Novo Nordisk Foundation CO2 Research Center

The Center develops knowledge and technology that can be used to capture and recycle carbon dioxide (CO2).

www.corc.au.dk

Taking fundamentally new approaches to carbon capture and conversion by bringing together chemistry and life science.

The need for new technology

To avoid a climate disaster in a not-so-distant future, we need to decarbonise the energy, transportation, agriculture and building sectors rapidly and effectively. However, the volume of excess carbon in the atmosphere is now colossal, and a method to solve this is by capturing a lot of carbon with the purpose to either store it as inactive carbon or convert it into useful substitutes for fossil-based products such as plastic or fuels.

The existing technologies for carbon capture and storage are traditionally based on making liquid CO2 and storing this underground. However, these technologies are still underdeveloped, very expensive and unproven, and this new centre, CORC, has the mission of developing new technologies to capture and convert CO2.

 

Bringing research together

The Center pursues distinctively collaborative approaches between the chemical and life sciences. The center connects university‐based research with open‐science platforms for innovation with industry partners. The activities focus on the full value chain and bringing together world‐leading research in capture technologies, chemical CO2 conversion, and life sciences CO2 conversion.

The Novo Nordisk Foundation CO2 Research Center is based with its hub at Aarhus University and satellite institutions at the University of Copenhagen, Technical University of Denmark, Stanford University, Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) and Eberhard Karls University of Tuebingen.

Facts
Foundation funding:
 DKK 630 million

Host institution:
 Aarhus University

Staff:
 50

Fields of research:
 Biological, mechanical and chemical engineering
Environmental biotechnology
Geological sciences
Nanoscience
"The advantage of chemistry is that it works well at high rates and on scale, while biology is good at high selectivity without high pressures and temperatures. If we can put these disciplines together, the potential for making cheap and effective technologies is enormous!"
Alfred Spormann, Professor and Executive Director, Novo Nordisk Foundation CO2 Research Center