NRW Ministers Ina Brandes and Mona Neubaur visit ReCO2NWert as part of the innovation journey through the Rhenish mining area – CLIB

As part of their joint research and innovation trip through the Rhenish mining area, Minister for Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Action and Energy Mona Neubaur and Minister for Culture and Science Ina Brandes visited the ReCO₂NWert project. In the ReCO₂NWert project (Implementation of the Resource Transition in the Chemical Industry through Biotechnological CO₂ Use in Regional Value Chains), a platform technology is being developed to biotechnologically convert unavoidable process gases containing CO₂ into industrially usable products. The carbon is thus sustainably bound in the products and no longer enters the atmosphere. At sites of the industrial project partners MVA Weisweiler and Babor Beauty Cluster in Eschweiler, the two ministers gained insights into the realisation of structural change through the project.

North Rhine-Westphalia is actively driving the transition to a circular economy. Minister Mona Neubaur: “If we are able to keep carbon in the cycle and are consistently reused it, this conserves resources and strengthens the competitiveness and resilience of companies. Strong innovations from North Rhine-Westphalia combine modern technologies and sustainability, advance industry and are of concrete benefit to everyone. This is impressively demonstrated by the ReCO2NWert project: Here, researchers and the employees of the Weisweiler waste incineration plant are working closely together to treat unavoidable flue gases containing CO₂ in such a way that they can be used for the cosmetics industry. An important contribution to the environment, to the economy, to structural change in the Rhenish mining area, and to the people who have future proof jobs here.”

Minister Brandes emphasised: “Our economic prosperity in Germany is based to a significant extent on the fact that people here have always come up with creative ideas and have developed a functioning business model from it. The ReCO₂NWert project is an excellent example of this. Here, findings from cutting-edge research ‘made in NRW’ have been transferred from the laboratory to industrial application. The Rhenish mining area stands for such interdisciplinary and application-oriented research.”

Visiting the two industrial partners MVA Weisweiler and Babor Beauty Group, the ministers were able to experience how this structural change is being advanced by the project and how the biotechnological process is embedded in the comprehensive sustainability concept of the two companies.

The Weisweiler waste incineration plant is already intensively committed to the energy transition and environmental protection and promotes processes of the circular economy. As soon as RWE Power AG’s Weisweiler lignite-fired power plant goes off the grid in 2029, the district heating supply of the city of Aachen will have to be ensured in another way. The Weisweiler waste incineration plant is providing another crucial building block for this by making the energy generated by waste incineration available for the district heating supply of the city of Aachen and surrounding towns from 2029. However, this energy is therefore no longer available to recycle or store the CO₂ produced during waste incineration through suitable processes. Therefore, the ReCO₂NWert process offers a great opportunity for the Weisweiler waste incineration plant to reduce significant amounts of the CO₂ contained in the flue gas and to take a decisive step towards sustainability.

The Babor Beauty Group produces premium cosmetics on a former slag heap in the middle of the Rhenish mining area. In 2023, the Babor Beauty Cluster was built as a state-of-the-art energy efficient house as the company’s production and logistics location. The impressive location shows the ambitious future plans of the family business in terms of sustainability. The building is
located only a few kilometers away from the waste incineration plant. In the future, the products of the ReCO₂NWert process could be used directly in over 100 of the company’s products, thus keeping the carbon regionally in the cycle.

About the ReCO₂NWert project:

In the project, the CO₂-containing flue gas from the Weisweiler waste incineration plant serves as the feedstock. They are converted into syngas. Optimized microorganisms use this gas for the synthesis of high-quality industrially usable products. In the next step, these products – short chain alcohols – are tested, for example, as preservative, cooling or antibacterial ingredients in cosmetic products of the BABOR Beauty Group or as plastic precursors at Covestro. The platform technology developed is intended to demonstrate the economic usability of the process and the manufactured products to industries inside and outside the Rhenish mining area. For this purpose, a container plant is to be built during the project period to make the CO₂-containing process gases usable for the biotechnological process. This container will be directly installed at the Weisweiler waste incineration plant. A second container system is being designed, which includes the biotechnological process and is to be used as a mobile unit in the Rhenish mining area. In combination, these container plants will be able to use process gases containing CO₂ locally, convert them into products, and thus demonstrate the regional value chain envisioned in the ReCO₂NWert project.

Visit the project website: https://reco2nwert.de/

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