PRESS RELEASE
Paris, October 14, 2026
France has committed to storing 16 million metric tons of biogenic CO₂ per year by 2050. To date, it has no BioCCS facilities in operation. To bridge this gap, Carbon Impact is launching the BioCCS Center, a knowledge and acceleration hub dedicated to the sector, which will be officially launched on October 14, 2026, at the AFEN Carbon Removal Conference. The Center is supported by the Grand Est Region (through the C2IME acceleration program).
- 16 Mt/year
Biogenic CO₂ to be stored by 2050 (SNBC 3) - ~€3 billion/year
corresponding annual market - 22 Mt/year
Biogenic CO₂ already emitted in France - 0
BioCCS installation in operation in France
A national goal, a sector that does not yet exist
The third National Low-Carbon Strategy, published in July 2026, sets a target of 16 million metric tons of biogenic CO₂ captured and geologically stored each year by 2050 — one of the pillars of France’s carbon neutrality. The raw material already exists: approximately 22 million metric tons of biogenic CO₂ are emitted each year across the country, spread across some 2,000 sites—anaerobic digesters, waste-to-energy facilities, paper mills, distilleries, and bioethanol plants.
The technological building blocks—capture, transport, and geological storage—are mature and already in use. About ten facilities are operational in Europe and around the world. In France, none are in operation. The bottleneck is no longer technological; it lies in implementation—measuring and certifying the tonnage captured, CO₂ logistics, access to storage, and financing.
A third-party service, so you don’t have to pay ten times for the same study
The BioCCS Center pools the resources that each stakeholder would otherwise pay for individually. Its activities are organized into three areas: understanding, through a series of conferences and webinars on regulatory developments; training, through short courses designed for executives, board members, investors, elected officials, and technical teams, which can be combined with visits to operational facilities; and resource sharing, through consolidated cost data from real-world projects, measurement and certification protocols, and monitoring of the European regulatory framework.
“The SNBC 3 has decided: we will need to store 16 million metric tons of biogenic CO₂ per year by 2050, and we’re starting from scratch with no facilities currently in operation. The problem lies not in the technology—the technology is mature, and we have operational experience from a facility in Switzerland. The problem is that there is no established pathway: scattered cost data, the same studies repeated ten times over, and no clear path from a biogas plant to a certified carbon sink. The BioCCS Center exists to chart that path once and for all.”
Karim Rahmani, CEO and co-founder of Carbon Impact, Vice President of AFEN
First Initiative: The BioCCS France Roadmap
The Center is spearheading France’s first BioCCS roadmap, which outlines: exploitable reserves on a site-by-site basis; the sequencing of transportation and storage infrastructure; certification; and deployment milestones. Its initial findings will be presented on October 14, 2026, at a workshop bringing together five major French players in the energy, waste treatment, engineering, gas transportation, and project financing sectors. A consolidated first edition, enriched by contributions from these stakeholders, is scheduled for 2027.
The Center’s work is based on real-world projects: Niederwil in Switzerland, a biomethane facility equipped with a collection line that has been in operation since 2026, on which Carbon Impact served as a consultant; BioCO₂ Nancy, a French pilot project targeting 10,000 metric tons per year across three digesters; NéoStock, a feasibility study on local geological storage in Lorraine conducted with GRDF; and CO2RR, a European project to structure BioCCS value chains between France, Switzerland, and Germany, co-funded by CETPartnership, ADEME, and the Swiss Federal Office of Energy.
An Open Group of Founding Members
Starting October 14, 2026, the BioCCS Center will open a group of founding members, intended for industrial companies that emit biogenic CO₂, infrastructure operators, and financing stakeholders wishing to contribute to its strategic direction. The Center’s work is carried out in collaboration with the University of Lorraine, Eosys, and Airfix Carbon.
About Carbon Impact
Founded in December 2020, Carbon Impact is an independent French developer of BioCCS (bioenergy with carbon capture and storage) projects. Its mission: to transform European biomass and biomethane facilities into permanent carbon sinks by capturing and geologically sequestering the biogenic CO₂ they emit. Carbon Impact is involved in every step of the process, from site identification to the certification of removed carbon. www.carbon-impact.net
About the BioCCS Center
The BioCCS Center is a knowledge and acceleration hub dedicated to the French biogenic CO₂ sector. Initiated, led, and funded by Carbon Impact during its startup phase, it is designed to bring together a group of founding members.
Press Contact
Karim Rahmani — CEO, Carbon Impact · karim.rahmani@carbon-impact.net · www.carbon-impact.net