Australian cleantech MCi Carbon (MCi) has been awarded the prestigious NSW Clean Technology Award for breakthroughs achieved at their Pilot Plant facility in Newcastle.
Presented by the Banksia Foundation, the NSW Sustainability Awards were announced last week on Tuesday by the NSW Treasurer and Energy Minister, The Hon. Matt Kean. The event was supported by the NSW Government and sponsored by EY and the United Nations Association of Australia (UNAA) NSW Division.
MCi Carbon’s semi-continuous research Pilot Plant is one of the first-of-its-kind in the world. The plant conducts intensive industrial programs to refine the patented mineral carbonation process, deliver customer projects, and generate low-carbon materials for product testing.
“It is an honour to be recognised by the most prestigious sustainability awards in Australia”, says Marcus Dawe, MCi Carbon CEO. “The MCi team, with our engineers in Newcastle, should be proud of their achievements being celebrated alongside other stellar projects and initiatives, undertaken in accordance with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.”
Banksia Foundation CEO Graz van Egmond commended this year’s winners for their ambition, creativity, and innovation.
“Our judges were impressed by the calibre of this year’s winners and especially, the young leaders who are inspiring local communities to take climate actions,” says Ms van Egmond.
Located at the University of Newcastle NIER facility, the plant reacts industrial emissions with feedstocks, such as low-grade minerals, tailings and waste, creating both carbonates and silica by-products for use in building materials, such as concretes and plasterboards, demonstrating the potential to create value from CO2.
As a winner inthe NSW Sustainability Awards, MCi Carbon will be automatically entered into the 34th National Banksia Sustainability Awards. The winners of the national awards will be announcedin March 2023.
MCi Carbon sits firmly within a portfolio of carbon utilisation technologies that will ultimately be required to meet the Paris Agreement climate change targets. MCi is creating negative emission and low-carbon embodied materials for the circular economy, transforming CO2 into powder-like materials to beused in a range of products with climate benefits. This innovation reduces the per capita environmental impact of cities by utilising these materials. In addition, MCi utilises waste products, such as steel slag or mine tailings, as a resource in the mineral carbonation process, increasing resource-use efficiency across hard-to-abate industries.
MCi technology reduces CO2 emissions from hard-to-abate industries that cannot immediately achieve emission reduction targets through renewable energy adoption alone. Through partnerships, MCi is helping decarbonise international customers in industries like steel, cement, mining, chemicals, manufacturing, and energy through their transition to net zero. These sectors emit more than six billion tonnes of CO2 annually into the atmosphere.
For more information
MCi Carbon (MCi)
Todd McHenry
Email: comms@mineralcarbonation.com
Phone: +61 422 488 512
For more info about the Banksia Foundation, visit their website
