BIOCO2 – an international project within the scope of CCS-CCU technologies for carbon footprint reduction using bio-adsorbents – aims to propose sustainable solutions to be implemented in the close future aimed to reduce the CO2 emissions and to achieve the targets imposed by the European Commission (-21% by 2020 and -40% by 2030 in respect to 1990 levels). To this end, the project will demonstrate a reduction of the carbon footprint achieved through the utilization of CO2 and of waste biomass, to produce useful carbon-based products. The production process of these products will ideally comprise renewable energy sources.
This project is funded by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (NAWA), under the International Academic Partnerships Program. CERIS/Técnico is the leader of one of the tasks.
An additional aim of the project is to join and cooperate among international partners, who are the experts in their fields, starting from CO2 uptake, biomass conversion as well as biocarbon and carbon dioxide utilization in the production of useful goods and products.
“This project is an excellent opportunity to explore concrete production with embodied carbon and low-carbon concrete. The project will also promote innovative solutions in the area of carbon dioxide capture and raise industry awareness. The research results will be disseminated to the companies”, stresses Rita Nogueira, IST professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geo-Resources (DECivil) and coordinator of the CERIS team that participates in the project.
The target groups of the BIOCO2 project are companies concerned with CO2 emission, biomass, renewable energy, biocarbon, adsorbents, alternative fuels like dimethylether and concrete products.
The following partners are involved in the project: CUT, Poland (leader), CSIC-INCAR, Spain (partner), ITAE, Italy (partner), CERIS/Técnico, Portugal (partner) and UCBM, Italy (partner).
The project activities have been divided into six tasks, the leader of each is the partner specializes in the field. CERIS/Técnico is the leader of the task 4 “Concrete production” and is involved in tasks 1, 5, and 6, “subtract acquisition”, “CO2 and energy flow analysis” and “project coordination and dissemination”, respectively. The aim of task 4 is to reduce the overall amount of CO2 emissions from the concrete production, without prejudice to its performance and applicability conditions.
