CarbonLock – CSIRO

CarbonLock Future Science Platform

From 2022 to June 2026, CSIRO’s CarbonLock was a dedicated research initiative that developed novel carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Dr Andrew Lenton andrew.lenton@csiro.au

The FSP worked to develop the cornerstone technologies that are fast, scalable, responsible, as well as cost-effective and permanent systems for capturing and storing carbon that could help the world limit further warming.

The main focus was engineering novel ways to accelerate solutions already found in nature with the help of innovative science and technology.

You can view the FSP research portfolio here.

Our researchers sought out land, seas and skies to find new carbon dioxide removal technologies. Exploring all possible avenues to design technologies that had potential to permanently sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Australia has the opportunity to take full advantage of growing carbon international markets and to identify opportunities for the export and deployment of novel technologies.

[Image shows a split circle and photos of different CSIRO activities flash through in either side of the circle and then the circle morphs into the CSIRO logo]

Narrator: CSIRO is Australia’s national science agency. We solve the greatest challenges through innovative science and technology.

[Images move through to show a smoking volcano, cracked dry earth, and a river flooding over a road]

The costs of climate change continue to rise.

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Australia must move quickly to reach its goal of net zero emissions by 2050.

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This requires both decarbonisation and the development of negative emissions technologies to remove atmospheric carbon dioxide.

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Current nature-based methods to do this provide important environmental co-benefits, but we need to go further.

[Images move through to show a CSIRO vehicle driving past solar panels, two people walking through a tunnel, a diver swimming amongst fish, a pipette filling test tubes, and two males looking at a 3D visual of wind turbines]

CSIRO’s CarbonLock Future Science Platform is addressing this challenge by driving innovation at the nexus of biology, chemistry and engineering to develop new negative emission technologies.

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CarbonLock’s research focuses on enabling capture and storage technologies and their integration to deliver permanent carbon removal that is verifiable, fast, scalable, cost-effective and permanent.

[Images move through of lights in a city at night, the corridor of a super computer, networking lines over a landscape, and the Investigator ship in the ocean surrounded by networking lines]

The CarbonLock FSP brings a multidisciplinary approach to build the foundations of tomorrow’s breakthrough’s in integrated negative emissions technologies.

[Images move through of a solar farm, the world globe with joining networking lines over the surface, a supercomputer corridor, and a researcher operating a Smart screen]

The future science and capability developed in CarbonLock will underpin new industries and reshape existing industries for Australia to solve the world’s greatest challenge.

[Images move through to show a profile and then facing view of a researcher walking towards the camera, and then clouds hanging over the mountain peaks at sunrise, and text appears: research.csiro.au/carbonlock/]

For more information about how CSIRO is driving innovation and supporting Australia’s transition to a net zero future, please visit the CarbonLock website.

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Developing novel carbon dioxide removal solutions for net zero and beyond

CarbonLock Future Science Platform

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