Best CO2 Utilisation 2023” Innovation Award – Three winning CCU solutions open the road to transition away from fossil resources

More than 245 participants from 30 countries across the world attended the Innovation Award ceremony at the Conference on CO₂-based Fuels and Chemicals 2023 in Cologne, Germany and online.

The innovation award “Best CO₂ Utilisation 2023” has been granted to CellCO₂, an outstanding solution developed by the German Institutes of Textile and Fiber Research (DITF). By combining bio-based carbon sources and CCU, CellCO₂ successfully manages to incorporate two of the three pathways to renewable carbon solutions. CellCO₂ is a CO₂ adsorber material based on amines functionalised cellulosic fibre materials e.g., non-woven. The technology starts with the conversion of cellulosic fibres into non-woven followed by chemical modification of the surface with amines.

Arkeon was awarded the second prize for its innovative technology leveraging archaea microorganisms that naturally produce all the building blocks of proteins in only one fermentation. The Austrian company’s process converts CO₂ directly into amino acids and functional peptides, enabling an entirely new world of food products.

Ultra-low Carbon Concrete by the US company CarbonBuilt won the third prize for its visionary carbon utilisation technology reducing the embodied carbon of concrete by 70–100 %, thereby helping to establish sustainable low-carbon solutions in the building sector.

The Innovation Award “Best CO₂ Utilisation 2023” was sponsored by YNCORIS, a service partner for the future-proof chemical industry, and it is co-organised by nova-Institute and CO₂ Value Europe, the international association representing the CCU community in Europe and beyond.

Please find more about these outstanding solutions in the full press release here.