Key points
- Tenacity has underpinned our research journey to move carbon capture from lab concepts to globally deployable technologies.
- Recognition and characterisation of breakthrough chemistries have set benchmarks for efficiency and stability in CO₂ capture.
- Strategic collaborations are engaging Australian innovation with the global carbon capture market.
In Australia, carbon capture and storage has significant potential for climate change mitigation because of its large geological storage resources. According to the International Energy Agency’s 2023 Net Zero Roadmap, reaching net zero emissions by 2050 requires capturing 6+ billion tonnes of global CO₂ annually by mid-century. This includes CO₂ from fossil fuels, industrial processes, bioenergy, and ambient air.
CSIRO works across the CCS spectrum, often at the leading edge of the research and its commercialisation. A recent independent study, The Carbon Capture and Storage Impact Assessment Report (CCSIAR), outlines our instrumental role in progressing CCS research and development during the past 25 years.
When CSIRO began major Australian CCS research in the late 1990s, the technologies lacked frameworks, monitoring systems and commercial validation. Today, our collaborations have expanded the frontiers of CCS - bridging laboratory research and field deployment, building confidence in technical feasibility, safety and scalability.
The dominance of the capture component in the overall cost of CCS has seen CSIRO pioneer absorbent-based carbon capture technologies.
At its heart is a family of specially formulated chemical absorbent solutions - using cyclic amines - that have been tested, refined and proven through a series of multi-stakeholder pilot plant trials across the country and the globe.
The science behind absorbents
CSIRO’s early research cast a wide net, exploring everything from ionic liquids and enzymes to known and novel amines. The goal: stable chemical compounds that can rapidly and selectively bind to CO2, but also efficiently release it on demand when heated.
CSIRO researchers were able to find gaps in the conventional wisdom that fast-reacting absorbents would result in a more energy intensive process. By tailoring the absorbent formulations, it was possible to have both high absorption rates and low energy requirements.
Through screening hundreds of compounds for their overall process performance, researchers identified cyclic amines based on a secondary amine called piperidine as particularly promising due to their fast reaction rates and large CO₂ capture capacity.
Their rigid chemical structure also meant energy is used more efficiently during regeneration - the process of releasing captured CO₂ - and were stable at high temperature. However, in harsh conditions like those found in coal power station flue gas, they reacted with other substances such as nitrogen oxides, creating harmful by-products and limiting their usefulness.
In response, the team developed compounds dubbed aromatic amines, which combine the benefits of tough and rigid cyclic molecular structures with primary amines that don’t react to form side products.
Following assessment and characterisation in the lab, these aromatic amines went on to be tested in pilot plants, with the learning from real-world operation guiding further improvements.
Trials, tribulations and breakthroughs
CSIRO’s pilot plant campaigns, in collaboration with industry partners at their facilities where carbon capture would need to occur, have been central to testing and improving these absorbents. Initial trials with benzylamine (BZA), our first-generation aromatic amine, showed good capture performance but also revealed operational challenges. At high concentrations, BZA vapour formed solids that clogged equipment.
To overcome these issues, CSIRO developed derivatives that retained the strengths of BZA while eliminating the drawbacks. One such derivative was selected for a long-term trial at the Loy Yang coal power station in Victoria. The trial, conducted in a 20 kg CO₂/hour pilot plant designed by Japanese engineering firm IHI Corporation, marked a major milestone but was not without setbacks.
Initially the absorbent degraded faster than expected by reaction with oxygen under industrial conditions. After further investigations into the nature of the degradation and the degradation mechanism, the team reformulated the absorbent, resulting in a more robust version that maintained high capture efficiency over 5,000 hours of continuous operation.
“That trial was a turning point,” said Dr Graeme Puxty, CSIRO Principal Research Scientist. “It showed how quickly we could adapt and improve the chemistry based on our expertise, real-world feedback and teamwork between scientists and engineers.”
Bringing carbon capture technology to the global market
The successful commercialisation of carbon capture technology by US-based ION Clean Energy provides a clear line of sight from CSIRO's publicly funded research to a major commercial outcome, demonstrating the world-class quality of the science.
Momentum for collaboration increased rapidly when ION’s leadership learned of performance data on the new absorbent system developed at CSIRO. Following discussions and the sharing of additional technical details ION’s leadership believed the technology to be superior to other solutions available at the time, and initiated a strategic R&D collaboration between the two organisations.
Since then, CSIRO and ION have partnered to continue developing the technology to prepare for the global market. In 2024, ION completed a very successful Series A financing round receiving investment from multiple large organisations. CSIRO also benefits from the commercial agreements in place.
"We have a great appreciation for our relationship with CSIRO,” said ION CEO Tim Vail.
“They’re an important partner for us today and will remain so into the future as we work to continue commercial deployment of the technology and our R&D collaboration efforts.”
CSIRO’s collaborative and long-term work in absorbent-based carbon capture technologies underpins our pursuit and commitment to realising the future potential of CCS.
This work, and the recent CCSIAR study more widely, demonstrate how Australian research and development can be leveraged to build capability and accelerate decarbonisation efforts globally.