Helping Australia meet emissions targets
This sort of carbon capture technology utilises plastic waste to produce polymeric nano-porous carbon sorbent tailored to capture and store CO2 gases.
An Israeli company is interested in investors and clients in Australia for an innovative carbon capture technology.
Sharon Malka, CEO of Dotz Nano, visited Australia recently to spruik the innovative approach, developed at Rice University in Houston. This technology is crucial for industries notorious for their high carbon emissions, such as oil, gas, cement and steel, and is seen as a vital step towards decarbonisation and meeting stringent global CO2 reduction targets.
This sort of carbon capture technology utilises plastic waste to produce polymeric nano-porous carbon sorbent tailored to capture and store CO2 gases.
Once captured, the CO2 is compressed and can be utilised in different processes or injected into deep geological formations like depleted oil and gas reservoirs or saline aquifers.
Dotz Nano’s efforts in Australia are an example of the way technological innovations are adopted in Western nations at the moment.
Universities and research institutes originate ideas which are then developed, prototyped and marketed by entrepreneurial companies, quite a few of them in Israel, which has become an international hub for high-tech innovation.
These companies get financial backing from investors and the technology then (hopefully) starts to be used commercially once its viability is demonstrated.
During Malka’s visit to Australia, his focus was twofold: to engage with potential investors, shareholders, and brokers; and to lay the groundwork for future partnerships aimed at actually implementing and testing their technology across various high-emission industries.
Malka’s discussions in Australia were not just limited to financial backing but extended to finding partners willing to adopt this technology to significantly reduce their carbon footprint.
These industries, referred to as “hard emitters”, are among the largest contributors to CO2 emissions due to the energy-intensive nature of their operations.
The technology being introduced aims at point source carbon reduction, targeting the direct emissions from these industrial facilities to curb the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere.
Australia’s commitment to reducing CO2 emissions, albeit lagging behind other regions like Europe and the US, is on the rise with established goals and incentives for carbon reduction.
“The [first] goal is to get about a four to seven per cent decrease by 2030. The second one is of course providing a pricing mechanism around it [such as] carbon credits for reductions of CO2 where the government provides carbon credits that provide those emitters with a financial incentive, as well as … penalties for emitters,” Malka said.
The response from potential Australian users and investors has been overwhelmingly positive.
“It’s a process. It’s not something that they buy off the shelf and tomorrow they have a technology, or they have a solution. They have to adopt the technology, develop a pathway and set a pathway forward in order to meet these goals,” Malka said.
He said the technology is primarily in the development stage and will likely take three to five years to get there.
Malka said that is why everyone has started already exploring and assessing different technologies.
Discussions have already begun with leading emitters in Australia.
Despite the challenging circumstances in Israel with the war in Gaza right now, Malka said that these have not impacted the company’s mission in Australia.
Looking ahead, Malka said the Australian market is very important, not only as a source of capital investment but also as a critical arena for the application of their carbon capture technology.
“Our goal is to demonstrate a pilot-scale unit within the next six months,” Malka said.
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