South Pole has joined forces with CO2CRC, Australia's leading carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) research and technology organisation, to advance and scale frontier climate technologies in Australia, notably technological carbon dioxide removal (CDR) as well as CCUS. The two organisations will work together to identify technologies with high carbon abatement potential, so that they can be shared with potential investors via CO2CRC's international network of members and partners.
The partnership leverages CO2CRC's role as a testing and research facility and South Pole's extensive carbon project development experience.
"Climate change is the biggest challenge of our era but it is one we will overcome with researchers, industry and governments working collaboratively in order to identify, test and deploy cutting-edge technologies and globally relevant solutions", says Dr Matthias Raab, Chief Executive Officer at CO2CRC Limited.
"CCUS and CDR solutions are all critical for decarbonizing Australia's hard-to-abate industries, but cannot secure revenue streams via carbon markets as they still lack the methodologies for but also support in accounting for their carbon reductions or removals," says Dr Thomas Schröder, Head of Climate at South Pole.
"We are excited to partner with CO2CRC and draw on South Pole's expertise in climate projects and carbon markets to help CCUS and CDR technology providers understand the carbon abatement potential—and therefore commercial potential— of their projects, enabling them to further develop and scale," he continues.
As an incorporated not-for-profit research organisation, CO2CRC trials and demonstrates technologies at its Otway, Victoria to understand the impact of carbon removal solutions in a global, economic, environmental and societal context. South Pole will assess the carbon abatement potential of new CCUS and carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies identified by CO2CRC under applicable carbon methodologies developed by the CCS+ Initiative. The abatement potential of several technologies will be explored through the partnership, including Direct Air Capture and Storage (DACS), Bio-Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) and Product Mineralization.
Our partnership with CO2CRC builds on South Pole's vision to play a leading role in scaling the carbon removal sector globally. Reinforcing the quality assurances of these technologies will help accelerate their commercialization, and ensure that they play a part in meeting the urgent need to achieve net-zero emissions", says Dr Schroder.
CO2CRC and South Pole will also explore further opportunities to collaborate on research and development and local stakeholder engagement to advance the credible application of carbon removal technology to drive down emissions in Australia.
CCUS and CDR are acknowledged by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and International Energy Agency (IEA) as essential climate change technologies in achieving global net-zero emissions goals by 2050. CCU and CCS will be critical in decarbonising existing industries (e.g. steel, cement, fertilisers, natural gas processing) and they can also form the basis of new clean-energy industries, including clean hydrogen production, direct air capture and carbon utilisation.
If you would like to be involved, please contact Tom Schroder at t.schroder@southpole.com or Roy Anderson at roy.anderson@co2crc.com.au
