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The NETPEC Project

NETPEC stands for “Negative Emission Technologies based on PhotoElectroChemical Methods” and is a collaborative research project funded by the BMBF. The overall goal of the NETPEC project is the development of highly efficient photoelectrochemical approaches to convert carbon dioxide into easily storable, safe and sustainable carbon sink products. This is accompanied by climate modeling, geological reservoir investigations and sustainability analysis, thus making the NETPEC project follow a holistic approach.

The NETPEC consortium is coordinated by the University of Tübingen and it is furthermore embedded in the BMBF research program on land based CO2 removal (CDRterra).

All contributing researchers and institutions are listed here and the tab “Project” contains more detailed information about the project and its different parts.

Principle of terrestrial photoelectrochemical carbon sinks. Atmospheric CO₂ is captured into an electrolyte and converted to carbon-rich products in a cell using directly absorbed solar radiation. While some products (e.g., oxalate) may require postprocessing, others could be directly extracted for long-term storage (e.g., carbon flakes). The local climatic environment impacts the efficiency and conversion rate of the system, the storage potential depends on the product due to potential geochemical interactions between storage site and sink product.
(https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.202103801)

News

January 15, 2025

Earth system modeling paper by Moritz Adam et al. is now published in Environmental Research Letters. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ada971. The paper explores potential impacts of sun-driven CO2 capture, conversion, and sequestration on the Earth system for a number of scenarios. Indirect climate and carbon cycle effects are minimal but high conversion efficiencies crucial to avoid land conversions.
November 28, 2024

Daniel Lörchs work on the mechanism of electrochemical CO2 reduction at liquid metal surfaces has appeared in JPCC! https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.4c05482
October 30, 2024

The preprint of Moritz Adams work with the title “Land conversions not climate effects are the dominant consequence of sun-driven CO2 capture, conversion, and sequestration” is now available on EarthArXiv, doi: 10.31223/X5N713
August 26, 2024

The preprint by Daniel Lörch on the mechanism of electrochemical CO2 reduction at liquid metal surfaces is now online on chemarxiv, doi:10.26434/chemrxiv-2024-1t2ss
April 8, 2024

The paper of Florian Keller “Exploring the Mechanism of the Electrochemical Polymerization of CO2 to Hard Carbon over CeO2(110)” has been published in J. Phys. Chem. C, doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.3c08356
March 5, 2024

The work of the NETPEC consortium, turning CO2 into carbon flakes, has been featured in the science TV-show Nano on 3Sat. Our contribution can be found around minute 15.
September 14, 2023
September 13, 2023

Pascal Kempen has submitted his Bachelor thesis about the “Electrochemical reduction of CO2 on Ga-In-Sn alloys in organic electrolytes” at Freie Universität Berlin.
July 13, 2023

NETPEC Talk in the CDRTerra Seminar Series
May 22, 2023

CDRTerra General Assembly, Kloster Haydau