Achieving Negative Emissions in Production of Green Steel and Green Chemicals Using the VAMCO Family of Gas Separation Technologies

R&D Focus Areas:
Synthetic fuels and chemicals; Industrial feedstock processes

Lead Organisation:
The University of Newcastle

Partners:
ASCON Energy Pty Ltd

Status:
Active

Start date:
October 2023

Completion date:
June 2026

Key contacts:
Project Leader: Laureate Professor Behdad Moghtaderi: behdad.moghtaderi@newcastle.edu.au

Funding:
Australian Trailblazer for Recycling and Clean Energy (TRaCE) and ASCON Energy Pty Ltd

Project total cost:
AUD$6,270,341 (cash) including AUD$4,447,050 (cash) from ASCON Energy Pty Ltd and AUD$1,823,291 from TRaCE

Project summary description:
The vision underpinning this project is to enable the industry to achieve negative emissions status while producing green products such as green steel, hydrogen, and ammonia. This is accomplished through adoption of a family of gas separation technologies developed by the University of Newcastle researchers. Named generically “Versatile Advanced Methods of Cleaning Off-Gases (VAMCO)”, this family of technologies consists of:

• VAMCO-CH4 For point-source capture of methane using a propriety chemical looping process.
• VAMCO-CO2 For point-source capture of CO2 using a propriety calcium looping process.
• VAMCO-DAC For Direct Air Capture (DAC) of CO2 from air.
• VAMCO-H2 For hydrogen purification using a propriety membrane reactor technology.

To fulfill the above vision the project aims at pilot-scale validation and demonstration of VAMCO technologies at scales of ~1–10 m3/h and in doing so uplift their technical readiness level (TRL) from current levels (~4-5) to those of commercial products (8-9).

Related publications and key links:
Not applicable

Higher degree studies supported:
Three postdoctoral research fellows and one PhD student will be supported by this project.

 

November 2023