Research collaboration removing methane
The Horizon Europe project titled ‘REPAIR – Removing non-CO₂ greenhouse gas emissions to support ambitious climate transitions’, led by KTH Royal Institute of Technology is a four-year collaboration between universities, research institutes, as well as industries and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) spread across seven countries in Europe.
Image by Valio
KTH
The REPAIR project goal is to develop and implement technologies that remove non-CO₂ greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and the agricultural sector. Removal of the potent non-CO₂ greenhouse gases methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) can potentially mitigate global warming in the coming decades. “We can remove more than 50 percent of methane emissions in the EU, and if these technologies are implemented worldwide, they have the potential to avoid global warming by 0.3˚C,” says Shareq Mohd Nazir, Assistant Professor and Project Leader. Methane and nitrous oxide are very potent greenhouse gases, mainly emitted from the agricultural sector. They are generally present at low concentrations in the atmosphere and are difficult to remove.
Valio
Valio is a dairy co-operative and Finland’s biggest food producer. We are aiming to reach carbon carbon-neutral milk chain by 2035. The target will be reached through emission reductions, carbon sequestration to soil and replacing fossil fuels with renewable fuels. App. 40 % of our emissions are originated from cows as methane output. In the REPAIR project, we are seeking new technologies to reduce these emissions.
Utrecht University
“Within the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, the Energy & Resources group at Utrecht University has been working on process and energy system modelling and optimization for a few decades, providing important knowledge for the transition to a climate-positive society. The group has been building a unique critical knowledge mass around technologies and processes for the energy transition, including fundamental separation sciences, process and system optimization, and economic and environmental assessment. More recently, under the lead of Dr. Gazzani and Prof. Kramer, the group started working on GHG removal from very diluted gases, especially CO2 and CH4 removal from the atmosphere. Recent work on DAC [30] has attracted significant interest from academia, industry and the media. Overall, key expertise for REPAIR that the team possesses includes, but is not limited to (i) design and mathematical optimization of gas separation processes, especially ab- and ad-sorption based, (ii) mathematical optimization of energy systems via linear/non-linear programming, (iii) chain and environmental analysis, (iii) techno-economic assessment of (new) technologies. Especially, within REPAIR, UU will lead WP2, which brings together the technical modelling of the project, reconciling experiments in WP1 with techno-economic and integrated assessments in WP3. UU will oversee process and system modelling for designing REPAIR technologies when deployed at scale in WP4, in addition to contributing to communication activities in WP5.”
SINTEF
SINTEF Energy Research is an institute for applied research dedicated to creating innovative energy solutions. We offer cutting-edge knowledge in Norway and internationally based on research that provides for our clients with added-value solutions and services. SINTEF Energy Research is part of the SINTEF Group, which is one of Europe’s largest independent contract research organizations. Its main office and main activities are located in Trondheim, Norway, sharing facilities with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
SINTEF Energy Research has broad expertise within the field of energy research and has been involved in projects related to CCS technologies since 2001. SINTEF has extensive experience in EU FP6, FP7, ERA-Net ACT and H2020 projects (CEMCAP, ENCAP, Dynamis, NextGenBioWaste, DECARBit, ECCO, IMPACTS, ELEGANCY, ACCESS). It is also the host of the NCCS – an international CCS centre – which, among other topics, covers research on CO2 capture from industry and power generation. In the area of carbon removal technologies, SINTEF Energy Research is leading a large research project, under the Green Platform program, called NCS C+ (The Norwegian Continental Shelf: A Driver for Climate-Positive Norway) aims to develop four climate-positive technologies that will help increase the pace of the green transition and permanently remove large volumes of carbon dioxide and methane from the atmosphere. SINTEF has expertise in the systematic process design, techno-economic analysis and benchmarking of separation processes and CO2 capture and removal value chains.
In REPAIR, SINTEF contributes to developing the conceptual design of processes for greenhouse gas removal and optimization in collaboration with other partners. SINTEF is also co-developing guidelines and performing techno-economic analysis for negative emission technologies while communicating results to the scientific community.
TUe
Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) is a research university specializing in engineering science & technology. Our education, research and knowledge valorization contribute to:
science for society: solving the major societal issues and boosting prosperity and welfare by focusing on the Strategic Areas of Energy, Health and Smart Mobility
science for industry: the development of technological innovation in cooperation with industry
science for science: progress in engineering sciences through excellence in key research cores and innovation in education.
The research group Sustainable Process Engineering is part of the faculty of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry at the Eindhoven University of Technology. The main objective of the research group is the development of novel integrated reactor concepts (such as Membrane Reactors, microreactors, structured catalysts and reactors) based on improved fundamental knowledge using validated advanced (multi-phase) reactor models. This is achieved by employing a combination of state-of-the-art numerical models (at different levels of detail using the multi-level modelling approach), advanced (non-invasive) experimental techniques and experimental demonstration of novel reactor concepts (proof of concept).
InPhoCat
InPhoCat is a developing micro-enterprise founded in 2015. The company’s mission is to search for innovative scientific solutions for which effective commercial applications can be found in areas related to environmental protection, climate protection, sustainable development, green energy production, health protection, and the safety of people and animals. As the owners of the company, scientists from the Jagiellonian University have well-established scientific experience, and a team of highly educated, experienced employees with knowledge of industrial realities. We hope, that in the current consortium – REPAIR project, we can provide the expected ambitious solutions and prepare materials that have catalytic and photocatalytic properties and will meet the problems of dangerous air and surface pollutants and the climatic crisis.
Nordic DAC Group
Nordic DAC Group AB is a Swedish company working on Direct Air Capture projects and offering its carbon removal services in the VCM market. We are proud to be involved in the commercial developmental activities of the project through stakeholder group interactions. Exploring the potential of GHG mitigation, scaling technologies and disseminating the project results.
Cooperativas agro alimentarias
Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias is the organization that represents cooperative movement among Spanish farmers. It brings together some 3000 cooperative businesses in different regions and subsectors of agricultural and livestock production. Some of the main concerns of those companies are to face the decarbonization challenge avoiding deterioration of profitability in farms and the agricultural sector. Together with mitigation measures linked with the efficiency in the use of resources, such as energy, fertilizers and so on, new cutting-edge technologies such as direct air capture for methane released in dairy farms are of the utmost interest. The role of this project of Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias is to check the feasibility of those techniques in real farm conditions.
CMCC Foundation
CMCC is an Italian research foundation, whose mission is to investigate and model our climate system and its interactions with society. Providing reliable, rigorous, and timely scientific results as well as foresight and quantitative analysis of our future planet and society which will, in turn, stimulate sustainable growth, protect the environment and develop science-driven adaptation and mitigation policies in a changing climate.