The CDRterra research projects

In the second phase of CDRterra, 17 collaborative research projects across Germany investigate land-based carbon dioxide removal (CDR) approaches, including their feasibility, impacts and limitations. The projects have been launching gradually since November 2025 and build on the findings of the first funding phase.

While Phase 1 primarily examined scientific foundations, potentials and risks, the focus now shifts more strongly towards questions of practical relevance: Under what conditions could these approaches be deployed? What infrastructure would be required? How can CO₂ removals be reliably quantified and assessed? And what impacts might be expected?

Research Areas of the Consortia

The projects cover a broad range of approaches to removing CO₂ from the atmosphere, including:

Carbon storage in forests and wood products
Soil carbon sequestration
Use of plant-based feedstocks for long-term carbon storage in materials
Biochar from biomass
Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS)
Enhanced weathering of rocks
Direct Air Capture technologies
Artificial photosynthesis

In addition, selected consortia investigate cross-cutting issues such as policy frameworks and governance instruments. Uncertainties and knowledge gaps are explicitly considered.

Cross-Project Synthesis

The collaborative project CDRSynTra2 links the work of the individual consortia. It synthesises results across projects, enables comparability between approaches and identifies further research needs. It also serves as the central interface to the research mission CDRmare, which investigates marine CDR approaches.

Furthermore, CDRSynTra2 examines how carbon dioxide removal is perceived in society and how research findings can be communicated effectively. Based on this work, it develops information, education and dialogue formats and supports exchange between science, policy and the broader public.

Objective of Phase 2

The second phase aims to determine which land-based CDR approaches could realistically be deployed, under which conditions, and how their impacts can be assessed on a scientific basis.

Detailed information on our consortia is provided below. Consortia from the first, completed phase of CDRterra are indicated by (1).

ABCDR – 1

Potentials of and decision making on agroforestry

BioCas

Multi-level governance of CDR with biomass and its utilisation in cascades.

BioFleCCS

CDR upgrade for biogas plants to biorefineries: Innovative CCS technologies and steam methane reforming for the flexible production of negative emissions, biohydrogen, biomethane, electricity and heat.

BioNET – 1

Multi-stage assessment of biobased negative emission technologies

CDR-PoEt – 1

Carbon Dioxide Removal Options: Policies and Ethics

CDRSynTra – 1

Designing sensible paths of CDR deployment in Germany requires a profound knowledge base that comprehensively evaluates possible CDR measures

CDRSynTra2

Robust pathways for deploying carbon dioxide removal

DAC-TALES – 1

Direct Air Capture – Transdisciplinary Assessment Combining Labs, the Environment, the Economy, and Society

DACCUSS-Pre – 1

Building materials made of CO₂-based carbon fiber and CO₂-absorbing rock for the use and storage of permanently sequestered carbon

ForestOvershoot

How much, when, and under what conditions can forests and the use of wood in Germany remove CO₂.

GONASIP – 1

Control of multiscale heterogeneities to activate natural carbon sink potentials

MisCO2

Active and long-term binding of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere in construction and insulation materials of miscanthus (Chinese silver grass).

NETPEC – 1

Negative Emission Technologies based on Photoelectrochemical Methods

PyMiCCS – 1

Pyrogenic carbon and carbonating minerals for enhanced plant growth and carbon capture and storage

RESET

To identify technical and socio-economic hurdles, and strategies to overcome them, in the application of Enhanced Weathering for the removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide

RetroCO2L

Proof-of-Concept for Retrofit of industrial cooling towers for direct air capture.

SESACOO

Selective carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere using electrochemical swing adsorption on sustainable carbon materials.

STEPSEC – 1

Comparative evaluation of the potential of terrestrial methods to remove carbon dioxide