Environment and Sustainability

Australian Government invests in six new carbon capture projects

Eliza Sayon Jun 10, 2021

2 min read

Six new carbon capture projects have been funded by the Government, accelerating the goal of reducing emissions and supporting new economic opportunities and job creation.

Under the Carbon Capture, Use and Storage (CCUS) Development Fund, six companies have been given a total of $50 million to develop carbon capture technologies. The projects will create close to 470 direct jobs and deliver $412 million of investment in their respective locations.

The successful applicants are committed to doing the following:

Santos Limited’s $15 million funding will be used for the low-cost capture and storage of CO2 emitted from Santos’s Moomba LNG operations for permanent storage in the Cooper Basin, South Australia. The project is expected to store 1.7 million tonnes of CO2 per annum.
Mineral Carbonation International will receive up to $14.6 million for the construction of a mobile demonstration plant that will capture and use CO2 to produce manufacturing and construction materials on Kooragang Island, New South Wales.
Energy Developments Pty Ltd will use their $9 million funding to capture and use the CO2 emitted from the production of biomethane at landfill sites across multiple locations across Australia for use in cement carbonation curing.
Carbon Transport and Storage Company will utilise the given $5 million fund to demonstrate the viability of carbon capture and storage from a coal-fired power station in Queensland and support the development of a geological storage basin in the Surat Basin.
Corporate Carbon Advisory Pty Ltd was given $4 million in funding for Australia’s first demonstration of a direct-air-capture (DAC) and storage project to geologically sequester CO2 in an existing injection well in Moomba, South Australia.
Boral Limited’s $2.4 million funding will go towards a pilot-scale carbon capture and use project to improve the quality of recycled concrete, masonry and steel slag aggregates at New Berrima, New South Wales.

Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor said the International Energy Agency (IEA) and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) both regard carbon capture technologies as essential to achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement.

He also revealed that the IEA’s analysis has shown that half the global carbon reductions required to achieve net-zero will come from technologies that are not yet ready for commercial deployment, prompting the Australian Government to partner with industry to accelerate new projects and unlock the emissions and economic benefits of carbon capture technology.

“We received funding applications to support $1.2 billion of investment in carbon capture projects and technologies,” Minister Taylor said.

“The projects we have supported through this program include a number of exciting, Australian-first technology demonstrations.”

Australia already has the world’s largest carbon capture facility as one of five priority areas for future investment under the Technology Investment Roadmap.

The CCUS Development Fund is part of the $1.9 billion new energy technologies package announced in the 2020-21 Budget. The $1.9 billion package included resourcing to support the development of a CCS method for the Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF), which is expected to be completed this year.

Eliza Sayon

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Eliza is a content producer and editor at Public Spectrum. She is an experienced writer on topics related to the government and to the public, as well as stories that uplift and improve the community.