Locking away CO2 - for good.
Flue-gas integration
Product creation
Energy efficient
Pioneers of Mineral Carbonation Innovation
MCi Carbon has re-engineered the Earth’s natural process of storing CO2 called mineral carbonation, or weathering. This process of converting CO2 into minerals usually occurs over millions of years geologically but MCi have sped up that process to a matter of minutes in an industrial setting.
MCi technology combines captured CO2 with a mineral feedstock, including industrial wastes like steel slag, mine tailings or raw quarried minerals, to produce magnesium carbonate, calcium carbonate and amorphous silica. Third parties formulate these new products into cements, concretes, plasterboards, papers, glass, and other industrial products.
Capturing and transforming direct flue gases, the CO2 used in the process does not need to be high purity. Captured carbon can be effectively and efficiently utilised with MCi’s technology platform, creating value and permanency – rather than simply sequestering or storing the CO2.
As the world transitions to net zero and beyond, governments and pioneers of the built environment will search for methods to reduce embodied carbon in new infrastructure developments, MCi’s materials offer new pathways for building materials manufacturers to decarbonise their offering to developers.
Breakthrough in technoeconomics
Award-winning and world leading, the MCi Carbon Pilot Plant facility is one of the first-of-its-kind in the world and has operating since 2016.
Located at the Newcastle Institute of Energy and Resources, the plant hosts a team of research engineers who gather engineering scale-up data to continually improve the technology, test material samples for use in the carbonation process and assess their CO2 abatement, and manufacture product materials for offtake partners to assess their performance.
MCi has been able to design a scalable system that is able to combine various industrial emissions, different feedstock sources and create a variety of output products.
It is this flexible design that allows MCi to rapidly validate global customer projects and dramatically reduce timelines for final investment decisions on future decarbonisation plants.
The next stage in the company’s scale-up is Myrtle, Australia’s CCU Flagship and a facility purpose built for customer campaigns and rapid validation of decarbonisation and feedstock scenarios.
The Basic Elements for Success
The basic elements for success
1. CO2 Source
MCi can capture direct flue gases, meaning the CO2 used in the process does not need to be high purity. This means we can integrate directly into your facility with largely off-the-shelf equipment.
2. Mineral Feedstock
We react CO2 with a mineral feedstock, usually an industrial waste like steel slag, mine tailings or raw quarried minerals. This process is low-temperature and low-pressure and is energy efficient.
3. Markets for Low-Carbon Materials
The process results in the creation of saleable low-carbon materials, magnesium carbonate, calcium carbonate and/or amorphous silica. Third party offtake partners use these in new products.
Product Applications
Product applications
Low-carbon concrete
Paper, paints, plastics and glass
Plasterboard
Research & Development — Research & Development —
Meet Myrtle
In 2021, MCi Carbon was awarded AUD $14.6 million from the Australian Federal government to accelerate the development and construction of a mineral carbonation demonstration plant.
‘Myrtle’ is a groundbreaking project aimed at scaling up the development and demonstration of cost-competitive solutions for efficiently decarbonising hard-to-abate industries globally.
On April 11 2023, the MCi Carbon Plant ‘Myrtle’ was approved by Newcastle City Council. It will be one of the world’s first mineral carbonation demonstration plants, converting thousands of tonnes of CO2 emissions annually into building products and other valuable materials for the circular economy.
Myrtle will operate rapid validation customer campaigns, empowering hard-to-abate industries, such as steel, cement, chemicals, and mining, to decarbonise their operations.
Construction of Myrtle at Orica’s Kooragang Island manufacturing site began in 2023, attached to a supply of CO2 emissions from Orica’s operations. The scale of the plant is expected to be over 1000 tonnes of CO2, captured and stored permanently in building materials and other valuable products annually.
We're on the Race to Net Zero
Carbon Capture and Utilisation
Scale-up commercialisation in Austria
Austria’s RHI Magnesita and MCi Carbon signed a long-term strategic cooperation agreement in early 2023. At the same time, the global market leader of the refractories industry made a multi-million-dollar investment into MCi’s carbon capture and utilisation technology.
As MCi’s first global commercial customer, RHI Magnesita intends to explore the deployment pathway of MCi’s decarbonisation solution to significantly reduce their Scope 1 emissions (and Scope 3), supporting an industrial scale-up of the technology in the near future.
MCi Carbon are planning to build their first industrial large-scale plant, together with RHI Magnesita, the leading global supplier of high‐grade refractory products, systems, and solutions, in Hochfilzen, Austria.
RHI Magnesita has committed an additional multi-million-dollar investment into testing and scale-up of MCi Carbon’s technology in preparation for the commercial roll-out at Hochfilzen, a project planned for 2028 which will capture and transform approx. 50,000 tons of CO2 per year and create mineral value products that are carbon negative.
In preparation, MCi Carbon will conduct trial campaigns to assess scale up of the technology at the demonstration carbon capture and utilization plant ‘Myrtle’ located in Newcastle, Australia. RHI Magnesita supplies refractory bricks for lining kilns in the cement and steel industry.
The partnership with RHI Magnesita opened up a new product application that was not initially anticipated. MCi Carbon’s technology was selected as the number one choice by RHI Magnesita for decarbonising their industry after years of searching for a solution.
Mineral Carbonation Research Pilot Plant
MCi Carbon’s semi-continuous Research Pilot Plant is located at the Newcastle Institute of Energy and Resources and is one of the first-of-its-kind in the world.
A proudly Australian innovation, the pilot plant is a clean technology and carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) validation project, empowering industries to reimagine carbon emissions and other industrial waste streams as a valuable resource in the circular transition.
The plant conducts intensive industrial programs to refine the patented mineral carbonation process, delivering global customer projects, and generating low-carbon materials for product testing as part of MCi Carbon’s greater circular transition initiative.
World-leading and award-winning
MCi has shared this innovation with the world, winning first prize at the Clean Energy Start-up Pitch Battle at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, building momentum as a global brand #1 Global Cleantech at COP26, against 2700 competitors
MCi Carbon was awarded the prestigious 2022 NSW Clean Technology Award for breakthroughs achieved at their Pilot Plant facility in Newcastle, presented by the Banksia Foundation. In 2023, MCi Carbon was awarded the Circular Transition Prize at the 34th National Sustainability Awards, presented by the Banksia Foundation.
In 2023, at a ceremony held at the COP28 Australia Pavilion in Dubai, MCi Carbon was announced as the winner of two categories – ‘Most Outstanding Project’ Australia for ‘Myrtle’ and Female Innovator Award for MCi Carbon co-founder and COO Sophia Hamblin Wang.
The Net Zero Industries Mission is co-led by Australian Federal Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen and Austrian Federal Minister for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology Leonore Gewessler. Mission Innovation is a global initiative to catalyse action and investment in research that will accelerate progress towards the Paris Agreement goals and pathways to net zero.
In addition, MCi Carbon has received global recognition:
- 2024 XPRIZE Top 100
- 2023 Finalist, Energy Tech Challenger
- 2023 AUNZ Climate Tech 100 — Holon IQ
- 2023 Hello Tomorrow Deep Tech Pioneer
- 2022 Technology Winner — The New York Times, T Australia
- 2022 Global Finalist — Xtreme Tech Challenge
Low-carbon and Negative Emissions Materials
MCi technology creates low-carbon and negative emissions materials – magnesium carbonate, calcium carbonate and amorphous silica – from this process. These new materials are direct inputs into building materials, such as concrete, and other valuable construction and consumer products.
Due to the saleable materials created from the process, MCi has a robust business model that does not completely rely on a carbon price to be profitable. Uniquely, the MCi process is also low pressure, low temperature and does not use chemical catalysts.
The ultimate flexibility of the technology is a key advantage for global scaling, with the addressable market including both emissions’ abatement customers and new low carbon and negative emissions materials manufacturers. MCi Carbon’s technology allows for customisation and adaptation to different industries and their specific needs.
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