The Australian Government has awarded almost $50 million to build a research facility that will help make cuts to Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The National Geosequestration Laboratory (NGL), being built in Perth, will provide critical research to advance technologies to store CO2 emissions securely and safely underground.
The geological storage of CO2 is a key technology that can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere by injecting the gases into deep underground rock formations.
The NGL will play a crucial role in achieving a low-emission economy for Australia and reducing its carbon footprint.
The NGL, based at the Australian Resources Research Centre, is a collaboration between CSIRO, the University of Western Australia and Curtin University.
It will conduct research to support the design and implementation of commercial-scale CO2 storage programs, such as Western Australia's South West Hub Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Flagship project.
Launching the project, the Minister for Science and Research, Senator Chris Evans, said the NGL will be one of the most significant international centres for research, training and technology development for the global resources sector.
The commercial use of carbon capture and storage technologies is expected to drive significant emissions reductions in Australia's electricity generation sector.
The NGL will provide critical research to develop innovative solutions to minimise any risk associated with the long term storage of CO2.
Lead agency CSIRO received $48.4 million from the Federal Government's Education Investment Fund for the project.
The new National Geosequestration Laboratory was officially opened recently by Senator the Hon Chris Evans, Tim Griffin, WA Department of Mines and Petroleum, Dr Tom Hatton, CSIRO and Dr Linda Stalker, CSIRO. The project is worth $48.4 million for CSIRO and will promote the wider use of carbon capture and storage technologies to capture CO2 emissions and safely store it underground in stable geological formations. The group are at CSIRO’s MicroCT Scanner in the Rock Mechanics Laboratory.
The NGL provides opportunities for large scale collaboration on a local, national and international scale between government, industry and the community, and is expected to be a drawcard for attracting international research talent and cooperation.
The facility will operate as a ‘hub and spoke’ model and be centred at the Australian Resources Research Centre at Technology Park, Kensington, with nodes at other Australian sites forming part of the overall facility.
The first NGL research node will be built at The University of Western Australia and house a CCS geophysics and geochemistry research facility.
The NGL will support projects under the $1.68 billion CCS Flagships program, a component of the Federal Government's Clean Energy Future package.
The program promotes the wider use of CCS technologies to capture CO2 emissions from industrial processes and safely store CO2 underground in stable geological formations.
Check out the video explaining CCS.