The EU-funded UNICO2RN project is using biogenic CO2 as feedstock to produce biodegradable plastics, aiming to help European industries replace fossil-based materials and reduce their carbon emissions.
Starting in June 2025, the project is funded by the European Union under the Grant Agreement No. 10121426 and coordinated by VITO. It is implemented by a consortium consisting of Aerbio, CO2BioClean, Idener, Lesaffre, NIZO Food Research, nova-Institute, Nuada, Sabio Biomaterials and Veolia.
UNICO2RN aspires to capture biogenic CO2 as a carbon source to produce biopolymers for biodegradable plastics, polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), and other products.
Biogenic CO2 is considered part of the short-term carbon cycle and is not thought to release more carbon into the atmosphere. Using it in processes such as biomass processing, fermentation, and organic waste treatment is anticipated to reduce emissions in existing industrial processes.
In turn, the partners plan to build upon existing biobased infrastructures and drive the integration of CO2 utilization into established industrial value chains.
The project uses metal-organic framework-based systems to capture high-purity CO2 from biogenic point sources. Aerobic gas fermentation is then applied using hydrogen-oxidizing bacteria, which turns CO2 and hydrogen into biopolymers and microbial biomass.
Designed for modularity and flexibility, the process chain is configured to handle CO2 streams with varying concentrations and purities. Members of the UNICO2RN coalition plan to demonstrate this process chain – including CO2 capture, bioconversion, and downstream processing – at two industrial sites.
These demonstrations are expected to validate the production of PHA-based materials to replace conventional fossil-based plastics, as well as microbial proteins for food and feed applications. The industrial sites are expected to operate at Technology Readiness Level 7.
Life cycle, techno-economic, and social impact analyses will be conducted during the process design and scale-up stages, and the coalition plans to align the project with emerging certification and sustainability frameworks for CO2-based products.
In a similar initiative, VTT and LUT University have undertaken a three-year carbon capture and utilization project to convert biogenic carbon dioxide from waste incineration and the forest industry into polypropylene, polyethylene, and other ‘high-value-added’ products. Funded by Business Finland, the Forest CUMP research project sought to find out how different technologies could create renewable plastic raw materials using carbon dioxide and green hydrogen.
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