CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA: Australia’s national science agency has launched a new research programme to develop new ways to remove carbon from the atmosphere of the Earth.
CarbonLock is a 20 million Australian dollar initiative announced on Wednesday, focusing on innovative and new avenues to permanently store carbon dioxide (CO2) and prevent it from becoming part of the atmosphere.
It is the most recent Future Science Platform (FSP) from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). It is only one of many lengthy initiatives that the organization is working on to generate essential discoveries.
The development of negative emissions technologies (NETs), according to CarbonLock director Andrew Lenton, will be essential for Australia to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius and to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
In a press statement, he stated that “NETs are crucial to Australia’s aim of reaching net-zero emissions” because they provide a promising solution to keep global warming far below 2 C above pre-industrial levels. CarbonLock is focused on producing the next generation of long-term carbon storage to complement research on geological CCS and nature-based carbon storage technologies.”
DAC collects CO2 from atmosphere
In addition to CCS, the team will investigate the potential of direct air capture (DAC), a newly developed technique that collects CO2 from the atmosphere and stores it for use or disposal in the future.
Lenton stated, “Our research will look into new materials that can speed up and scale up DAC, including training artificial intelligence to develop novel composite materials. We are also investigating the enormous potential of in-situ mineral carbonation, which entails converting carbon dioxide into stone by interacting with the rock to create new rock. Australia has a significant edge in this regard.” — APP
