CO2 – from waste to value

Status Quo

Challenge Briefing in German.

The man-made increase in CO2 emissions is a severe global challenge. Even if there is a mindset change that actions are needed to mitigate CO2 emissions, the question remains:

How can we design the way to get there?

An approach that is becoming increasingly important revolves around the question of whether CO2 must necessarily be regarded as a pure waste product or whether CO2 could be more than that?

In general, CO2 meets the essential criteria for a circular economy: Just like solid waste, it is an unwanted co-product from production and consumption which is produces in huge amounts that can be captured, transported and stored.

But are there also intelligent and sustainable uses and use cases that add economic value and create demand for CO2 as a resource?

More and more sources say yes! They are arguing that CO2 indeed has many potential uses and market options in areas such as (building) materials, industry, chemistry, plastics, fuels, agriculture or even food that are not fully used today!

Challenge

This challenge therefore revolves around the question of what sustainable approaches exist around the topic of Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU) that will help to overcome current technical, commercial and/or financial barriers. Leading us to two key questions:

Is CO2 a valuable raw material that we can capture from industrial processes or even from the air that we can reuse in a sustainable way?
Is it therefore possible to create a closed carbon cycle in the longer term as one central element of a circular and greener economy?

Tracks

Together with EnBW, you can be on the forefront of pioneers trying to take on these questions: Advance the process of CO2 utilization to bring on innovations alongside the whole CO2 cycle!

To get a better understanding on the routes you can take, we developed the following tracks. More detailed information and inspiration can be found in the details tab. More guiding and inspirational key questions can be found in the criteria tab.

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No matter if you are a student, a researcher, a new team or a startup: Until the 27th of April, your task is to come up with an innovative approach towards “Carbon Capture and Use” to change the future of our environment!

Awards

Winners should not go out without a prize. Therefore, a total of prize money of € 7.000 will be distributed. This is divided between the top three teams or participants as follows:

• 1st Place: 4.000 Euros
• 2nd Place: 2.000 Euros
• 3rd Place: 1.000 Euros

Furthermore, there will be a lot more great opportunities at the end of the challenge! Based on your approach and your status, there are different possible further cooperation models:

For students and researchers, there are great job opportunities that could be utilized to further exploit your project together at EnBW.

For researchers and startups there are (research-) collaborations or other partnerships including investment opportunities.

Legal

All rights and contents worthy of protection which are brought into the Challenge remain completely with the participants. If teams and participants do not belong to the winners of the challenge, all rights also remain with the participants at all time.

Should new content worthy of protection be developed in the course of the Challenge, both the winners and EnBW have rights of use, whereby the winners must respect a commercial blocking period following the challenge if no other arrangements are made.

All binding information can be found in our terms of participation.