The green transition

Why is CO2 capture only now becoming a part of everyday life?

A new chapter in Denmark's climate efforts will begin when the Danish energy company Ørsted switches on the country's first large-scale CO2 capture plants at two locations. Learn more about the technology and its importance in our efforts to aid the climate.

Professor Philip Fosbøl in front of the household waste-to-energy plant Amager Bakke.
Professor Philip Fosbøl has worked with various players to test pilot plants for CO2 capture, including at the waste-to-energy plant at Amager Bakke, which can be seen in the background. Poto: Mikal Schlosser

Monday 13 April 2026

Miriam Meister

Researchers at DTU, led by Professor Philip Fosbøl, are working intensively to make CO2 capture as efficient as possible. Read about his thoughts on the potential it holds and why Denmark is only now starting to use the technology in earnest.

Why do we even need CO2 capture?

Some people mistakenly believe that we can halt global CO2 emissions by replacing coal and fossil fuels with alternatives and by ceasing all CO2-emitting activities. However, we cannot change all production methods to have zero emissions.

The reality is that even with the most persistent efforts, there are activities that currently account for up to 10 per cent of emissions that cannot be stopped or converted at present. This applies, for example, to cement and steel production or the extraction and processing of silicon, which is used in computer chips and solar cells, among other things. 

We cannot simply do without the products made from these raw materials. Therefore, we must accept that even after we have converted society as much as possible, there will still be quite high CO2 emissions. And this is where CO2 capture comes in, to actively remove the emissions that we currently have no other weapons against.

How does CO2 capture work?

There is no single way of doing it, as there are actually 15-20 radically different approaches. On the one hand, this gives us opportunities, but on the other hand it can be a limitation because we risk investing in technologies that are not optimal.

Some of the technologies are very mature, while others are not at the same level of maturation. The research community is trying to move in both directions: We are further developing and optimizing technologies that are ready or close to being ready for use. At the same time, we are taking a closer look at some of the less mature ideas in order to develop their potential.

Currently, Ørsted will use a wet scrubbing process at two power plants in Avedøre and Asnæs. Here, the smoke from the combustion of wood chips and straw is “washed” by passing it through a liquid that chemically binds the CO2. The CO2 is extracted from the liquid and transported to the Norwegian part of the North Sea, where it is pumped down and deposited underground, while the plant recycles the liquid.

However, climate ambitions are being ramped up towards 2050, when Denmark has set itself the goal of achieving negative emissions. So, if we are to achieve that goal—at that pace—we need to use technologies that can effectively capture CO2 directly from the atmosphere. This will require major investments in research to develop realistic and usable technologies that we can use for this task.

Facts

About CO2 capture

In Ørsted’s new CO2 capture project the company will capture a total of 430,000 tonnes of biogenic CO2 annually over the next 20 years from the Asnæs power plant in Kalundborg and the Avedøre power plant in Hvidovre, respectively. This corresponds to approximately 1 percent of Denmark's current annual greenhouse gas emissions, which amount to 38 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents.

Denmark has set a target of reducing its territorial greenhouse gas emissions by 70 percent  in 2030 compared to 1990 levels. To achieve this goal, the government has allocated DKK 28.7 billion to support projects working with CO2 capture and storage in the next phase.

Sources: Ørsted, Danish Council on Climate Change and the Danish Energy Agency

 

Is it profitable to capture CO2?

As a society, we must accept CO2 capture and storage as an activity on a par with waste management or wastewater treatment. It is not a business that sells a profit-making product, but a service that companies must pay to use. 

The problem is that for too long it has been a free ride: everyone has been allowed to emit CO2 without having to pay for it, which we now realize was unwise. By introducing legislation that requires companies to pay to get rid of something that otherwise damages the climate, it suddenly becomes profitable for companies to bid on the task of capturing and storing CO2.

Why aren't we already capturing CO2 on a large scale?

It is a notorious problem for investment in climate technology that it always ends up taking a back seat. In the 2000s, there was generally a lot of focus on CO2 capture and the climate. But then a financial crisis suddenly got in the way, and a few years ago a war machine got in the way, and suddenly military hardware became a higher priority.

I get it as it is difficult to argue for long-term investment in CO2 capture when someone wants to bomb your house. But on the other hand, we cannot keep waiting.

We must deal with several threats at once, and no matter what else happens in the world, we know that the price of not doing enough to save the climate will be, for example, some very real and expensive floods.

Fortunately, Denmark has stuck to its political decision to reduce greenhouse gases by 70 percent by 2030, despite everything else that is going on. However, I am concerned that politicians are forgetting to invest in the research needed for the green transition.

Does the seriousness of the situation call for us to try out some wilder ideas to save the climate?

In fact, a lot of ideas have been conceived in the field of geoengineering, which covers, among other things, technical interventions aimed at influencing the climate. CO2 capture and storage falls within this field.

But it is a balancing act, because in a way the situation requires us to think big and come up with wild ideas—and at the same time we must be careful not to save the climate at the expense of the environment.

Some have, for example, suggested releasing sulphur into the atmosphere to create clouds. We know that this reduces the temperature on Earth, because it sometimes happens when we have a volcanic eruption. But it is crazy, because it will cause acid rain. So, we will have saved the climate and destroyed the environment. That is not a lifeline for our planet.

I believe we should focus on technologies that are not crazy. In my view, it is therefore prudent for the authorities to work on getting more CO2 capture plants up and running in Denmark—because we know it works! And then we must hope there are players who will bid for the task under the current conditions, or that the framework for the task will be changed so that someone ends up taking it on.

Facts

About the research

Professor Philip Fosbøl is head of a research group at DTU Chemical Engineering. CO2 is the focus of the group's research activities, which include developing:

  • optimal liquids for use in CO2 capture systems so that the process of cleaning the smoke and then removing CO2 from the liquid uses as little energy and water as possible.
  • new technologies that use the Power-to-X principle to produce green materials for aviation, for example.

In their research, the researchers use both laboratory work—including at DTU’s Pilot Plant, where the group conducts research into pilot-scale CO2 capture plants—and mathematical modelling to simulate various chemical processes.

The group collaborates with many Danish and international companies to develop new technology for use in the fight against climate change. Ørsted is involved in several pilot plants with DTU and is also at the forefront of AI applications in developing new principles for CO2 capture. 

 

Contact

Philip Loldrup Fosbøl

Philip Loldrup Fosbøl Professor Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Phone: +45 45252868

Climate technology