „CO2“ brings together partners from both industry and research to reach the joint objective to use CO2 as raw material for products of diurnal demands instead of crude oil, coal or natural gas. CO2 shall be implemented as sustainable raw material for the production of e.g. bulk or special chemicals or fuels via the application of chemical, physical or biotechnological processes. The products can be applied directly or after further downstream process steps. The novel network supports the change from an oil-based to a sustainable, bioeconomic society.