<article><p class="lead">Germany's economy and energy ministry is preparing a subsidy programme aimed at supporting the country's raw material industry in developing technologies for carbon capture and utilisation or storage (CCU/CCS).</p><p>The ministry last week published a "CO2 avoidance and use in raw material industries" funding directive, which is scheduled to go live on 1 May.</p><p>The new programme will support companies in developing CCU/CCS technologies "towards market maturity", the ministry said. </p><p>Supported technologies will include the necessary infrastructure for storing CO2 in the North Sea, direct air technology in combination with CCS (DACCS), and the use of bioenergy with CCS (BECCS).</p><p>The budget has been set at €105mn for 2021, then an initial €120mn/yr until 2025.</p><p>The ministry expects the support programme to stimulate not just a CCU/CCS process chain, but also a "CCU/CCS ecosystem" in Germany. The goal is to establish the necessary technological and process expertise, then secure and pool it.</p><p>The programme must also look at securing acceptance for CCU/CCS as a "bridging technology" towards decarbonising industry.</p><p>The ministry announced last week a tender for managing the programme. </p><p>The successful bidder will support the ministry and participating companies in preparing the notification process at the European Commission.</p><p>The manager will also ensure the programme makes good use of synergies with other existing support programmes for CCU/CCS technologies, both domestic and outside Germany. </p><p>Germany's industry emits around 180mn t/yr of CO2 equivalent, of which around 30-40pc is process-linked and cannot be avoided using today's state of the art technology, the ministry said.</p><p class="bylines">By Chloe Jardine</p></article>
