Orica, together with the Federal and New South Wales governments, is funding the establishment of a CO₂ mineral carbonation research pilot plant at the University of Newcastle (UoN), Australia. The project will undertake fundamental industrial research into mineral carbonation technology. Mineral carbonation mimics and accelerates the earth’s own natural carbon sink mechanism by combining CO₂ with low-grade minerals to create inert carbonates, which are similar to common baking soda, and turn them into solid rock products. 

Mineral Carbonation International (MCi) will receive funding from Orica of $3.04 million over four years, equally matched by both governments, to establish the plant and undertake research. The project was publicly launched in August, but Orica scientists have been involved in the development of the technology for six years.

The aim of the research pilot plant is to determine whether the necessary step-change can be made towards successful scale-up and commercialisation, including reusing the captured CO₂ in sustainable building products for the construction industry. MCI chief executive Marcus St John Dawe said the solid product could be turned into building materials such as bricks or pavers. 

“The technology is proven in the lab and we now want to see if we can scale it to reduce the cost to be in line with a future carbon price. We could be making millions of tonnes of bricks and pavers, which really could be green products for the future,” he said. “The potential exists to create many new jobs in a cleaner energy industry.” 

The project is being conducted by a multi-disciplinary team of researchers, chemical and industrial engineers led by Dr. Geoff Brent from Orica and Professors Bogdan Dlugogorski and Eric Kennedy at the Priority Research Centre for Energy (PRCfE) at UoN. 

The pilot plant will be built at the UoN’s Newcastle Institute for Energy & Resources and will operate and produce carbonates for industry to test in new building products whilst locking carbon away for good.