A Swiss climate tech firm has announced the opening of its first commercial site for permanent CO2 storage in the EU, located in Berlin.
Neustark’s milestone, announced Monday, comes as part of a partnership with Berlin-based construction and recycling company Heim.
The Berlin facility has the capacity to permanently store over 1,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, with company said, with the gas captured at biogas plants and then injected into granules of demolition concrete as part of the regular recycling process.
Neustark’s technology triggers a mineralisation process, converting the captured CO2 into limestone and effectively removing it from the atmosphere.
This collaboration marks Neustark’s 12th CO2 storage site, following the launch of others in Switzerland and Germany over the past 10 months, with a combined annual capacity of around 5,000 tonnes of CO2.
Munich-based biomethane trading company Landwarme manages the excess volume of around 1,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, which is then transported to the Berlin site for permanent storage.
Neustark sells carbon dioxide removal (CDR) credits to companies, including Microsoft and UBS, to help them meet their climate targets.
The announcement follows Neustark’s recent agreement with building solutions giant Holcim, which will see them store a significant portion of Neustark’s target of removing 1 mln tonnes of CO2 by 2030.
The deal also adds momentum to Neustark’s rapid European expansion, with 15 further projects currently under construction in Germany, Switzerland, France, and Austria.
What’s more, Neustark is exploring other permanent storage solutions, including through a partnership with GF Piping Systems that aims to mineralise CO2 in residual water from concrete production.
With over a billion tonnes produced per year, demolition concrete represents the world’s largest waste stream, with Neustark’s targeting the transformation of this into a carbon sink.
The company has been awarded two grants by the Climate Cent Foundation.
As part of another project, Neustark intends to build liquefaction plants at various biogas plants in Switzerland that already separate CO2 for biogas processing, and has a contract from the Climate Cent foundation to capture 13,000 tCO2, which will be shipped abroad.
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