Myrtle is open.
The world’s most advanced mineral carbonation demonstration plant – Myrtle – is up and running in Newcastle, Australia. Myrtle is the first of many similar ‘carbon refineries’ we’ll be deploying across hard-to-abate, high-CO2 industries around the world.
Raw emissions in.
Valuable materials out.
Myrtle is MCi Carbon’s mineral carbonation demonstration plant, co-located at Orica’s Kooragang Island manufacturing site in Newcastle, New South Wales. Myrtle is the world’s most advanced mineral carbonation facility, and it’s operating now – right here in Australia.
Ten years of Australian R&D went into Myrtle. Officially open, Myrtle is already doing what it was built to do: transforming captured CO2 and mineral feedstocks into carbonates that industry buys and builds with.
This isn’t demonstration for its own sake. Every campaign at Myrtle generates the field data, product samples, and techno-economic validation that moves a customer from interested to investment-ready.
Myrtle by the numbers
Myrtle can mineralise approximately 2,500 tonnes of CO2 per year into around 10,000 tonnes of carbonated materials. It runs 24/7 customer campaigns across steel, cement, and other hard-to-abate sectors, taking CO2 directly from industrial flue gases, with no high-purity input needed.
Myrtle runs at low temperature and low pressure, with no chemical catalysts.
The result: net CO2 reductions of 80 to 90%. Switch the plant to renewable energy and those numbers get better still.
Myrtle’s the blueprint, not the destination.
We built Myrtle to run first, but not alone. MCi’s Research Pilot Plant at the Newcastle Institute of Energy and Resources proved our tech.
Myrtle was built to prove the commercial model: running structured customer campaigns that validate feedstocks, quantify abatement, and qualify output materials.
Multiple trials have proven our model works and now we’re deploying it at scale. MCi’s first industrial-scale plant, built with RHI Magnesita at Hochfilzen, Austria, will process around 50,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
The RHI Magnesita collaboration in the Austrian Alps is just the start. We plan to operate 25 to 30 plants by the mid-2030s. There will be a Myrtle for steel. For cement. For chemicals. For mining. Combining to lock away the most emissions possible.
Funded by government, backed by industry
The Australian Government backed Myrtle with AUD $14.6 million from the CCUS Development Fund and a further $14.5 million from the Carbon Capture Technologies Program. Private co-investment came from some of the world’s most credible industrial partners: ITOCHU Corporation, Mizuho Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, and Mitsubishi UBE Cement Corporation.
Orica, one of Australia’s largest industrial manufacturers, provides critical collaboration in process design, safety systems, and operations. Myrtle runs to industry best practice because we built it with industry.
Already delivering for customers
Myrtle is open for business, with Australian, Brazilian and Japanese customer trials already complete. MCi Co-Founder & COO, Sophia Hamblin Wang carried concrete samples made at Myrtle to COP30 in Belém, Brazil. That’s proof of performance, in a carry-on bag.
The process is structured and de-risked for new partners. Engagement begins with feasibility studies at MCi’s Research Pilot Plant, operating since 2016. Compatible projects progress to Myrtle for full campaign validation.
From there, the path to a bankable industrial plant is clear. We’re already walking it!
Run your CCU campaign at Myrtle
Run your CCU campaign at Myrtle
If you're in steel, cement, chemicals, or mining, and you're serious about decarbonisation that works commercially, Myrtle is where that conversation becomes a business case.
Let’s talk about running your campaign
Commercialisation in Austria
Scale-up commercialisation in Austria with RHI Magnesita
Scale-up commercialisation in Austria with RHI Magnesita
Austrian industrial giant, RHI Magnesita is the global market leader in refractory products: the high-temperature resistant materials that line the kilns, furnaces, and reactors that make steel, cement, glass, and non-ferrous metals.
Without refractories, heavy industry doesn’t function. The problem is that producing them generates significant CO2, and the industry has had no credible commercial decarbonisation option. Until now – thanks largely to Myrtle.
Partnering for cleaner operation
RHI Magnesita and MCi Carbon signed a long-term strategic cooperation agreement in 2023, backed by a multi-million-dollar investment from RHI Magnesita into MCi’s mineral carbonation technology. This is MCi’s first industrial-scale commercial deployment – paving the way for many more across hard-to-abate industries.
Our Hochfilzen plant
MCi and RHI Magnesita are building the world’s first CCU plant for the refractories industry at Hochfilzen, Tyrol, Austria. Planned for commissioning in 2028, the plant will process approximately 50,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, transforming it into carbon-negative mineral materials.
Those materials will go back into RHI Magnesita’s own supply chain, creating a circular carbon value chain for the refractories sector.
Our journey to the Austrian Alps
RHI Magnesita spent years searching for a credible decarbonisation technology for their industry. They chose MCi Carbon.
Trial campaigns at Myrtle have validated the feedstock, quantified the abatement, and qualified the output materials. The commercial case is proven. Hochfilzen is where it’s becoming a business asset.
RHI Magnesita is on board
“This marks a decisive step toward the construction of the world’s first CCU pilot plant for the refractory industry in Hochfilzen, Tyrol. For industries with unavoidable emissions like ours, CO2 capture is currently the only viable path to achieve net zero by 2050. However, we go one step further by not only capturing CO2 but also converting it into products that provide solutions for us and other hard-to-decarbonise sectors, such as the cement industry.”
Constantin Beelitz, Regional President Europe, CIS & Türkiye, RHI Magnesita
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