Carbon management study for the state of Brandenburg

Cement, lime, waste incineration: Brandenburg wants to remain attractive as a business location. However, its industries still emit too much CO₂. How can the state deal with the unavoidable and difficult-to-avoid emissions and still remain fit for the future?

On behalf of the Brandenburg Ministry of Economic Affairs, we have examined the role that carbon capture and usage/storage (CCU/S) can play on the road to greenhouse gas neutrality in the industrial sector and in thermal waste treatment plants on the basis of two scenarios.

Our data and recommendations enable the state government to decide whether and where it wants to use CO₂ technologies and how extensive the CO₂ infrastructure needs to be.

Locations and infrastructure for CCU/S in Brandenburg

In addition to the decarbonisation options electrification, efficiency, green hydrogen or alternative production processes CO₂ capture and storage can play an important role in achieving climate targets in Brandenburg.

This is shown by our scenarios:

Scenario 1: Alternative transformation scenario with unavoidable emissions

• The scenario focuses on unavoidable (process-related) emissions, with a total of 2.3 megatons of CO₂ equivalents being captured by 2045.
• In this case, Brandenburg needs a CO₂ network 210 kilometers long, connecting the Spree-Neisse, Eisenhüttenstadt and Rüdersdorf clusters.
• In this scenario, the investments amount to 1.7 billion euros for CO₂ capture and the development of a CO₂ infrastructure in Brandenburg.

Scenario 2: CCU/S scenario with unavoidable and difficult-to-avoid emissions

• In this scenario, the difficult-to-avoid emissions are also captured with 6.2 megatons of CO₂ equivalents.
• The Schwedt cluster is also connected here, and the grid has a length of 315 kilometers.
• The investments in this scenario amount to 3.6 billion euros.

Recommendations for sustainable carbon management

Our study has led to the following recommendations for action:

• The state government should develop a carbon management strategy that also includes the potential of negative emissions (including DACCS/BECCS).
• The state government should establish an accompanying process for the carbon management strategy (e. g. stakeholder dialogue) that brings together all stakeholders in a possible future CO₂ economy.
• The state government and senate should define Berlin-Brandenburg as an industrial CCU/S cluster so that the efficiency and speed of setting up a CCU/S value chain is accelerated.
• The state government should set up a working group to coordinate the development of a CO₂ infrastructure and bring together CO₂ emitters, users, network operators and authorities.

Our approach

Prognos took on the project management and content-related work on all technical topics. To do this, we carried out analyses, model calculations and interviews with the most important industrial companies in Brandenburg (e. g. PCK, CEMEX, Arcelor Mittal, EEW).

The project team not only determined the quantities of CO₂ to be captured and transported, but also identified potential locations for CO₂ sources. Their distribution across Brandenburg influences the cost structure and feasibility of a CO₂ infrastructure that encompasses capture, transport, utilisation and storage. We examined possible pipeline systems and their routes and compared them with current plans for a national CO₂ network.

Links and downloads

Go to study (PDF, in German)

More information on the MWAEK website

Press enquiries

For general questions, please contact the MWAEK: poststelle@mwaek.brandenburg.de

For questions regarding methodology, please contact us at: presse@prognos.com

Project team: Moritz Bornemann, Jens Hobohm, Saskia Lengning, Sebastian Lübbers, Dr Fabian Muralter

Last update: 11.06.2025