Expert presentations at the members’ evening: CO2 storage is becoming topical again

Board member Dr. Emanuel Grün formally bid farewell

At the h2-netzwerk-ruhr members’ evening on December 7, held in the “Schwarzkaue” of the former Schlägel & Eisen colliery in Herten, the focus was on carbon, which will continue to play an important role even in a world without fossil fuels.

Philipp Speiser from Air Liquide presented his company’s activities in the field of Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS). In his assessment, this topic has shed its “dirty image” and is being promoted on a broad front as a necessary technology for climate protection. Specifically, Air Liquide will offer emitters at CO2 emission hotspots the construction of plants to capture carbon dioxide and transport it to future storage sites. These will be located predominantly in depleted gas fields in the North Sea off the coasts of Norway and the Netherlands. In some sectors—such as the cement and lime industries as well as thermal waste treatment—CO2 will continue to be emitted for some time to come.

In a second expert presentation, Dr. Oliver Busch presented Evonik’s activities in establishing a material carbon cycle. This is gaining importance precisely because fossil carbon sources will no longer be available in the future. The focus of these considerations is the recycling of a wide variety of materials, for which Evonik produces and further develops specialty chemicals for processing. One statement from his presentation was: “No product is so good that it cannot be made even better.” With this, he was also alluding to Evonik’s activities to increase the efficiency of membranes for electrolyzers and fuel cells.

This well-attended members’ evening also provided the setting for the formal farewell of the founding member of h2-netzwerk-ruhr e.V., Dr. Emanuel Grün.

Emanuel Grün was active in the h2-netzwerk-ruhr as a representative of the Emscher-Genossenschaft, where he served as Technical Board Member until November 30, 2022, and held the position of Deputy Chairman there for 14 years.

Volker Lindner, Chairman of the network, thanked Dr. Grün for his many years of commitment. He highlighted the excellent cooperation and Grün’s reliable accessibility, noting that despite his intensive professional commitments, he had always stood by the network on important issues. As a small “thank you” for his voluntary work, Emanuel Grün received a voucher for climbing equipment. This is his passion: high-alpine climbing.

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