NEWCASTLE | 23 JULY, 2024 – Australia’s Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen has awarded Australian clean tech MCi Carbon a $14.5m Carbon Capture Technologies Program (CCTP) grant.
The Myrtle+ Project aims to progress Australia’s lead in permanent Carbon Capture & Utilisation (CCU) technology. It will capture and transform CO2 from hard-to-abate industries into carbon embodied materials for use in buildings and construction, creating new industries and jobs in the circular carbon economy. The fund will progress plant upgrades to MCi Carbon’s Myrtle CCU facilityto expand and optimise processing capabilities for a broader range of feedstock materials, further supporting decarbonisation efforts. Myrtle, which is currently in late-stage construction on Kooragang Island in Newcastle, will capture and transform more than 1000 tonnes of CO2 per year and create up to 5,000 tonnes of new materials.
The project brings MCi Carbon’s CCU technology closer to market, significantly advancing both Australian and global customer engagements, ultimately accelerating its mission to lock away millions of tonnes of CO2 into materials and helping the world achieve a net zero future.
MCi Carbon and Australia remain at the forefront of clean technology innovation.”
“The government, as our significant funder, realised this very early on in our journey, and this is our fourth round of funding taking us from research to commercialisation.”
“With this latest injection of funding into Myrtle, this project will continue to create high quality jobs and accelerate the decarbonisation of domestic and international supply chains, ultimately to achieve the Paris agreement goals”.
MCi Carbon Founder and CEO Marcus Dawe.
MCi Carbon’s groundbreaking technology transforms carbon dioxide (CO2) into building materials and other valuable products. The company has been developing their engineered mineral carbonation technology for over a decade, and the solid output materials, such as calcium and magnesium carbonates, will contribute to decarbonising the built environment and fuelling the circular carbon economy. A world leader in carbon capture and utilisation, MCi Carbon has been developing its mineral carbonation technology in Australia for over a decade.
In partnership with major industrial manufacturing partners, MCi will conduct testing and trialling of these materials, significantly decarbonising the supply chains of the finished goods. Hosted at the Myrtle carbon capture facility in Newcastle, MCi will conduct demonstration campaigns, utilising gas streams that simulate emissions from hard-to-abate emitters including cement, steel, chemicals, & mining. Commencing in 2025, each campaign will gather operating and engineering data to support future plant design.
MCi Carbon’s clean technology platform is one of Australia’s leading solution providers assisting in the Australian government’s emission reduction target 43 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, and net zero emissions by 2050
For more information
Todd McHenry, Head of Communications | MCi Carbon
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +61 422 488 512
About MCi Carbon
MCi Carbon (MCi) is a world-leading and award-winning Australian clean technology company transforming carbon dioxide (CO2) into building products and other valuable materials for the circular carbon economy. Based in Canberra, MCi Carbon has a technical headquarters in Newcastle, a global reference pilot plant at the Newcastle Institute of Energy and Resources (NIER) and is currently constructing Australia’s carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) flagship, Myrtle, scheduled for completion in 2024.
Founded in 2013, MCi’s proprietary mineral carbonation technology is a low-cost, low-pressure, low-energy chemical engineering process to transform CO2 emissions from hard-to-abate industries, such as steel, cement, chemical and mining, into solid materials for use in a range of products.
MCi Carbon featured at the Australia Pavilion at COP28, with Myrtle announced as the Mission Innovation Net-Zero Industries Awards 2023 National Winner - Australia in the Outstanding Projects category. Recently awarded the Circular Transition Award at the 34th National Banksia Sustainability Awards and the NSW Clean Technology Award, in 2021 MCi won first prize at the Clean Energy Start-up Pitch Battle at COP26 in Glasgow. Other global accolades include the 2018 Resource Innovator of the Year Award at the New Materials Summit in Berlin and being featured at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, building momentum as a global brand and a leader in carbon capture and utilisation (CCU).
Recently featured in Financial Times, Bloomberg, Forbes, SBS World News andthe Australian Financial Review, MCi Founder & CEO Marcus Dawe and Co-Founder & COO Sophia Hamblin Wang were named in the Top 100 Australian Green Power Players, published in The Australian.
For more information, please visit mcicarbon.com
About the Carbon Capture Technologies Program (CCTP)
The Carbon Capture Technologies Program (CCTP) provides organisations with up to $15 million to reduce Australia’s emissions. The objectives of the program are to accelerate the development of emerging priority CO2 capture technologies, including carbon capture and utilisation (CCUS) technologies.
The grant supports R&D to advance technological and commercial readiness of CCUS in hard-to-abate industries such as cement, chemicals and steel, and support global CCUS capability development.
The two-stage competitive grant application process began in Q3 2023.
