SCOT (Smart CO2 Transformation) is a collaborative European project (supported by the Seventh Framework programme) in the area of CO2 Utilisation. The main objective of the project is to define a Strategic European Research and Innovation Agenda for Europe in the field of CO2 Utilisation.
Carbon dioxide utilisation is a broad term that covers a variety of innovative industrial processes, which use CO2 from point source emitters (and in the future from direct air capture) as a feedstock to transform CO2 into value added products. Therefore CO2 is treated as a resource, rather than as waste or emission. SCOT’s strategic agenda and action plan will intend to move European policy towards this new paradigm.
The aims of the SCOT project are threefold:
- Define a Strategic European Research and Innovation Agenda (SERIA) aimed at:
- Improving the techno-economic performance of emerging CO2 transformation technologies.
- Developing new breakthrough solutions and market applications.
- Propose a Joint Action Plan (JAP) for Europe that includes structural policy measures to favour the transition to a new European society based on low carbon energy and the paradigm of “CO2-as-a-resource”.
- Attract additional EU clusters (universities – research centres – industries), regions, and investors to participate in multi-disciplinary research programmes and other collaborative actions defined in the Joint Action Plan (JAP).
The project will consider research and innovation needs on both chemical and biological transformations, covering the three primary areas: chemical building blocks, synthetic fuels, and mineralization. which present some common research needs and address the same stakeholders in the value chain. As can be seen from the figure below, the SCOT project is not going to address CO2 emissions as such. It is assumed that the CO2 will originate from a point source emitter and will be used as a post-production resource. This will typically come from an energy generator or from an industrial process where CO2 concentrations be higher. The project will, although to a lesser extent, focus on integrating low-carbon energy sources into the transformation process.
Figure: The European scope of SCOT
Objectives and work packages
The objectives and related work packages (WP) of the SCOT project are:
- Objective 1: To assess the capacity of regional clusters in structuring the CO2 recycling community and streamlining the value chain for CO2 recycling in synergy with the existing regional priorities and initiatives (WP1: Regional Assessment)
- Objective 2: To address societal, economic, regulatory and legislative barriers which may affect the development of products and material based on recycled CO2 (WP2: Socio-economic analysis)
- Objective 3: to define common research priorities and collaboration strategies in addressing the key challenges in a Vision document and a R&D agenda (WP3: European Research and Innovation Strategy)
- Objective 4: to strengthen European knowledge skills, infrastructures and research driven clusters via tools sharing, knowledge exchange (WP4: Joint Action Plan and preparation for implementation)
- Objective 5: to organise coherent and structured Regional and European financial support to conduct research & networks in the CO 2 industries to optimize an integrated value chain of CO 2 recycling and to start its implementation (WP5: Financial Engineering)
- Objective 6: to set-up a financial framework to enable the implementation of the Joint Action Plan (WP6: Mentoring and International Cooperation)
The project work plan is divided in 8 different work packages with strong interactions as can be seen in the flow diagram below.