Launched in the summer of 2019, the IFP School research and teaching chair “Carbon Management and Negative CO₂ Emissions Technologies towards a Low-Carbon Future” (CarMa) was created to address one of today’s major global challenges: reducing CO₂ emissions and developing negative-emission technologies.
The CarMa Chair is currently co-led by Dr. Carlos Andrade, Research Engineer within the Economics and Foresight Division at IFP Energies nouvelles, and Prof. Maxime Schenckery, Director of the Energy Economics and Management Center at IFP School.
Supported by the Fondation Tuck through a sponsorship from OneTech, TotalEnergies’ R&D center, the Chair aims to establish a center of excellence dedicated to carbon management. It also seeks to train a new generation of researchers capable of contributing to the development and deployment of negative-emission technologies.
As the Chair enters its second phase, this article provides an overview of the work completed to date and outlines future perspectives.
An Overview of the Research Conducted by the CarMa Chair
The CarMa Chair explores the technological, economic, environmental, and societal dimensions required to implement effective and sustainable CO₂-reduction solutions.
In its initial phase, the Chair focused its research on assessing the environmental performance of negative-emission technologies, examining their social dimensions, and identifying appropriate economic models to support their deployment.
Three doctoral theses have been completed as part of this initiative:
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Emma Jagu (November 2022): “Addressing climate change with carbon dioxide removal: Insights from industrial economics and cooperative games.” This thesis applied cooperative game theory to examine coordination challenges and benefit-sharing issues associated with deploying negative-emission technologies. It received first prize in the “Societal Impact” category at the Fondation CentraleSupélec IMPACT 2022 thesis awards.
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Florian Auclair (May 2024): His thesis focused on the social acceptability of negative-emission technologies, comparing two bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) projects in Sweden and England.
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Sibylle Duval-Dachary (July 2024): “Assessment of the negative-emission potential of CO₂ utilization technologies.” Her work helped facilitate life-cycle assessments of systems that combine CO₂ utilization technologies with negative-emission approaches.
This research has provided crucial insights into the effectiveness of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) solutions — assessed through life-cycle assessment methods — their potential deployment in the industrial sector, the societal aspects of BECCS, and the economic and sustainability dimensions of negative-emission technologies.
In parallel, the CarMa Chair supported five postdoctoral research projects, further enriching this scientific momentum in collaboration with prestigious international partners such as MIT and Imperial College London.
These academic initiatives have resulted in the publication of more than 12 articles in scientific journals.
The coming months are expected to be particularly productive, as two CarMa doctoral candidates are preparing to defend their theses:
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Siwar Saadaoui (December 2025): Her research analyzes the global-scale location of biomass production for energy purposes in the context of climate and biodiversity constraints. Her thesis was carried out in partnership with AgroParisTech.
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Romain Presty (January 2026): His work focuses on the optimal deployment of carbon-dioxide-removal technologies—BECCS and direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS)—in the North Sea. His thesis was carried out in partnership with CentraleSupélec.
For each research project, the CarMa Chair aims to build academic networks that promote the rapid dissemination of results. As a research and teaching chair, CarMa makes its work available to all interested researchers and industry stakeholders.
Ongoing Research Initiatives to Deepen Emerging Issues
Research efforts are continuing with the launch of a new doctoral project, along with two additional avenues now taking shape:
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Pauline Ascon has just begun her doctoral research on the social acceptability of low-carbon technologies and its implications for long-term prospective modeling. Her PhD is being carried out in partnership with École des Mines in Paris.
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A new doctoral project on the decarbonization of the power system is currently under discussion with CentraleSupélec.
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Similarly, a postdoctoral research project on optimizing biomass supply chains is currently being developed with AgroParisTech.
Recent Activities of the CarMa Chair
The annual CarMa Chair seminar was held on November 19, 2025, at IFP School. The event brought together doctoral students, academic experts, and industry representatives to discuss recent scientific advances and key issues in carbon management.
Researchers from renowned institutions such as AgroParisTech-CIRAD, CentraleSupélec, the University of Michigan and the University of Berlin, as well as industrial leaders such as TotalEnergies, Saint-Gobain, Schneider Electric and EDF, shared their perspectives and discussed concrete solutions to address several major challenges:
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Integration of BECCUS (Bioenergy with carbon capture, utilization or storage) and other low-carbon technologies into industrial supply chains;
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Assessment of policy instruments, such as the European Emissions Trading System, to stimulate emissions reductions;
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Development of optimal pathways for reducing industrial emissions, particularly in the power system;
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Identification of viable business models for sustainable low-carbon pathways;
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Exploration of the societal acceptability of carbon-removal technologies.
These five areas will be explored as part of the research activities undertaken within the framework of phase 2 of the Chair.
This seminar highlighted the complexity and interdependence of the challenges that the CarMa Chair must address in order to effectively support the transition toward decarbonization. The discussions also underscored the urgent need to strengthen cooperation between the academic and industrial sectors with the aim of co-creating new economic models.
For more information about the CarMa Chair, please contact Carlos Andrade and/or Maxime Schenckery.
You can also visit the dedicated LinkedIn page.
Article written by Meyling Siu