Demonstration and Upscaling of CARbon dioxide MAnagement solutions for a net-zero Switzerland – DemoUpCARMA
DemoUpCARMA focuses on the demonstration and upscaling of carbon capture, utilisation and storage technologies (CCUS) to achieve negative emissions, which are an integral component to reduce Switzerland’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 to net zero.
DemoUpCARMA has the following objectives:
- To demonstrate the technical feasibility of using and storing CO2 captured at a Swiss industrial site (a biogas upgrading plant) and of generating negative emissions by (1) utilizing and storing it in primary and recycling concrete via a novel technology solution, thus realizing a domestic carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) value chain; (2) implementing a carbon capture, transport and storage (CCTS) value chain based on CO2 transport and permanent storage in a geological reservoir abroad using a novel injection technique.
- To investigate the potential of creating a CO2 network for clusters of Swiss CO2 sources and potential CO2 storage sites, and its optimal design with respect to techno-economic, environmental, and reliability performance in the mid- and long-term time horizons.
- To address policy, legal, regulatory and acceptance challenges to verify and ensure the financial and overall feasibility of CCTS and CCUS value chains.
The Technology Assessment group will contribute to the project by performing environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the permanent storage of biogenic CO2 in concrete. This LCA will be carried out in close collaboration with several project partners – Empa, Neustark, Kästli Bau – and will quantify environmental co-benefits and potential trade-offs of storing CO2 in concrete, taking into account entire supply chains. Besides all processes being part of the CO2 mineralization, potentially altered product characteristics resulting in positive or negative substitution effects will be considered. This LCA will be aligned with the one performed on the CO2 storage in Iceland as well as with the investigation of accounting mechanisms for CO2 removal and regulatory aspects.
Figure 1: Graphical overview of the DemoUp CARMA process.