Carbon capture technologies

[CSIRO logo with text: My science. My story. OCE Science Leaders]

[Image shows a roller door opening and Dr Paul Feron walking through, into a factory and speaking with various employees]

[Image changes to Dr Paul Feron, OCE Science Leader, 2007-2011, Energy Flagship]

Dr Paul Feron: I work on a concept called CCS - CO₂ capture and storage. This is particularly important for Australia because we generate 75% of our electricity using coal and that generates a lot of CO₂ emissions, and we have concerns about CO₂ emissions in terms of global warming and climate change. We're interested in developing a technology which can use the coal but not have the CO₂ emissions.

[Image changes to show images of the factory]

The rig that you see behind me is actually doing that, it's capturing CO₂ from gases and concentrating that to pure CO₂. And that is then transported to a location where it's stored underground.

[Image changes back to Dr Feron]

The science that I'm involved in is really about capturing CO₂ and looking at various methods and trying to reduce the cost of the capture process because the cost of the capture process is a very important obstacle in terms of further development and deployment of this technology.

[Image changes to show Dr Feron talking with a colleauge in a laboratory]

During my OCE term I focused on integrating a number of different sciences into a process which will reduce capture costs. So my role has been really to integrate these various disciplines into a better CO₂ capture process. I was able to publish a lot more about the work that I've been doing and my colleagues were doing as well, so it's really raised my science profile globally.

[Image changes to show laboratory equipment with pipes and gauges then back to Dr Feron]

But in addition to that the OCE Science Leadership provided me with an opportunity to engage with Chinese power companies and also Chinese technology vendors.

[Image changes again to Dr Feron and the laboratory employee and back to Dr Feron]

And this is quite important in terms of further deployment of this particular technology because CO₂ emissions are growing hardest in countries like China and India. The developing countries who are developing their economies on the basis of coal and that's been a particular highlight of my work thus far.

[CSIRO logo appears with text: Big ideas start here www.csiro.au]