Deadline: February 17, 2026
The European Commission proudly launches the Horizon Europe call “New CO2 capture technologies” to drive innovation in new CO2 capture technologies, aiming to significantly reduce costs and minimize environmental impacts, including water use.
Focus Areas: Development of new or emerging capture technologies with high potential for cost reduction, capturing CO2 either from point sources or directly from air (direct air capture, DAC). Key aspects include enhanced absorption/adsorption, improved kinetics, reduced energy use for CO2 capture and desorption, new materials with high selectivity for CO2 capture, flexibility of operation, modularisation and scale-up, space occupation, degradation and lifespan of capture materials, retrofit potential, heat integration potential, and solvent-induced corrosion. For DAC, focus on novel sorbent or solvent materials with higher CO2 capture capacities and longer-term stability in heat and air presence. All proposals must address minimization of health and environmental impacts considering future scale-up. Technologies should deliver CO2 meeting required specifications for transport and storage with very low impurities. For point-source capture, technologies must maintain high capture rates under variable operating conditions, matching specific industrial applications and capture technologies.
The scope of this call includes the development of advanced CO2 capture technologies tailored to various capture routes such as solvents, sorbents, membranes, cryogenic processes, and solid looping. The objective is to achieve significant cost reductions while ensuring low environmental impact, particularly regarding water use during the capture processes.
Proposals should address technical challenges such as enhanced absorption and adsorption mechanisms, improved kinetics, and strategies to reduce the energy consumption needed for both CO2 capture and subsequent desorption stages. The development of new materials that exhibit high selectivity toward CO2 is a critical research focus, alongside ensuring operational flexibility, the capacity for modularization, scalability, and optimization of space requirements.
Research must consider the degradation and lifespan of materials used for capture, along with the feasibility of retrofitting existing capture installations. Heat integration within industrial processes and potential solvent-induced corrosion issues need comprehensive evaluation.
For direct air capture technologies, the call encourages the exploration of novel sorbent or solvent materials that provide increased CO2 capture capacities and enhanced long-term stability under conditions of thermal and atmospheric stress. Projects must thoroughly assess potential health and environmental risks, aiming for mitigation strategies that facilitate future scaling.
The technologies developed should be capable of producing CO2 at purity levels suitable for transportation and storage, maintaining extremely low levels of impurities to meet storage specifications. Point-source capture technologies should demonstrate robustness and sustained capture performance across operational variations to ensure process continuity and reliability.
Proposals are encouraged to utilize European research infrastructures for CO2 management (ECCSEL) and to engage in international collaborations, particularly with participants of the Mission Innovation Carbon Dioxide Removal mission. These collaborations aim to foster innovation and accelerate the deployment of effective CO2 capture technologies.
The Commission estimates that an EU contribution of around EUR 6.00 million would allow the outcomes to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of a proposal requesting different amounts.
The total indicative budget for the topic is EUR 18.00 million.
For more information, visit EC.
