From Emis­sions to Solu­tions: CO2-Based Graph­ite, Plastics, and Meth­an­ol win big at ​“Best CO2 Util­isa­tion 2025” Innov­a­tion Award

UP Cata­lyst, Far East­ern New Cen­tury Cor­por­a­tion, and Oxylus Energy were recog­nised at the ​“Best CO2 Util­isa­tion 2025” Innov­a­tion Award for trans­form­ing car­bon emis­sions into high-per­form­ance bat­tery mater­i­als, sus­tain­able plastics for foot­wear and tex­tiles, and meth­an­ol fuel, mark­ing major strides toward a renew­able car­bon future.

A total of 230 par­ti­cipants and 45 speak­ers from around the globe took part in this year’s Innov­a­tion Award Cere­mony, held as a high­light of the CO2-based Fuels and Chem­ic­als Con­fer­ence 2025, both in Cologne, Ger­many, and online. Recog­nised as one of the lead­ing inter­na­tion­al gath­er­ings for the Car­bon Cap­ture and Util­isa­tion (CCU) and Power-to‑X sec­tors, the 13^th edi­tion of the event high­lighted cut­ting-edge devel­op­ments in this rap­idly evolving field.
Six nom­in­ees presen­ted their pion­eer­ing CCU tech­no­lo­gies to a broad audi­ence of inter­na­tion­al CCU spe­cial­ists. Attendees then cast their votes in real time to determ­ine the three win­ners of the ​“Best CO2 Util­isa­tion 2025” Innov­a­tion Award.
The win­ning innov­a­tions – ran­ging from bat­tery-grade graph­ite derived from CO2, to non-iso­cy­anate poly­ureth­anes (NIPU), and car­bon-neg­at­ive meth­an­ol pro­duc­tion – mark import­ant steps towards redu­cing depend­ence on fossil-based resources.

The innov­a­tion award ​“Best CO2 Util­isa­tion 2025” goes to UP-Catalyst

The pres­ti­gi­ous innov­a­tion award for ​“Best CO2 Util­isa­tion 2025” has been awar­ded to the Esto­ni­an com­pany UP Cata­lyst in recog­ni­tion of their devel­op­ment of bat­tery-grade graph­ite derived from CO2 emis­sions.
UP Cata­lyst has pion­eered a pro­cess that util­ises Mol­ten Salt CO2 Cap­ture and Elec­tro­chem­ic­al Con­ver­sion (MSCC-EC) tech­no­logy to con­vert CO₂ emis­sions into dur­able car­bon mater­i­als, includ­ing graph­ite and car­bon nan­otubes (CNTs). Their approach boasts the low­est energy con­sump­tion per tonne of graph­ite pro­duced.
This advanced meth­od enables the con­tinu­ous pro­duc­tion of car­bon mater­i­als at tem­per­at­ures between 500 and 750 °C – markedly lower than the 2,800 °C typ­ic­ally required for con­ven­tion­al graph­ite­syn­thes­is. As a res­ult, the tech­no­logy con­sumes about half the energy needed for tra­di­tion­al syn­thet­ic graph­ite pro­duc­tion and up to 20 times less energy for CNT production.

Far East­ern New Cen­tury Cor­por­a­tion received the second prize for its innov­at­ive FENC® Top­Green® CO2-based NIPU tech­no­logy. The Taiwan-based com­pany has developed the world’s first non-iso­cy­anate poly­ureth­ane (NIPU) derived from CO2, cre­at­ing high-per­form­ance elast­o­mer­ic mater­i­als.
In con­trast to con­ven­tion­al ther­mo­plastic poly­ureth­anes (TPUs), which depend on tox­ic mater­i­als such as phos­gene and iso­cy­anates, this pro­pri­et­ary NIPU tech­no­logy provides a safer and more sus­tain­able altern­at­ive. It is par­tic­u­larly suited to applic­a­tions includ­ing water­proof and breath­able mem­branes, shoe uppers and mid­soles, elast­ic fibres, and syn­thet­ic leath­er.
By employ­ing car­bon cap­ture tech­no­logy developed by the Far East­ern Group, CO2 is con­ver­ted into chem­ic­al com­pounds with a CO2 con­tent exceed­ing 50%, which are then used in advanced poly­mer pro­duc­tion pro­cesses to man­u­fac­ture CO2-based NIPU elast­omers at scale, achiev­ing per­man­ent car­bon cap­ture. This innov­a­tion res­ults in a reduc­tion of car­bon emis­sions by up to 58% com­pared to tra­di­tion­al TPU pro­duc­tion, while main­tain­ing out­stand­ing per­form­ance and sustainability.

Oxylus Energy, a US-based com­pany, was awar­ded third prize for its innov­at­ive dir­ect elec­tro­chem­ic­al meth­od for pro­du­cing green meth­an­ol. The company’s Meth­an­ol Pro­du­cing Elec­tro­lys­er con­verts indus­tri­al CO2 emis­sions dir­ectly into sus­tain­able meth­an­ol using only renew­able elec­tri­city and water.
This cut­ting-edge tech­no­logy enables the pro­duc­tion of car­bon-neut­ral and even car­bon-neg­at­ive meth­an­ol at a cost com­pet­it­ive with fossil-derived meth­an­ol. By trans­form­ing CO2 emis­sions into a liquid product, the pro­cess not only facil­it­ates dir­ect decar­bon­isa­tion of indus­tri­al out­puts but also presents a com­mer­cially viable solu­tion to defos­sil­ise the hard-to-abate sec­tors such as avi­ation, mari­time trans­port, and chem­ic­al man­u­fac­tur­ing, togeth­er account­ing for approx­im­ately 11 % of glob­al green­house gas emissions.

Spon­sors and partners

Yncor­is is the spon­sor of the innov­a­tion award ​“Best CO2 Util­isa­tion 2025”. This estab­lished award, co-organ­ised by nova-Insti­tute and CO2 Value Europe, recog­nises pion­eers in the field of CCU. CO2 Value Europe, the European asso­ci­ation ded­ic­ated to CO2 util­isa­tion, brings its expert­ise in pro­mot­ing sus­tain­able indus­tri­al solu­tions, while Yncor­is, a lead­er in the plan­ning, con­struc­tion, and oper­a­tion­al sup­port for chem­ic­al industry plants, sup­ports the com­mit­ment to advance sus­tain­able tech­no­lo­gies. nova-Insti­tute, an inde­pend­ent research insti­tute, con­trib­utes its extens­ive expert­ise in renew­able car­bon cycles and sus­tain­ab­il­ity to the award.
CO2 Value Europe (CVE) is an inter­na­tion­al non-profit asso­ci­ation rep­res­ent­ing the Car­bon Cap­ture and Util­isa­tion (CCU) com­munity in Europe and bey­ond, with a mis­sion to pro­mote the devel­op­ment of a cir­cu­lar car­bon eco­nomy based on CO2 to reduce green­house gas emis­sions and to move away from fossil. More inform­a­tion at https://​co2​value​.eu.
The Asso­ci­ation brings togeth­er over 110 organ­isa­tions world­wide from diverse sec­tors (includ­ing indus­tries, start-ups, uni­ver­sit­ies, research and tech­no­logy organ­isa­tions, and region­al clusters), and devel­ops a large net­work of many more organ­isa­tions and indi­vidu­als who share the belief that CCU tech­no­lo­gies are neces­sary to help the EU reach cli­mate targets.