Empa launches research initiative on CO2 recycling
The Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (Empa) wants to permanently remove CO2 from the atmosphere and use it as a raw material for building materials and petrochemicals. To this end, Empa has launched a research initiative. Two events will kick it off.
For Empa, a net zero in CO2 emissions is only an interim goal. Its researchers are looking for a holistic solution approach in which CO2 is not only captured and stored in the soil. “The goal is to develop an entirely new global economic model and the associated industrial sector that converts CO2 as the raw material of the future into value-added materials to replace conventional building materials and petrochemicals,” Empa writes in a corresponding press release.
To this end, Empa has launched the research initiative Mining the Atmosphere. Instead of focusing on mining raw materials in underground mines, atmospheric mines are to be increasingly exploited in the future. The aim is to “remove an estimated 400 billion tonnes of carbon (i.e. around 1500 billion tonnes of CO2) from the atmosphere”, explains Empa. The research institute estimates that “countless players from research and industry will have to work together” to tackle this “task of the century”.
The research initiative Mining the Atmosophere will kick off with two events in October and November. In the edition of wissen2go on 25 October, interested parties can learn about negative emission technologies. Empa is accepting registrations for the event online.
On 7 November, Empa invites “stakeholders, practitioners and researchers from the construction, buildings and infrastructure, energy, environment and sustainability sectors” to the RFA Built Environment Mining the Atmosphere seminar. Here, the research institute will present relevant work of its own. Registrations are possible online until 30 October.