Joining forces to clean up carbon
AS the July 1 introduction of the carbon tax nears, what better time for the partners of a joint Australian-Israeli initiative to announce they could give brown-coal production a clean bill of health? A new process claims to virtually eliminate greenhouse-gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, potentially removing the carbon footprint from south-eastern Australia’s vast brown-coal resources.
AS the July 1 introduction of the carbon tax nears, what better time for the partners of a joint Australian-Israeli initiative to announce they could give brown-coal production a clean bill of health?
A new process claims to virtually eliminate greenhouse-gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, potentially removing the carbon footprint from south-eastern Australia’s vast brown-coal resources.
Australian company Greenearth Energy and its Israeli joint-venture partner NewCO2Fuels, headed by Professor Jacob Karni and his group based at Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science, have acquired an exclusive worldwide licence for the technology.
The process uses concentrated solar energy to break down carbon dioxide emissions into carbon monoxide and oxygen, and water into hydrogen and oxygen, enabling the creation of Syngas, a clean gaseous fuel for power plants, which in turn can generate liquid fuels, such as methanol, for motor vehicles.
Following successful trials, a pilot scheme will begin in around 18 months, according to Greenearth Energy chairman Rob Annells.
The project has been staked by Melbourne developer Les Erdi, who has an option to acquire the joint venture after it goes commercial. The veteran business icon encountered the technology by coincidence – a fundraising meeting was held at one of ErdiGroup’s hotels, and he was in the audience. Erdi told The AJN he was immediately attracted to the concept of stabilising fuel prices and securing clean energy, as well as the potential to export the technology to numerous markets around the globe.
Annells said carbon-conscious Victoria is the ideal launch pad when the process goes commercial. “In Australia, and Victoria particularly, we’ve had this extraordinary input as to how bad CO2 is; the average person has a better idea of it than any country in the world.”
Weizmann Australia last month launched Making Connections Australia to provide seed funding for collaborative research between Weizmann scientists and their leading Australian counterparts. Stephen Chipkin, Weizmann Australia chair, endorsed the energy conversion technology as “a wonderful example of the possible application of Weizmann’s world-leading scientific research for the benefit of Australia”.
PETER KOHN
comments