Switzerland now has a dedicated platform for one of the least glamorous but most consequential pieces of its net-zero puzzle: a pipeline network for CO₂. Under the name CO2NNECT, the Swiss Gas Industry Association (VSG), together with Gasverbund Mittelland (GVM) and Ganeos, has brought together companies, associations and authorities to lay the regulatory, financial and technical groundwork for transporting CO₂ by pipeline across the country.

For the Power-to-X community, this is good news – with one important caveat. A CO₂ grid designed only as a one-way disposal route to storage sites would miss half of its potential. Designed well, it can also become the backbone that supplies recycled CO₂ to the plants producing renewable methane, methanol and e-SAF in Switzerland.

Who is behind CO2NNECT

The network’s secretariat sits with the VSG in Zurich. Its steering group reads like a map of Switzerland’s future CO₂ value chain: the cement industry association cemsuisse, the waste-to-energy operators’ association VBSA, the City of Zurich’s waste and recycling department (ERZ), the Basel utility IWB, the gas and water association SVGW, the gas transmission company Gaznat (a SPIN member), and Sidewinder Infrastructure AG (also a SPIN member), alongside the three founding organisations and further partners. The Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) takes part as an observer. The network is open to further companies, authorities and associations.

Why a pipeline grid matters

CO2NNECT starts from a sober premise: if Switzerland takes net zero seriously, it needs carbon capture, utilisation, transport and storage (CCUTS) in sectors where emissions are hard to avoid – waste-to-energy plants, cement production and, depending on developments, parts of the chemical industry. Trucks and rail can move early volumes, but they do not scale to millions of tonnes a year. A pipeline grid can.

The questions the network wants to answer are exactly the ones that determine whether such a grid becomes reality: expected volumes, required purity and pressure, possible routes, safety requirements and the conditions under which anyone will invest. It also aims to coordinate early with European transport networks and storage sites, so that Swiss infrastructure can be integrated rather than stranded.

The Power-to-X angle: a grid that runs both ways

The “U” in CCUTS stands for utilisation, and that is where Power-to-X comes in. Every Power-to-X product that contains carbon – e-methane, e-methanol, e-kerosene – needs CO₂ as a feedstock. Much of the CO₂ from Swiss waste-to-energy plants is biogenic, and recycling it into renewable fuels and chemicals displaces fossil carbon that would otherwise be extracted from the ground.

From SPIN’s perspective, recycled CO₂ from biogenic, atmospheric or industrial sources is a legitimate feedstock – as long as recycling displaces fossil carbon instead of providing a reason to keep burning it. A CO₂ grid that connects emitters not only with storage sites abroad but also with Power-to-X plants at home would turn carbon from a waste stream into a raw material. Pilot projects such as the Power-to-Gas plant of SPIN member Limeco in Dietikon already show that this works; what they lack is reliable, affordable access to CO₂ at scale.

Many of the design decisions that CO2NNECT will prepare in the coming years – specifications, pressure levels, routes and connection points – will determine whether Power-to-X plants can simply plug in later or face costly workarounds. That is why this is the right moment for the Power-to-X sector to get involved.

What SPIN would like to see

  • Off-takers at the table: Power-to-X producers should be represented alongside emitters and storage operators, so that demand for CO₂ as a feedstock is part of grid planning from day one.
  • Compatible specifications: purity and pressure standards should be defined with synthesis processes in mind, not only with geological storage.
  • Connection points where renewable power is available: routes that pass near potential Power-to-X sites, for example close to hydropower or large solar capacity, keep the option of domestic production open.
  • Fair rules for both uses: regulation and carbon accounting should recognise recycled CO₂ in renewable fuels that displace fossil carbon, rather than treating storage as the only climate-relevant destination.

CO2NNECT has made a promising start by bringing the right infrastructure players together. SPIN encourages its members to engage with the network – and stands ready to contribute the Power-to-X perspective, so that Switzerland’s CO₂ grid serves both storage and defossilisation.

Source: CO2NNECT – national network for CO₂ transport in Switzerland, accessed 30 September 2026.

🤖 AI transparency: This text and its visual were created using AI, reviewed and approved by a human.