The Co-operative Research Centre for CO2 has developed a new technology to capture carbon dioxide from coal-fired power stations.
Chief executive Peter Cook announced the breakthrough at a conference on carbon capture and storage (CCS) in Melbourne today.
CCS is the process of removing carbon dioxide from coal-fired power stations, concentrating it in a solvent and injecting it into underground reservoirs.
Capturing emissions is the most expensive part of the process and can use potentially volatile solvents.
Chief technologist Barry Hooper says they’ve developed a benign solvent made of environmentally friendly potassium carbonate.
“It’s somewhat similar to baking soda. You end up the potassium carbonate reacts to form a bicarbonate and then is recycled,” he said.
“The interesting thing about this is it can also be used to deal with the impurities that often come in with the CO2 that’s emitted from industrial processes.”
Meanwhile, a cental Queensland academic says the Prime Minister might be wasting money by trying to set a price on carbon as soon as next year.
Julia Gillard made the pledge yesterday.
But CQ University professor John Rolfe says putting a price on it isn’t going to do much to help stop climate change.
“There should be ongoing pressure on the government to identify what are they actually going to achieve from it,” he says.
“Is there going to be a large change? Is it going to be in accordance with what the rest of the world does and would the money be better off spent somewhere else?”
