ACCeSS

Anthropogenic climate change is mainly caused by aerosol emissions and greenhouse gases, of which CO₂ has the greatest influence. In combustion engines, coal- and gas-fired power plants and industrial processes have caused an increase in atmospheric CO₂ concentrations from atmospheric CO₂ concentration from 280 ppm (pre-industrial) to a record 421 ppm in May 2022. The warming of the climate is associated with changing precipitation patterns, severe weather events and reduced weather predictability. This poses a major challenge for crop production and thus for food security and biodiversity conservation.
Within ACCeSS, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU), Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ), and RWTH Aachen (RWTH) join their forces and expertise in green and white biotechnology as well as membrane biology to tackle this grand challenge of the 21st century – how to cope with and mitigate the effects of global warming. ACCeSS represents a circular approach to deliver solutions and new concepts to make man-made CO₂ manageable. Thereby energy will be used to fix CO₂ in carbohydrates through photosynthesis for a subsequent conversion into high-value or bulk compounds through chemo-/bio-catalysis. ACCeSS will thereby contribute to build foundations in respect to interdisciplinary methodologies/technologies for climate neutral to net CO₂ negative process.