UNCOVER · UNlocking the industrial COVERsion of CO2 into renewable, long-lasting and hybrid products

CCU plays a strategic role in climate mitigation and the circular carbon economy by replacing fossil feedstocks in industry. UNCOVER will advance this potential by demonstrating the scalability and sustainability of 6 breakthrough CO2 conversion technologies (CCTs) and 1 secondary conversion technology (SCT), the latter adding an additional conversion step to one CCT, supporting the short- to medium-term deployment of 7 CCU routes in Europe. The CCTs will be applied to CO2 emissions from 3 representative EU industries, namely a biogas upgrading unit at a waste management plant, a biomass boiler at a wood manufacturing plant, and a clinker kiln at a cement plant, delivering 10 CO2-derived products with preliminary evidence of better environmental performance than their conventional counterparts (3 pigments, 2 microalgal biomass, biomethanol, bioformaldehyde, microbial protein, polyhydroxybutyrate, carbonated cementitious material). UNCOVER will validate product applicability in the chemicals, fuels and construction sectors. CCTs/SCT will be designed for scalability with particular attention to energy demand and reduced use of virgin critical raw materials, and rigorously assessed through integrated life cycle and techno-economic analyses (LCA, TEA), benchmarking UNCOVER products against their fossil and/or resource-intensive alternatives. Overall, this will support the development of robust business cases and plans, and the definition of appropriate financing and exploitation strategies for the UNCOVER CCU routes. By 2032, UNCOVER will deploy 3 large-scale CCTs at the project sites with 3-5 CO2-based products beginning to displace fossil/resource-intensive feedstocks. By 2040, 31 UNCOVER CCTs will capture 0.1 MtCO2 in 10 CO2-derived products, creating 150 new jobs and €180M profit for CCT developers. By 2050, 500 UNCOVER CCTs within 1000-plant market will capture 250 MtCO2 (1.6 Mt from UNCOVER), contributing to cutting EU energy imports by 10%.