Marco was a professor of process engineering at ETH Zurich for over 27 years, one of his main fields being the development of carbon dioxide capture and storage systems. His accolades include: lead author of the IPCC Special Report on CCS, President of the International Adsorption Society, and Chairman of the Board of the Energy Science Center of the ETH Zurich. He was a contributor to the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 awarded to the IPCC, the recipient in 2014 of an honorary doctorate from the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, and the SINTEF and NTNU CCS Award in 2021. He has published over 450 papers with more than 25,000 citations and has mentored 60+ doctoral students.
Neustark’s founder and co-CEO Johannes Tiefenthaler says, “Marco is a leading expert in the whole CCS vale chain, including geological storage, not only in Switzerland but also across borders. He has always been passionate about making the permanent storage of CO₂ a wide-scale reality, from research to practice. We are elated to have him join neustark to propel our efforts of expanding the potential of durable CO₂ storage, including by developing geological storage both locally as well as abroad.”
Marco Mazzotti states, “There is still so much to do to halt climate change and to prevent the cost of preserving our habitat from becoming even greater. Climate technologies have generated great first momentum – but we need to implement such solutions faster, and need to break the political, societal and technological barriers to do so. I’m excited to join neustark to do exactly that: help to scale the permanent storage of CO₂.”
Permanently capturing and storing CO₂
Neustark’s vision is to make a scalable climate impact by permanently storing residual CO₂. Permanent carbon removal refers to human activities removing CO₂ from the atmosphere and storing it for several centuries (as per EU and IPCC definitions). A stable net zero state can only be realized if the world’s residual emissions – those emissions that stem from fossil fuel usage that cannot be reduced – are counterbalanced by permanent elimination.
Storing carbon permanently can be achieved through binding CO₂ into products or waste materials such as construction demolition waste. The storage of CO₂ via accelerated mineralization in mineral waste is neustark’s area of expertise. The Swiss carbon removal specialist operates 31 capture and storage sites across Europe and continues to scale its core solution of capturing CO₂ at point-source and storing it locally in demolition concrete and slags.
CO₂ can also be stored in the underground – known as geological storage –, which is also an area that neustark has tapped into. Neustark played a leading role in DemoUpCARMA (“Demonstration and Upscaling of Carbon Dioxide Management Solutions for a Net-Zero Switzerland”) – a research project coordinated by ETH Zurich under Marco Mazzotti –, which explored the commercial and political feasibility of capturing CO₂ in Switzerland and transporting it to Iceland for underground storage. Neustark has also won several subsurface storage projects: For the Climate Cent Foundation, neustark is storing 16.500 tonnes in mineral waste and 13.000 tonnes via geological storage. For the city of Zurich, which has a 2040 net zero target, neustark will store 25.000 tonnes of biogenic CO₂ captured at the city’s sewage sludge incineration – also both in construction demolition waste and geologically.
Storing residual CO₂ in the underground – both locally and at a distance
Johannes Tiefenthaler states, “Storing CO₂ in the underground has massive potential to help achieve our net zero goals. As a company specializing in capturing and durably storing CO₂ via mineralization, we need and want to contribute to exploring this potential – all whilst, of course, continuing to scale our solution of working with recyclers to store residual CO₂ in construction demolition waste.”
Marco Mazzotti adds, “In some regions like the Nordics, storing CO₂ in the underground is already a reality, though the capacity is still limited. This requires transporting CO₂ thousands of kilometers for storage. Next to exploring ways to make this capture, transport, and storage at a distance commercially viable, we also need to explore local geological storage.”
Neustark is a partner in the pilot and demonstration project for local CO₂ injection in Switzerland “CITru”, led by the ETH Zurich and supported by the Federal Offices of Energy, Environment and Topography swisstopo. The project, launched in 2024, examines the feasibility of CO₂ injection tests through a disused borehole in the municipality of Trüllikon near Zurich.