Related article: Yes, carbon capture and storage is controversial—but it’s going to be crucial

deepC Store and Azuli have been awarded two GHG acreages in waters off the coast of Australia. J-POWER intends to become a joint venture participant in the GHG Acreages, which have the potential to permanently store up to 1 billion tonnes of CO2.

J-Power executive officer Akira Yabumoto said, “We are excited to work with deepC Store and Azuli on CCS development.

“We expect that this development will contribute providing a valuable option to Japan and Australia as well as the surrounding region to reduce CO2.

“CCS will play a critical role in J-Power’s Blue Mission 2050, as well as global energy transitions. We will continue pursuing opportunities for CCS development and carbon reduction with CCS.”

Related article: Genex agrees to takeover bid by J-POWER

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) involves capturing, transporting and storing greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel power stations, energy intensive industries, and gas fields by injecting the captured greenhouse gases back into the ground.

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The funding round was led by local and global leaders in energy, construction and chemical manufacturing including Woodside Energy, Cemex Ventures, and a major petrochemical company.

Related article: Yes, carbon capture and storage is controversial—but it’s going to be crucial

Founded in 2021, KC8 provides essential, yet hard to decarbonise, industries such as cement, steel, power generation and chemical production with a lower-cost, and lower potential environmental impact CO2 capture technology compared to conventional amine-based processes.

Its technology can capture up to 95% of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from heavy industrial sources at a capital cost up to 50% lower than amine-based solutions and at an improved energy efficiency of up to 15%.

Traditionally, the Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) industry uses amine-based solvents on these hard-to-abate industries. KC8 has developed a proprietary non-toxic solvent that’s derived from a naturally-occurring material. This allows KC8’s technology to treat low pressure, high volumes exhaust gases at lower cost to help these industries meet their net zero targets.

Woodside vice president carbon solutions Jayne Baird said KC8 technology had the potential to assist Woodside’s efforts to reduce emissions from its operations.

Related article: Woodside launches carbon capture and utilisation pilot

“As a global energy company, we understand the need to innovate and develop efficient and cost-effective ways to produce safe, lower carbon, affordable and reliable energy through the energy transition,” she said.

“We want to ensure we enable the technological innovation required to do this.”

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Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar are vital tools to help us make cuts to the 36 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases we emit each year.

But renewables alone can’t get us to net zero. Sectors such as cement, steel and chemical manufacturing produce significant carbon dioxide emissions difficult to eliminate through renewable energy alone.

This is why carbon capture, utilisation and storage has a place. This technology—invented by the oil and gas industry—is the best solution we have at present to capture these emissions at their source, before they can escape to the atmosphere.

Environmentalists have long been sceptical of carbon capture, warning it could be used to prolong fossil fuel dependence. That’s a matter for policy—the science is clear. We will need to capture carbon for the time being.

While essential, the roll out of carbon capture is sluggish. As a new report shows, we’re removing just two billion tonnes of CO₂ from the atmosphere each year—and almost all of that is by planting trees. Carbon capture accounts for less than 0.1% so far.

Related article: Australia now has a $70 ‘shadow price’ on carbon emissions. Here’s why we won’t see a real price any time soon

How does carbon capture and storage work?

The technology was first used in the 1920s to separate carbon dioxide out from methane in fossil gas deposits.

By the 1970s, it had found use in boosting oil recovery—if you separate out the CO₂, you can pump it back down into the oil field and get more out. To date, the world’s largest carbon capture operation is in Western Australia, where Chevron is pumping carbon dioxide filtered from natural gas back underground. This history is why there’s been so much scepticism about the technology.

This is not entirely fair. The technology itself is neutral. If we detach it from its history, we can better assess its worth.

What carbon capture and storage offers is the ability to capture carbon dioxide emitted by the manufacture of cement and iron/steel. Together these account for about 15% of the world’s emissions total (8% and 7.2% respectively).

Once we capture carbon dioxide, we can use it in industrial processes such as chemical synthesis and food preservation. This approach can cut emissions while adding value, if waste CO₂ can be used for valuable products.

Alternatively, it can be stored in deep underground in stable geological formations such as porous sandstone capped with impermeable rock, or salt caverns, either natural or human-made. Here, it should stay for hundreds of years as gas. In some locations, carbon dioxide can react with minerals to form stable carbonates, effectively turning CO₂ into rock.

Carbon capture and storage can be added reasonably easily to existing infrastructure such as fossil fuel power plants, oil and gas fields and gas compression stations, offering a transitional pathway towards clean energy.

Retrofitting existing plants with capture and storage technology can significantly reduce emissions without the need to immediately decommission still-functional power plants.

What if carbon capture is a fig leaf?

Critics of carbon capture argue the technology will likely be used to prolong the use of fossil fuels rather than phase them out as quickly as possible. In this view, carbon capture would be used by fossil fuel plant operators and companies as a way to make coal or gas “green”, and delay the full transition.

This concern is valid. There is a risk leaders in fossil-fuel intensive industries might see capture and storage as a way to continue their operations with less pressure to innovate or reduce their reliance on fossil fuels, just as some have embraced carbon offsets to avoid fundamental change.

But again, this doesn’t mean we should discard the technology. While we now have good options for making electricity without emissions, we don’t yet have many options in tackling industrial emissions. While methods of making steel and cement without fossil fuels are emerging, change is slow and the problem of climate change is urgent.

Authorities from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to the International Energy Agency see an unavoidable role for carbon capture and storage.

The European Union’s Green Deal emphasises the role of carbon capture in cutting industrial emissions, while the United States has introduced tax credits and funding to accelerate its adoption.

Australia’s government last year invited companies to explore ten offshore sedimentary basins for possible carbon storage. But not everywhere is suitable – Queensland’s government recently banned the technology anywhere inside the Great Artesian Basin, due to concerns over the impact of the gas on groundwater.

Related article: Flow Power pioneers Aussie-first carbon offsetting strategy 

How can we make best use of the technology?

For carbon capture and storage to grow to the size we need, it will need effective policy support such as tax credits, subsidies, and funding for research and development to drive innovation and cut costs.

In my research, I have worked with industry partners to find ways of making carbon capture useful. If a waste product has value, there’s an immediate incentive to capture it. For instance, I’ve worked on converting carbon dioxide into “solar fuels” such as green methane and methanol.

We might think the future of energy will be solar, wind and storage. But it’s not going to be that simple. Fossil fuels will be harder to wean ourselves off than we realise. We’ll need green hydrogen for industrial uses and to make ammonia for green fertilisers. And we’ll have to ramp up carbon capture and storage for industrial emissions.

We might not like the idea of carbon capture and storage, but we will need it if we are going to get serious about net zero. At present, there’s nothing else like it for hard-to-abate sectors. What we must avoid is using it to prop up fossil fuels.

Disclosure statement: Tianyi Ma receives funding from Australian Research Council (ARC) and Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).

Republished from The Conversation under Creative Commons

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This relatively new carbon storage technique, known as mineralisation, has been used successfully in Iceland, where the reactivity of the basalt volcanic rock converts the carbon dioxide rapidly into new minerals, safely locking it away underground.

Related article: Decarbonisation tech converts CO2 to solid carbon

Carbon capture and storage is becoming increasingly important to reduce the levels of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, where they are the principal contributor to global heating.

The scientists will work with Icelandic mineralisation operator Carbfix to test new methods to track the carbon dioxide being captured from the country’s largest geothermal power plant and verify its safe and permanent storage.

Dr Stuart Gilfillan, of the University of Edinburgh, and his team will use mineral analysis techniques and a novel CO2 fingerprinting tool, currently being patented by Edinburgh Innovations, the University’s commercialisation service.

The INCLUSION project, in collaboration with Carbfix and the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC), has been awarded £1 million of funding from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)’s Pushing the Frontiers scheme.

Dr Gilfillan said, “This project will combine the state-of-the-art scientific laboratory facilities available in Scotland with the world’s leading CO2 mineralisation project to provide essential understanding of how to safely lock away CO2 underground in basalts.

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“We will also develop our understanding of the reactivity of basalt and other volcanic rock, to understand the potential of mineralisation in other parts of the world, such as Scotland.”

SUERC director Professor Fin Stuart said, “We will determine the unique chemical fingerprint of the injected CO2 at Carbfix, and record how that changes during the storage process. This will enable us to determine how, and how much, CO2 is stored and provide confidence in the amount of CO2 that can be stored by mineralisation in the future, which can also aid participation in carbon credit schemes.”

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This is a key milestone in the new Prediction and Verification of Shallow CO₂ Migration Project. Its aim is to better understand how CO₂ behaves around a geological fault, when CO₂ is injected and stored deep underground.

The project is being managed jointly between CO2CRC and Geoscience Australia. It involves five of Australia’s leading research institutions as well as international researchers and industry partners.

Two shallow observation wells were installed in late February. A special drill was used to obtain long cylinders of rock, known as core. This core will now be analysed along with formation evaluation logs, to appraise the site and design the CO₂ injection location and monitoring program.

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The next phase, planned for early 2021, will see the injection of between 10 and 40 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the deepest well (approximately 126 metres) and surrounding subsurface. From this test, scientists will observe how carbon dioxide migrates when it meets a fault. The resulting scientific knowledge will be applied in the development of more effective and accurate near surface monitoring techniques for CO₂ storage sites worldwide.

CO2CRC Limited is one of the world’s leading CCS research organisations, having invested more than $100 million in research to deliver better and more cost-effective technologies for CCS. As owner and operator of the Otway Research Facility (registered as an Asset of National Significance by the Australian Government), CO2CRC commissions and undertakes research projects with partners worldwide.

Related article: SA mine to be converted to first compressed air facility

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Brought together by their shared vision – to deploy an effective and ready-to-go technology that will make a significant impact to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme (IEAGHG) and the International CCS Knowledge Centre (Knowledge Centre) have agreed to collaborate in the promotion and acceleration of large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS).

While there are many ways in which GHGs can be reduced, such as adding renewables into the energy portfolio or increasing efficiency of power plants, these steps alone will not achieve the required reductions in CO₂ emissions.

Related article: IPCC report issues stark warning on climate change

Widespread use of CCS can be achieved without the need for rapid change in the energy supply infrastructure. This will allow countries to meaningfully aid in decarbonising electrical grids as well as transition to carbon-free energy systems in the future.

The agreement between IEAGHG and the Knowledge Centre signifies an intention to collaborate and contribute their respective expertise and resources to reduce global GHG emissions through further research, understanding and specifically see the deployment of large-scale CCS projects throughout the world. Together the agencies will provide peer review of publications and ensure accurate, relevant and current knowledge about CCS is freely available.

Related article: IPCC targets require Australia to close 12 coal stations

International CCS Kowledge Centre President and CEO Mike Monea says the Knowledge Centre is excited by the partnership.

“[The partnership] takes many working toward a common goal,” Monea says. “Globally we need a definitive shift in effort on climate change action. CCS is needed now as a means for countries and their citizens to manage current and future GHG emissions.”

About the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme (IEAGHG)

Established in 1991 under the auspices of the International Energy Agency as a technology collaboration program, IEAGHG is a not-for-profit international collaborative venture that studies and evaluates technologies that can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions derived from the use of fossil fuels. The main technology of focus is Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage. As a member-based organisation, IEAGHG’s work is subject to peer review ensuring impartiality and that they remain an unbiased source which provides definitive information on the role that technology can make in reducing GHGs. IEAGHG is the lead organiser of the GHGT series of conferences, which are the main international conferences on CCS.

About the International CCS Knowledge Centre (Knowledge Centre)

Operating since 2016 under the direction of an independent board, Knowledge Centre was established by BHP and SaskPower with a mandate to advance the global understanding and deployment of large-scale CCS to reduce global GHG emissions. The Knowledge Centre provides the know-how to implement large-scale projects as well as CCS optimisation through the base learnings from both the fully-integrated Boundary Dam 3 CCS Facility and the comprehensive second-generation study, known as the Shand Study.

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CHGT-14 will highlight advances in CCS in Australia as well as developments in the whole Asia-Pacific region. This includes the Yangchuan project in China, and the Tomakomai/Osaki CoolGen and the Ministry of Environment Sustainable CCS projects in Japan. It will also aim to provide information on R&D developments in rapidly expanding economies like Indonesia.

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Reporting on research conducted throughout the first half of 2016, Effective enforcement of underground storage of carbon dioxide compares existing legislation for current geological storage activities. It also identifies additional legislative measures required to support permanent geological storage of carbon dioxide (CO₂).

Commissioned by the Global CCS Institute, the study was undertaken by prominent Australian environmental lawyer, Dr Meredith Gibbs, as part of her Asia Pacific Fellowship with the Institute.

Dr Gibbs’ research assessed five legal jurisdictions including the Commonwealth of Australia, Victoria, Japan, Malaysia and China.

Within Asia Pacific, Australian and Japanese legislators have covered the most ground on developing effective enforcement regimes within their CCS-specific regulatory frameworks, under which projects may be progressed. China and Malaysia, while currently possessing a strong foundation of relevant environmental and energy legislation, have further opportunity to develop their CCS-specific legislation to help accelerate the deployment of domestic CCS projects.

The Institute’s acting global lead – policy, legal and regulation Ian Havercroft said the findings were particularly relevant for informing development of legislation in those countries where CCS is identified as a vital part of the low-carbon technology mix.

“Communities around the world want assurances from governments that CCS is safe and reliable. At the same time, project stakeholders need certainty about their obligations and the regulatory environment in which a project will be undertaken and operated,” he said.

“Likewise, regulators are looking for clear delineation of their responsibilities as they relate to CCS projects, and the powers available to them to ensure compliance by project operators.

“Effective enforcement regimes require a strong legislative framework that addresses the critical needs of these three different types of stakeholders. In this context, effective enforcement is critical to CCS progress the world over.

“Dr Gibbs’ research is, therefore, a valuable contribution to the growing body of legal knowledge that supports governments in developing pro-CCS policies, as part of an overall commitment to tackling climate change.”

Availability of safe, secure geological storage is an essential precursor for successful deployment of CCS, regardless of the source of emissions. Deep geological formations are already widely used for storing natural gas for domestic supplies, and the deep underground disposal of hazardous acid gas.

As a non-flammable gas, CO₂ storage represents significantly lower risks than other established practices involving deep geological storage of gases.

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Federal Minister for Resources and Energy Martin Ferguson, along with Victorian Minister for Energy and Resources Michael O’Brien, announced the joint commonwealth/state funding to be put towards feasibility studies and surveys.

CarbonNet will be the second project selected for funding under the Federal Government’s Carbon Capture and Storage Flagships program.

The project aims to capture carbon emissions from power plants, industrial processes and new coal-based industries in the Latrobe Valley and store it in geological basins.

The combined funding of $100 million ($70 million from the Commonwealth and $30 million from the Victorian Government) will support feasibility work to demonstrate low-emission brown coal electricity generation in the region.

The Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (CO2CRC) will provide lead research on the project and congratulated the funding injection.

“Victoria’s combination of high carbon dioxide emissions from brown coal and the first-class storage geology in Bass Strait mean that the CarbonNet project is one of the best opportunities around the world to demonstrate significant cuts to greenhouse gas emissions using CCS,” CO2CRC chief executive Dr Richard Aldous said.

The Global CCS Institute also welcomed the funding announcement.

“It is encouraging to see government, both at federal and state level, reaffirm their commitment to CCS as a key tool in an emissions reduction portfolio,” Global CCS Institute CEO Brad Page said.

“Australia’s Flagships program and related initiatives make it a global leader in government support for CCS.”

Mr Page added that the institute was also pleased to see that feasibility studies would include modelling and testing of suitable CO2 storage sites.

“This region shows strong potential for CO2 storage. Our work and international experience indicates that early attention to storage is required if CCS projects are to proceed in a timely fashion,” Mr Page said.

An additional $2.3 million was provided in 2010-11 to CarbonNet through the Global CCS Institute’s strategic partnership with the Clinton Climate Initiative. This portion of funding is being used to define the roles of participants involved in a CCS network and to develop a business model and commercial structure for CarbonNet.

“The Clinton Climate Initiative is very pleased to see today’s announcement,” Clinton Climate Initiative program director Tony Wood said.

“We view the deployment of CCS as essential to meeting the global challenge of climate change, and have been working with the Victorian and Australian Governments on CarbonNet since 2008,” he said.

“This project is one of the most promising CCS projects in the world, and providing support through our strategic partnership with the Global CCS Institute reflects that importance.”

The Global CCS Institute announced in January $240,000 support to CarbonNet for a measurement, monitoring and verification study that will build capability around the storage of greenhouse gas emissions. This work will be another valuable knowledge product distributed by the institute to other project proponents for free.

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“We can now be confident that carbon capture technology works and is cost effective,” Mr Joubert said at the event in June.

Validated by independent experts, the study shows the cost of electricity generated in a coal-burning power plant with carbon capture and storage (CCS) equipment, which will be available at a commercial scale in 2015 and will allow the capture of 90 per cent of the emitted CO₂, will be between 6.5 and 8.5 eurocents/kWh, depending on the fuel and location. According to Alstom, this cost is already competitive against power coming from renewable energy sources, while it will improve over the years as the CCS technology matures. The same conclusion applies for a gas-burning power plant using CCS.

“This is a decisive moment for players in the European energy field, in industry or in policy-making, if they want to actively position themselves as leaders on the world stage for this field of decarbonised fossil fuels, where there is considerable potential,” Mr Joubert said.

After 10 years of development, CCS technology is on the verge of large-scale deployment, according to Alstom.

“A new global market is opening up, from which Europe is well positioned to benefit given its technological lead, the steps taken to put in place a regulatory framework and the decisions made to incentivise CCS deployment through the financing of large demonstration plants,” an Alstom release stated.

“Alstom has long maintained that all solutions to reduce emissions, while generating the power needed for economic development and social welfare, will be necessary to tackle climate change: increasing the use of all renewable forms of energy, improving the efficiency of fossil power generation on both new and existing plants, and developing carbon capture and storage.

“Over half of the world’s electricity will still be produced from fossil fuels in 2035 and CCS is currently the only valid solution for drastically reducing emissions from fossil fuel generation. “The application of CCS to both coal-fired and gas-fired power stations and to industry is essential, as this technology could account for up to 20 per cent of the required emissions reduction by the year 2050, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).”

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Climate change experts and researchers, as well as the International Energy Agency (IEA), have recommended the retrofitting of carbon capture plants to large utility point sources in order to limit the economical impact of global warming.

Emissions of CO₂ from burning fossil fuels rank among the biggest contributors to man-made climate change. The main fraction of CO₂ disposal is related to large volume of flue gases from different types of industrial plants, such as gas- and coal-fired power stations. Currently, some 4000 power stations account for 40 per cent of man-made CO₂ emissions.

Reducing these emissions is imperative to reduce or reverse future global warming and its consequences.

The climate change experts and researchers have recommended applying carbon capture plants on large industrial point sources in order to limit the economical impact of global warming. IEA’s Energy Technology Perspective from June 2008 has estimated the need for 20 to 35 new coal-fired power stations (500 MW) with CCS annually in the period 2010 to 2050. As a result of political initiatives, several countries, including the UK, US, Netherlands and Norway, are now planning large-scale pilot plants to be in operation between 2014 and 2015. The target for these plants will be to demonstrate in full scale the capture technology, safe transport and permanent storage of CO₂. Another objective is to reduce the overall cost by technical improvements.

As the largest exporter of coal in the world, Australia has a real opportunity to lead the way in actively exploring applications of carbon capture and storage technology with Australian power producers.

At Melbourne’s Carbon Capture and Storage World Conference in June, Aker Clean Carbon presented the merits of an advanced carbon capture process. The advanced process provides optimum flue gas pre-treatment, minimum energy requirements, minimum emissions to air, low solvent degradation and corrosion, and cost effective design and construction

Of the three main alternative carbon capture technologies, pre- and post combustion and oxy-fuel, post combustion technology would be the most appropriate approach in Australia. Post combustion systems can be retrofitted to existing fossil fuel power plants as well as on new builds. Furthermore, shutdown of the capture process will not interrupt power production.

Concerns regarding possible risks of carbon capture and CO₂ storage have been addressed through six different Aker Clean Carbon pilot plants built and operated since 1996. CO₂ has been captured from flue gas and successfully demonstrated safe storing of around one million tonnes of CO₂ per year offshore since that time from a gas sweeting plant.

Aker Clean Carbon has been awarded the contract to providing the capture technology for the Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM) amine-based capture plant in Norway. The plant will be one of the most advanced capture plants in the world.

The TCM scale-up from the MTU is about 45 times and the capture capacity is
78, 000 tonnes CO₂ per year. The plant will treat flue gases from two different sources; a gas power plant (CHP) ~3.5 vol per cent CO₂ and a residual catalytic cracker (RCC) ~12.9 vol per cent CO₂. The plant has incorporated high flexibilities such as: turn-downs (16-100 per cent), desorber operating pressures, packing heights, alternative reboilers and desorbers.

The plant includes a concrete absorber with a liner. The absorber is the largest equipment in the facility and the material selection will require minimum maintenance. The plant also includes a proprietary energy saver that will reduce the heat requirement in the desorber part of the plant by 10 to 25 per cent pending type of selected solvent. Our minimum emission technology (close to zero) will also be tested and verified at Mongstad. The plant will be ready for start-up in June 2011.
Having invested more than $70 million in carbon capture and storage technology, Aker Clean Carbon is now planning to invest a further $60 million by 2016. In Australia we hope to introduce a patented carbon capture technology as well as a mobile test facility. Everyone agrees that CO₂ emissions need to be limited in order to stabilise global warming. Together with solar, nuclear, wind, energy efficiency and hydro technologies, carbon capture and storage is part of the solution.

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Alstom power president, Philippe Joubert said the new facility enhances Alstom’s ability to build and retrofit power generation equipment for customers in North America and beyond.

“Coupled with Alstom’s recent investments in carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and wind turbine production in the US, this unit represents another important step in executing our clean power strategy,” Mr Joubert said.

The Chattanooga factory is equipped with a balancing facility that allows it to manufacture the largest turbines in the world. The turbo-generator components will also be manufactured in this facility. Its size is particularly relevant to the nuclear industry, both for retrofitting existing equipment to make it more efficient or building the equipment that will be needed for the next generation of power plants.

Chattanooga is an ideal place for the manufacture of large power generation equipment because of its central location in the country and its excellent access to road, rail and waterways. The facility features an on-site barge dock with a lifting capacity of up to 1000 tonnes. It will eventually create around 350 jobs.

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Once mineral carbonation technology is proven at scale, an industrial plant could transform up to 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year into safe and reusable materials. This equates to taking a third of Australia’s cars off our roads each year.

The plant will demonstrate locally developed technology processes that transform CO₂ from coal and gas-fired plants and industrial sources. The technology is expected to become economically viable once a carbon price has been established. There are around 30,000 fossil fuel plants in the world.

The project is a joint venture between GreenMag Group and the University of Newcastle, which is supplying a multi-disciplinary team of chemical engineers and geologists led by the Priority Research Centre for Energy’s Professors Bogdan Dlugogorski and Eric Kennedy.

“The science of mineral carbonation is well-established at lab scale and already used widely in processes such as carbonating water. The question is whether we can scale it up to make it economically viable and environmentally acceptable. We believe we have an answer and so does the NSW Clean Coal Fund,” GreenMag Group CEO, Marcus St John Dawe, said.

Mineral carbonation is an alternative to geosequestration, which has, for the past decade, been the energy industry’s primary solution to dealing with carbon dioxide. Geosequestration traps CO₂ pumped deep underground.

Recent test drilling programs has revealed that the geology of NSW is not as well-suited to geosequestration as the other states.

The GreenMag-Newcastle Process will combine CO₂ with serpentinite, an abundant and easily obtained rock. The two-phase process transforms the serpentinite with the CO₂ to make magnesium carbonate, which could be used for products such as building materials, bricks, pavers, cement and agricultural additives. There is enough serpentinite in NSW to capture carbon dioxide in this way for thousands of years if the technology proves to be feasible on scale.

Mineral carbonation mimics the earth’s own carbon cycle process by transforming carbon dioxide into minerals. “It is fast-tracking a natural process that would otherwise take millions of years through weathering,” Mr Dawe said.

The pilot demonstration plant will be built at a decommissioned BHP experimental site in Newcastle and will provide bulk sample carbonate material to interested product developers by 2012. Given success at Newcastle, an industrial demonstration scale plant is scheduled to become operational by 2016 and an industrial full-scale plant could be available around 2020.

The joint venture plans to eventually license the technology overseas.

“The Indian and Chinese governments have already indicated they’re very interested in carbon capture and use (CCU). We want them to adopt this technology but we don’t want it to go offshore too quickly,” Mr Dawe said.

“NSW and Australia should get first mover benefit from these technologies.

GreenMag and Newcastle will now seek funding from the Australian Government and industry to match NSW’s commitment. We hope they will follow NSW’s lead in supporting this exciting new opportunity.”

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