Mineral carbonation: nature's process, our technology.
Our technology transforms CO2 from a liability to a product. You might refer to us our carbon capture and utilisation (CCU). We’ve spent almost 20 years perfecting and accelerating a natural process – with a focus on simplicity, versatility and scalability. Now we’re implementing our technology with carbon-emitting industries around the world.
MCi’s triple tech advantage
Flue-gas integration
We capture CO2 directly from industrial flue-gases, handling most acid-gas impurities across a range of emission sources. And if you need custom flue-gas simulation and analysis, we can do that too.
Product creation
MCi combines two key inputs to produce a range of solid materials. These materials replace conventional high-emissions alternatives like cement, avoiding additional CO2 in the process.
Energy efficient
Our process delivers net CO2 reductions of 80 to 90%. That figure accounts for energy used in the process itself. Switch to renewable energy and the numbers get even better.
What is mineral carbonation?
The Earth converts CO2 into solids via mineral carbonation, a chemical reaction at the heart of geological weathering. Left to nature, this process can take millions of years. We do it in minutes.
From industrial waste to wanted products.
Our process combines captured CO2 with mineral ‘feedstocks’ – the industry term covering industrial wastes like steel slag and mine tailings.
The result is magnesium carbonate, calcium carbonate, amorphous silica and more: permanent, stable, and commercially valuable. These carbonates are already going into the products that build the world: cements, concretes, plasterboards, papers and glass.
Capture carbon. Create materials.
Our process works directly with industrial flue gases, so the CO2 doesn’t need to be high purity. That’s a huge advantage meaning we can work with real-world emissions, not laboratory-grade inputs.
What we do with that CO2 is the point. We don’t sequester it or store it. We transform it into permanent, saleable carbonates that replace high-emissions materials in the built environment.
As demand for low-embodied-carbon construction materials grows, building materials manufacturers need a credible path to industrial decarbonisation. Same goes for hard-to-abate sectors like cement, steel and mining. Our carbonates give them one.
Piloting techno-economic breakthroughs
We built a Pilot Plant to answer real industrial questions
MCi’s Research Pilot Plant at the Newcastle Institute of Energy and Resources has been operating since 2016, making it the first facility of its kind in the world.
Our research engineers use it to generate engineering scale-up data, test feedstock samples, assess CO2 abatement performance, and produce material samples for offtake partners to assess for commercial use.
Any emission source. Any feedstock.
The plant is built to handle a wide range of industrial emissions, feedstock sources, and output products. That flexibility is deliberate: it lets us validate customer projects quickly and compress the timeline through feasibility to a final investment decision.
Our Pilot Plant proves the science, Myrtle proves the commercial case. Myrtle is Australia’s first dedicated CCU demonstration facility, purpose-built for customer campaigns and rapid validation of decarbonisation and feedstock scenarios.
The Basic Elements for Success
Three steps to results
1. We take CO2 as it comes
Direct integration using off-the-shelf equipment, for the most part. The CO2 doesn’t need to be high purity. No pre-treatment. No complexity.
2. Waste in. Value out.
We react CO2 with industrial waste: steel slag, mine tailings, quarried minerals. Low temperature, low pressure, energy efficient.
3. Industry buys what we make
Our process creates carbonates and other products: permanent, low-carbon materials that industry already buys.
Product Applications
Where our products could end up
Low-carbon concrete
Paper, paints, plastics & glass
Plasterboard
Research & Development — Research & Development —
Carbon capture and utilisation
MCi operates in carbon capture and utilisation: CCU. Unlike carbon capture and storage, which buries CO2 underground, CCU transforms captured emissions into materials that industry buys and builds with.
Helping hard-to-abate industries.
Our technology works across steel, cement, mining, chemicals, and manufacturing. It integrates directly with existing industrial systems,
capturing CO2 at the source and storing it permanently in carbonates and silicas used in building materials and other valuable products.
One technology. Two jobs.
Most carbon capture systems separate the capture and transformation steps into two distinct technologies. MCi’s process does both in one. And because our technology is agnostic to the source of CO2 , it works across a wide range of industrial emission profiles without modification.
Scale-up commercialisation in Austria
Austria’s RHI Magnesita and MCi Carbon signed a long-term strategic cooperation agreement in early 2023. At the same time, the global market leader of the refractories industry made a multi-million-dollar investment into MCi’s carbon capture and utilisation technology.
As MCi’s first global commercial customer, RHI Magnesita intends to explore the deployment pathway of MCi’s decarbonisation solution to significantly reduce their Scope 1 emissions (and Scope 3), supporting an industrial scale-up of the technology in the near future.
MCi Carbon are planning to build their first industrial large-scale plant, together with RHI Magnesita, the leading global supplier of high‐grade refractory products, systems, and solutions, in Hochfilzen, Austria.
RHI Magnesita has committed an additional multi-million-dollar investment into testing and scale-up of MCi Carbon’s technology in preparation for the commercial roll-out at Hochfilzen, a project planned for 2030 which will capture and transform approx. 50,000 tons of CO2 per year and create mineral value products that are carbon negative.
In preparation, MCi Carbon will conduct trial campaigns to assess scale up of the technology at the demonstration carbon capture and utilization plant ‘Myrtle’ located in Newcastle, Australia. RHI Magnesita supplies refractory bricks for lining kilns in the cement and steel industry.
The partnership with RHI Magnesita opened up a new product application that was not initially anticipated. MCi Carbon’s technology was selected as the number one choice by RHI Magnesita for decarbonising their industry after years of searching for a solution.
Mineral Carbonation Research Pilot Plant
MCi Carbon’s semi-continuous Research Pilot Plant is located at the Newcastle Institute of Energy and Resources and is one of the first-of-its-kind in the world.
A proudly Australian innovation, the pilot plant is a clean technology and carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) validation project, empowering industries to reimagine carbon emissions and other industrial waste streams as a valuable resource in the circular transition.
The plant conducts intensive industrial programs to refine the patented mineral carbonation process, delivering global customer projects, and generating low-carbon materials for product testing as part of MCi Carbon’s greater circular transition initiative.
World-leading and award-winning
MCi has taken mineral carbonation to the world and the world has taken notice. At COP26 in Glasgow, we won first prize at the Clean Energy Start-up Pitch Battle, beating 2,700 competitors to claim the #1 Global Cleantech title.
Recognised at home
The Banksia Foundation awarded MCi the prestigious NSW Clean Technology Award in 2022 for work achieved at our Pilot Plant in Newcastle. In 2023, Banksia awarded us the Circular Transition Prize at the 34th National Sustainability Awards.
Recognised globally
At the COP28 Australia Pavilion in Dubai in 2023, MCi won two categories: Most Outstanding Project Australia for Myrtle, and the Female Innovator Award for co-founder and COO Sophia Hamblin Wang.
Mission Innovation
MCi is part of Mission Innovation, a global initiative co-led by Australian Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen and Austrian Federal Minister Leonore Gewessler. Mission Innovation drives action and investment in research that accelerates progress toward Paris Agreement goals.
Global Recognition
• 2024 XPRIZE Top 100
• 2023 Finalist, Energy Tech Challenger
• 2023 AUNZ Climate Tech 100 – Holon IQ
• 2023 Hello Tomorrow Deep Tech Pioneer
• 2022 Technology Winner – The New York Times, T Australia
• 2022 Global Finalist – Xtreme Tech Challenge
Low-carbon and Negative Emissions Materials
MCi technology creates low-carbon and negative emissions materials – magnesium carbonate, calcium carbonate and amorphous silica – from this process. These new materials are direct inputs into building materials, such as concrete, and other valuable construction and consumer products.
Due to the saleable materials created from the process, MCi has a robust business model that does not completely rely on a carbon price to be profitable. Uniquely, the MCi process is also low pressure, low temperature and does not use chemical catalysts.
The ultimate flexibility of the technology is a key advantage for global scaling, with the addressable market including both emissions’ abatement customers and new low carbon and negative emissions materials manufacturers. MCi Carbon’s technology allows for customisation and adaptation to different industries and their specific needs.
Join the Race — Join the Race — Join the Race —
