Carbon Rhine Route project (CO2RR) – an EU Clean Energy Transition Partnership (CETP) project

Building Europe’s first commercial, multi-modal CO₂ transport and storage corridor for inland emitters

The Carbon Rhine Route (CO2RR) project is creating a new pathway for small- to medium-sized biogenic CO₂ emitters in inland Europe to access CCS and CDR. By linking emitters along the Rhine corridor to permanent geological storage sites in the North Sea, CO2RR enables early deployment of BECCS and delivers scalable negative emissions.

 

The project aims to have the first commercial CO₂ volumes transported and stored by 2026 – years ahead of most planned pipeline networks.

CO2RR is structured around five work packages covering the BECCS value chain.
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While CCS deployment in Europe has largely focused on large fossil emitters, many biogenic sources – such as waste-to-energy, biogas and biomass plants – remain excluded due to their size, location and lack of infrastructure access. CO2RR addresses these barriers by:

 

→ Using existing transport modes (truck, rail, barge and ship) instead of waiting for dedicated pipelines

→ Aggregating CO₂ volumes from multiple emitters to reduce costs

→ Establishing framework agreements for CO₂ transport and storage

→ Developing innovative business models and risk-sharing structures tailored to smaller emitters

 

The result is a flexible, replicable model that enables early action and supports regional decarbonisation and carbon removal.

CO2RR brings together key actors across the full CO₂ value chain. By the end of 2026, CO2RR will have demonstrated a fully operational, commercial CO₂ value chain, covering:

 

→ Emitter onboarding and volume roadmaps toward 1 million tCO₂ stored per year by 2030

→ Multi-modal transport solutions linking inland Europe to offshore storage

→ Framework agreements with storage providers to secure long-term capacity

→ Financial and risk-management tools to de-risk first-of-a-kind BECCS projects

→ Open knowledge and templates to support replication across Europe

Consortium partners

  • Airfix_logo_RGB

    Airfix – a subsidiary of climate leader South Pole – combines decades of climate finance and carbon project development expertise with a vision for a scalable Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) market in Europe. Airfix supports biogenic carbon emitters to develop and finance carbon removal and storage, giving investors the confidence to invest in BiCRS while producing certified carbon removal credits, underpinned by significant emissions reductions.

  • CI_LOGO_color-removebg-preview copy

    Carbon Impact is an independent France-based carbon removal developer. The company sequesters biogenic carbon in long-term sinks using standardised modules to capture CO₂ from biomass power plants across Europe. Carbon Impact is a purpose-driven company. Convinced that negative emissions are part of the solution to climate change, their aim is to capture and sequester carbon at megaton scale by 2030.

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  • chemoil-logo

    ChemOil is Switzerland’s leading rail logistics provider specialised in the transport of dangerous goods across Europe. The company designs and operates integrated, door-to-door logistics solutions using rail, road and maritime transport. With long-standing experience handling regulated substances, ChemOil brings deep operational expertise in safety, reliability and cross-border transport.

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  • images

    Northern Lights joins the consortium as a non-funded partner. Northern Lights is a pioneer in offshore CO₂ transport and permanent geological storage in the North Sea. The company is developing the world’s first open-access CO₂ storage infrastructure, offering carbon storage as a service to industrial emitters across Europe. Northern Lights enables the safe, long-term storage of CO₂, supporting both emissions reduction and carbon removal at scale.

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Co-funded by

CO2RR knowledge repository

Together, the consortium is translating CCS and CDR from planning to implementation – with real contracts, real emitters and real storage access. The CO2RR knowledge repository is designed to support replication and scale-up, by sharing public project outputs, including:

Tools & templates

Case studies & pilot learnings

Reports & policy insights

Business model & risk-sharing frameworks

CO2RR knowledge repository

CO2RR is laying the foundations for a new generation of inland CCS and BECCS projects – practical, commercial and ready to scale.