KC8 Capture Technologies to build carbon capture plant

Processing engineering firm KC8 Capture Technologies will construct and install a demonstration plant to capture carbon dioxide at one of Australia’s largest cement producers, Cement Australia’s facility in Gladstone.

The deal marks Cement Australia’s move into carbon capture and storage amid growing pressure on heavy industry to reduce emissions, including in hard-to-abate sectors.

KC8 said its solvent-based carbon capture processes were highly efficient and cost-effective. The system had the potential to capture up to 95 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions from heavy industry sources, such as cement plants, the firm said.

Labelled the PACER project, meaning Potassium Carbonate Absorption for Clinker Emissions Reduction, Cement Australia will support KC8 in scaling up the company’s technology with the aim to make carbon capture affordable and sustainable and reduce climate impacts. The plant is expected to be built by the second quarter of 2023, with testing and full operations to follow.

Cement Australia’s move into carbon capture and storage comes as heavy emitters come under greater pressure to reduce their climate impact and contribute to emissions reduction efforts.

Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen is preparing to strengthen Australia’s “safeguard mechanism”, which compels the top 215 industrial polluters that together cause 28 per cent of the country’s emissions to decarbonise their operations or offset their emissions by purchasing carbon credits.

The safeguard mechanism, established under the former Coalition government in 2016, requires industrial facilities that generate more than 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases a year, such as coal mine sites, gas plants, aluminium smelters and cement producers.

Baseline emission limits are intended to be progressively lowered, but critics say limits have been so high that the policy is ineffective.

Carbon capture and storage enjoyed strong support from the Morrison government, but Labor in its first budget stripped $250 million from such projects. KC8 was one of the companies to have funding cancelled.

Carbon capture and storage proponents have accused the Albanese government of turning its back on the sector despite its potential to help Australia reach net zero by 2050.

Australia’s largest cement group, Adbri, earlier this year said it and other cement companies needed a major chemical technology breakthrough to make big cuts in carbon emissions beyond 2030.

Adbri aims to have all of its electricity supply coming from renewable energy sources by 2030. The company said if firming capacity were needed from non-renewable energy, it intended to offset the associated emissions.