TR EN

Turning Türkiye’s potential for durable carbon removal into regional leadership.

Read on for the detail, or get in touch.

CDR technologies Contact

Position

Türkiye’s primary address for durable carbon removal.

CDR Türkiye is an independent platform connecting policy, industry, finance, and research to accelerate durable carbon removal across Türkiye and the wider region.

The initiative focuses on supply-side market readiness across industrial pathways (cement, steel, chemicals etc.) as well as land-based and ocean-based solutions (biochar, enhanced rock weathering, ocean alkalinity enhancement, macroalgae cultivation etc.). By delivering verified knowledge and bringing key stakeholders together, it establishes the groundwork for regional CDR leadership.

The outcomes CDR Türkiye wants to see in Türkiye by 2030.

  1. 01 Carbon removal readiness assessment
  2. 02 National strategy for CDR
  3. 03 Demand creation
  4. 04 Financing for pilot projects
  5. 05 ETS integration
  6. 06 Regional partnerships
Explore Compass 2030

01 Scope

Bridging policy, industry, and finance to develop durable carbon removal across Türkiye and the region.

  • Knowledge & Insights

    Publishing accessible analysis, hosting events and mapping the regional ecosystem, in Turkish and English. Every figure comes with its source.

  • Community Building

    Bringing public institutions, industry, finance and research to the same table, including those who could become project developers. Drawing on the diaspora for expertise, capital and market access.

  • Strategic Engagement

    Informing industry leaders, investors, and decision-makers with actionable CDR insights. Evaluating where genuine regional advantages exist and providing realistic analysis on technical and economic readiness.

  • Market Building

    Clearing the way for the first bankable pilots, offtake structures and the policy groundwork behind them.

02 Regional potential

An untapped market with high potential for durable carbon removal and broad co-benefits.

Türkiye and the wider region hold significant untapped potential for durable carbon removal. Abundant agricultural biomass, rich mineral resources for enhanced rock weathering and mineralization, and expanding clean energy infrastructure create ideal conditions for scaling pathways like biochar, mineralization, and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage in industry. Beyond carbon removal, these solutions deliver essential co-benefits, from enhancing agricultural soil health and water retention to accelerating industrial decarbonization.

Co-benefits

  • Soil health
  • Water retention
  • Industrial decarbonization
  1. Agricultural biomass Biochar Crop residues become biochar through pyrolysis; the carbon is mixed into the soil and stays there.
  2. Mineral formations Permanent storage In reactive rock such as basalt, CO2 turns into carbonate minerals like calcite.
  3. Wind, solar, geothermal Direct air capture Clean power can run plants that capture CO2 from the air; the captured CO2 goes to storage.
  4. Developed agriculture Enhanced rock weathering Ground rock spread on fields binds CO2 from the air with rainwater.
The numbers in the animation match the boxes below.

03 Market approach

Unlocking the market from the supply side.

Global demand for durable carbon removal is emerging, but high-quality regional supply remains limited. The most direct entry point for Türkiye and the wider region is to build robust, verified project supply. Establishing clear standards, pilot projects, and regional cooperation today prepares local industries and land managers to supply both domestic decarbonization needs and international markets.

  1. Enabling policies and regulations Public frameworks that recognise and reward durable carbon removal
  2. Clear standards Measurement, reporting and verification thresholds
  3. Pilot projects The first bankable deployments
  4. Regional cooperation Industry, land managers and finance at one table
  5. International markets A leading position through technology transfer and credit exports

04 Türkiye’s potential

Türkiye’s potential for durable carbon removal

Türkiye possesses unique natural and industrial conditions for durable carbon removal. The country’s hard-to-abate industrial sectors, including cement, steel, and chemicals, require durable carbon removal solutions to address unavoidable process emissions as carbon pricing systems take effect.

These industrial requirements are matched by significant physical assets. Over 24 million hectares of agricultural land offer scale for biochar application and enhanced rock weathering. Beneath the surface, olivine-rich geological formations allow for permanent mineral carbonation, while depleted oil and gas fields and deep saline formations provide long-term geological storage capacity. Combined with expanding clean energy infrastructure and abundant organic waste streams, these assets create the foundation for high-quality, regional carbon removal supply.

Source: TurkStat, Agricultural and forest areas 1988–2024, 2024 data, provisional

Cement, concrete and construction

Türkiye’s cement plants, ready-mix and precast network, demolition-material stream and large construction market form a single platform. The methods in this family either capture and store biogenic CO2, turn atmospheric CO2 into stable carbonate, or embed durable biogenic carbon in long-lived building materials.

  • BECCS in cement production First of a kind
    1. Sustainable biomass and biogenic waste
    2. Kiln firing and CO2 capture
    3. Permanent geological storage

    Part of the fossil fuel burned in the kiln is replaced with sustainable biomass and verified biogenic waste, and the resulting CO2 is captured and permanently stored. Capturing the limestone process emissions reduces emissions; what delivers removal is capturing and storing the net biogenic share.

    What it could build on in Türkiye

    Cement capacity and biomass sit in the same country. The Black Sea coast supplies hazelnut shells and prunings, the Aegean olive pits and pomace, and the southern Çukurova plain and Central Anatolia cereal, maize and sunflower straw. Cities add sewage sludge and the biogenic fraction of non-recyclable waste. The missing link is storage: no site is injection-ready yet.

    Source: TÜRKÇİMENTO Bahadıroğlu et al., YYU J. Agricultural Sciences TurkStat, Waste Statistics 2024

  • Biochar as a cement additive Pilot scale
    1. Finely milled biochar
    2. Void filling in the cement matrix
    3. Biogenic carbon held inside the structure

    Finely milled biochar fills microscopic voids in the cement matrix, while its porous structure absorbs mixing water and releases it gradually as the concrete cures. In a well-designed mix those two effects lower the clinker share while holding biogenic carbon inside the structure.

    What it could build on in Türkiye

    Feedstock is not the constraint; mix standards and contaminant testing are. Post-earthquake reconstruction and the country’s continuing urban renewal programme create room to trial blocks, pavers and kerbs at meaningful volume. That is where performance and carbon-accounting evidence can be built before structural concrete.

    Source: THBB, 2025 Ready Mixed Concrete Sector Report

  • Biochar as concrete aggregate Pilot scale
    1. Biosolids and organic waste
    2. High-temperature pyrolysis
    3. Aggregate in concrete and asphalt

    Biochar made from biosolids and organic waste replaces part of the aggregate in concrete and asphalt. Because high-temperature pyrolysis targets difficult contaminants such as PFAS, a residue whose application to food-producing soil is contested can find a use in construction instead.

    What it could build on in Türkiye

    Municipal wastewater plants produced 353 thousand tonnes of sludge dry matter in 2024, and those plants sit inside or beside the same metropolitan areas as ready-mix production. Short haulage is what makes the lifecycle arithmetic work. Verified thermal treatment and contaminant testing remain the condition of entry, in construction as much as in agriculture.

    Source: TurkStat, Waste Statistics 2024

  • Carbonation of recycled concrete Commercial operation
    1. Demolition concrete
    2. Crushing, separation, CO2 exposure
    3. Stable calcium carbonate

    Demolition concrete is crushed and separated into recycled aggregate and cement-rich fines, then exposed to CO2. Calcium compounds in the old cement paste convert to stable calcium carbonate, and the carbonation also lowers porosity and water absorption, improving aggregate quality.

    What it could build on in Türkiye

    Early estimates put the rubble from the February 2023 earthquakes at between 116 and 210 million tonnes, with continuing demolition from urban renewal on top of it. Debris-processing facilities in Hatay and Kahramanmaraş already do the separation work, so the ground a carbonation step would be added to already exists. Concrete has to be separated from asbestos and mixed materials before any higher-value processing.

    Source: UNDP Türkiye, earthquake rubble

  • CO2-mineralized ready-mix and precast concrete Commercial operation
    1. Atmospheric or verified biogenic CO2
    2. Fresh mix, precast curing or additive
    3. Stable solid carbonate

    CO2 is injected into the fresh mix, used to cure precast products, or first reacted with calcium- or magnesium-rich minerals to make a carbon-storing additive. All three routes convert the CO2 into stable solid carbonate, and mineralization densifies the concrete microstructure along the way.

    What it could build on in Türkiye

    The ready-mix sector grew production 7.7% in 2025 to an estimated 140 million m³ across plants distributed nationwide, which is an immediate platform for equipment retrofits and drop-in additives. Factory-controlled precast production is a favourable setting for CO2 curing. The decisive question is where the injected CO2 comes from: unless it is atmospheric or verified biogenic, there is no removal.

    Source: THBB, 2025 Ready Mixed Concrete Sector Report

Industrial and mineral residues

Steel, mining, fertiliser, alumina and mineral industries generate large, concentrated streams of slag, ash, tailings, quarry fines and alkaline process residues. The methods in this family react atmospheric or biogenic CO2 with those calcium- and magnesium-rich materials and lock the carbon into stable carbonate minerals.

  • Mine tailings mineralization Pilot scale
    1. Magnesium-rich tailings and waste rock
    2. Managed aeration, turning, irrigation
    3. Stable magnesium carbonates

    Magnesium-rich tailings and waste rock take CO2 from the air under managed aeration, turning or irrigation, and minerals such as brucite, olivine and serpentine lock the carbon into stable magnesium carbonates. Because the material was already crushed and ground during mineral processing, it arrives as a ready-made feedstock without a fresh extraction burden.

    What it could build on in Türkiye

    Chromite-bearing belts run through Elazığ, Erzincan, Bursa, Adana, Muğla, Eskişehir and Kayseri, and nickel-processing residues and olivine-rich quarry waste are the strongest first candidates. The starting point has to be mineralogical screening and baseline uptake measurement: how reactive any given heap is cannot be known without field testing.

  • Coal ash mineralization First of a kind
    1. Fly ash and bottom ash
    2. Carbonation with atmospheric CO2
    3. Cementitious input, fill, mine backfill

    Reactive calcium and magnesium in fly ash and bottom ash bind atmospheric CO2 and convert it into stable carbonate. Carbonation also lowers the ash’s alkalinity and reduces the mobility of some contaminants, and the treated material can serve as a cementitious input, construction fill or stabilised mine backfill.

    What it could build on in Türkiye

    Thermal power plants generated 26.5 million tonnes of waste in 2024; ash and slag were 84.6% of the non-hazardous share, and 86.9% of the total stayed in ash mountains, ash dams or controlled landfill. In Afşin-Elbistan, Soma, Zonguldak, Tunçbilek, Çan and Muğla those deposits sit alongside existing plants, equipment and a workforce that coal transition will otherwise strand. Performance depends on each ash deposit’s chemistry, so no single national coefficient exists.

    Source: TurkStat, Waste Statistics 2024

  • Steel slag mineralization Commercial operation
    1. Steel slag
    2. Managed air exposure or engineered system
    3. Carbonate and non-expanding aggregate

    The calcium- and magnesium-rich residue of steelmaking converts CO2 into carbonate, either through managed exposure to ambient air or in engineered systems fed with a CO2 stream. Carbonation also cuts the free lime and magnesia that make slag expand, which widens its usefulness as an aggregate.

    What it could build on in Türkiye

    Of the 38.1 million tonnes of crude steel produced in 2025, 27.5 million tonnes came from electric arc furnaces. Slag is already processed in Türkiye for roads, asphalt, cement and construction materials, so the logistics and the market exist. Most industrial development so far has used concentrated point-source CO2; that is capture, not removal.

    Source: Turkish Steel Producers' Association, 2025 crude steel output

  • Waste gypsum mineralization First of a kind
    1. Phosphogypsum and industrial gypsum
    2. Calcium separated, reacted with captured CO2
    3. Calcium carbonate and recovered sulfate

    Calcium is separated from phosphogypsum and other industrial gypsum residues and reacted with CO2 captured from the air. The carbon becomes stable calcium carbonate while the sulfate can be recovered as sulfuric acid or another useful chemical.

    What it could build on in Türkiye

    Phosphoric-acid and fertiliser production concentrates in Bandırma and Samsun on the coast and Mazıdağ in the south-east. Those plants both generate gypsum residue and consume sulfuric acid, which is where the possibility of a closed industrial loop comes from. Phosphogypsum can carry naturally occurring radioactivity, so its composition has to be tested in detail before any use.

  • Soda ash–enabled mineralization First of a kind
    1. Sodium carbonate and calcium-rich residues
    2. Alkalinity reacting with CO2
    3. Precipitated calcium carbonate and bicarbonate

    The alkalinity of sodium carbonate and bicarbonate (or of the calcium-rich residues of soda ash production) reacts with CO2 to form stable carbonate minerals. The resulting precipitated calcium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate have established markets in construction, glass and chemicals.

    What it could build on in Türkiye

    The trona deposits around Beypazarı, Kazan and Sincan near Ankara come with integrated mining, solution extraction and refining capacity. Natural soda ash is a lower-carbon starting point than the energy-intensive synthetic route. The calcium that actually mineralizes has to be sourced separately: soda ash on its own does not take carbon out of the air.

  • Red mud mineralization Laboratory
    1. Bauxite residue
    2. Carbonation on natural alkalinity
    3. Stable carbonate, less caustic residue

    The natural alkalinity of bauxite residue converts atmospheric CO2 into stable carbonate minerals. Carbonation tones down the residue’s extreme alkalinity, which is caustic, and that also makes it safer to manage. Most work to date has used concentrated industrial CO2; validation of the atmospheric route is at an early stage.

    What it could build on in Türkiye

    Seydişehir is Türkiye’s only fully integrated aluminium plant and holds both fresh and stored residue on one site, which simplifies testing the material, piloting, and measuring, reporting and verifying the removal. Because red-mud chemistry varies considerably from site to site, storage capacity can only be established by measurement in place.

  • Olivine and dunite fines mineralization Laboratory
    1. Olivine and dunite fines
    2. Weathering on exposure to air and water
    3. Dissolved bicarbonate or magnesium carbonates

    Magnesium-rich quarry fines, crushing dust and off-spec material weather when exposed to air and water, converting atmospheric carbon into dissolved bicarbonate or stable magnesium carbonates. Removal rates depend on particle size, moisture, mineral purity and deployment conditions.

    What it could build on in Türkiye

    Large olivine- and dunite-bearing formations occur around Kızıldağ near Antalya, Orhaneli near Bursa and Karsantı near Adana, with further magnesium-rich rock resources in Muğla and Erzincan. Türkiye already mines, crushes, grades and markets this material. Quarry residue should come first: extracting fresh rock solely for removal spends part of the benefit before the process starts.

Other integration opportunities

The agricultural residue base, geothermal resources, industrial waste heat and prospective storage geology open two routes at once: converting biomass into a stable carbon product, and taking CO2 directly from ambient air before storing it permanently in geological formations or reactive minerals.

  • Biochar for soils Commercial operation
    1. Crop residues and other biomass
    2. Low-oxygen pyrolysis
    3. Stable biochar in the soil

    Crop residues and other biomass become a stable, carbon-rich material through low-oxygen pyrolysis. On suitable soils biochar can improve structure, retain nutrients and increase plant-available water, though the size of each effect varies with soil texture, dose and feedstock.

    What it could build on in Türkiye

    Primary residues left in the field come to 39.4 million tonnes a year and processing residues to 6.8 million tonnes, while the energy ministry’s atlas puts the economic energy equivalent of collectable residues and waste at roughly 3.9 Mtoe a year. Distinct regional supply chains are available: hazelnut shells on the Black Sea coast, rice and sunflower residues in Thrace, maize stalks in Central Anatolia, olive-processing waste in the Aegean and Mediterranean. The benefit is crop-specific: the same biochar can help one crop and not another.

    Source: Bahadıroğlu et al., YYU J. Agricultural Sciences Turkish Ministry of Energy, biomass page

  • Direct air capture with permanent storage First of a kind
    1. Ambient air
    2. Contactor, sorbent and regeneration
    3. Geological formation or reactive rock

    Engineered contactors bind CO2 from ambient air on a solid sorbent or in a liquid solvent, and heat or vacuum then regenerates the material and releases a concentrated CO2 stream. That stream can be stored in deep geological formations or turned into carbonate in reactive rock. The technology remains energy-intensive and costly.

    What it could build on in Türkiye

    A national study calculates roughly 71 PJ of industrial waste heat for 2019; the usable share is smaller and site-specific, but it is a solid basis for screening cement, steel, refining and chemical sites. Türkiye also ranks fourth in the world on geothermal power at 1,797 MW. On the storage side, capacity calculated for oil and gas fields comes to 108 Mt, and detailed study of the reservoir rock, test wells, a permitting regime and monitoring all stand between that figure and an injection-ready site.

    Source: Ates and Ozcan, Int. J. Hydrogen Energy ThinkGeoEnergy REC Türkiye

Maturity shows the state of play worldwide, not in Türkiye: a method can be commercial elsewhere and untried here.

05 Evidence base

Across eight categories the claims are similar; the evidence is not.

CDR Türkiye presents eight durable carbon removal pathways here, all intended to store carbon for centuries to millennia. Each category page sets out its technology types, application areas, how they work, and what their durability claims rest on.

Compare the eight categories

  • Direct Air Capture

    DAC/DACCS

    Direct air capture is a family of systems that pass atmospheric air over a sorbent or through a solvent, bind the CO2 chemically, and store the concentrated gas geologically.

  • Biochar

    Biochar is the porous, stable solid carbon left when biomass is heated in the absence of oxygen.

  • Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage

    BECCS

    BECCS captures the CO2 released when biomass is converted to energy and stores it geologically.

  • Biomass Carbon Removal and Storage

    BiCRS

    BiCRS is a family of methods that ties the carbon biomass took from the air to a store it will not return from: the biomass is either kept whole in conditions that halt decay, or processed so that its carbon moves into a geological or mineral store.

  • Enhanced Rock Weathering

    ERW

    Enhanced rock weathering spreads crushed silicate rock on land or coastline to accelerate a natural weathering reaction.

  • Mineralization

    Mineralization is the reaction of CO2 with calcium- and magnesium-bearing rock to form solid carbonate.

  • Ocean-based Removal

    Ocean-based removal is a family of methods that accelerate oceanic CO2 uptake by raising alkalinity or by helping marine life carry carbon into deep water.

  • Geological Storage

    Geological storage injects compressed CO2 into porous formation at 800–2,500 metres depth, where an impermeable seal holds it in place.

06 Latest

News and publications

All

07 Contact

Partner with CDR Türkiye

Whether you are developing projects, designing policy frameworks, or exploring regional investment opportunities, get in touch to collaborate.

Get in touch