UNICO₂RN – Converting Biogenic CO₂ into Proteins and Bioplastics

Why valorise biogenic CO₂?

Biogenic CO₂ is released during biomass processing, fermentation, and organic waste treatment. Because it is part of the short-term carbon cycle, it does not add new carbon to the atmosphere. UNICO₂RN uses this CO₂ source to produce:

• microbial proteins for food and animal feed
• PHA biopolymers for biodegradable and durable material applications.

In doing so, the project shows how bio-based industries can turn inevitable CO₂ emissions into new market-ready products. 

Combining advanced CO₂ capture with bioconversion

UNICO₂RN integrates two complementary technologies to enable efficient CO₂ utilisation:

• Metal–organic-framework (MOF)-based CO₂ capture, delivering highpurity biogenic CO₂ from point sources
• Aerobic gas fermentation, where hydrogenoxidising bacteria convert CO₂ and hydrogen into microbial biomass and biopolymers.

The system is designed to be modular and flexible, capable of processing CO₂ streams with different concentrations and purities.  

Two industrial demonstration sites will showcase the full process—capture, bioconversion, and downstream processing—under nearcommercial conditions (TRL 7).

Focus on safety, sustainability and realworld impact

UNICO₂RN complements technological development with comprehensive assessments, including:

• life cycle analysis (LCA)
• technoeconomic analysis (TEA)
• environmental and safety evaluations
• social impact assessment.

These evaluations support safe process design, responsible scale-up and alignment with emerging EU sustainability and certification frameworks for CO₂-based products.

Funding 

UNICO₂RN is funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement No. 10121426.