On 16 October 2018, around 80 leading industrial and research stakeholders from across Europe, including Econic CEO Dr Rowena Sellens, gathered in the Port of Antwerp, Belgium to attend the first CO2 Value Day organised by CO2 Value Europe, the European association dedicated to CO2 utilisation. Also commonly called “Carbon Capture & Utilisation” (CCU), this topic covers all established and innovative industrial processes that transform CO2 into a variety of valuable products such as synthetic fuels, chemicals or building materials.
The main purpose of the conference was not only to provide its current and aspiring members with an update on progress made since its foundation, but also to present a real-life CCU demonstration project currently being implemented in the Port of Antwerp. In the afternoon, attendees worked in specific small groups (dedicated to fuels, chemicals or building products), to define concrete actions to be implemented by the Association in coming months.
In her introduction speech, the Association’s President Stefanie Kesting reminded all participants that the mission of CO2 Value Europe is to develop a new CCU industry sector which can recycle carbon at a large scale, by coordinating the efforts of all relevant stakeholders of the CO2 value chain. “Today, I’m very happy” she said, “because we grew our membership in less than a year from just over 40 to more than 60. CCU has attracted a lot of attention as an emerging topic with a key role to play in the sustainable transition of our economy. Our association is now perceived as the official spokesperson and ambassador of the CCU community and we gained a strong legitimacy towards EU policy makers.” Outside of Europe, our visibility is also growing fast and we even received requests for membership from the US, Canada, Chile and Australia”.
CO2 Value Europe’s Secretary General, Damien Dallemagne added: “What struck me is the strong demand for more networking and matchmaking among the different stakeholders engaged in developing CCU. Our Association is unique in its capacity to facilitate connections between companies from different industry sectors and research players who have complementary resources and needs related to CO2 conversion.”
You can read more about the day and see additional pictures here.
CO2 Value Europe is the industry-driven European Association which is committed to coordinate and represent the CO2 Utilisation community in Europe and to build up an integrated vision and action plan to develop CO2 Utilisation into a new industrial sector making a significant contribution to Europe’s low carbon economy. It is the only association in Europe entirely dedicated to the subject, gathering stakeholders from all the relevant sectors of the CO2 value chain: CO2 emitters from all significant process and energy intensive industries, providers of decarbonated energy, industrial gas experts, CO2 conversion technology providers, and users of CO2-based products.
If you would like to learn more about the Association or are interested in becoming a member, please see their website or get in contact with us at Econic.