Responding to the need for cost-effective CDR
In 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released their Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C, which clearly showed that we will need to act drastically in order to achieve climate neutrality.
The EU’s Green Deal also set historical climate ambitions to
- reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 (compared to 1990 levels), and
- achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
In order to achieve these goals, it won’t be enough to significantly reduce our current and future greenhouse gas emissions, we will also need to remove excess greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
CO₂ is the primary greenhouse gas. Hard-to-abate industries are responsible for significant amounts of the overall CO₂ emissions.
CO₂ capture, transport and storage (CCS) can significantly cut CO₂ emissions from these hard-to-abate sectors.
When applied to flue gases from burning biomass, CCS provides a way to not only cut emissions, but also remove CO₂ from the atmosphere (known as “carbon dioxide removal” – CDR).
This is feasible in several industry sectors, including biomass-fuelled cement production, pulp and paper, waste-to-energy and biorefineries. These four energy-intensive sectors in Europe were the focus of the ACCSESS project.
The project concluded on 31 August 2026.
ACCSESS activities
The research and innovation activities in ACCSESS were organised into various work packages (WP), 11 of which were collected into three sub-projects (SPs):
- SP1: CO2 Capture Piloting
- SP2: CO2 Capture Integration and Use
- SP3: CCUS Chains and Clusters
All sub-projects fed into the societal integration work package (WP12): Societal Integration of CCUS.
The project concept for ACCSESS redefined “CCS” as “CO2 capture, chains and society”, in order to reflect the key challenges that need to be addressed for CCS to be successfully implemented across Europe.
