Media Release: Musk Foundation XPRIZE Carbon Removal

Southern Green Gas (SGG) congratulates the Sydney Sustainable Carbon Team from the University of Sydney on winning a US$250,000 Student Prize awarded by the Elon Musk funded XPRIZE Carbon Removal. They are amongst only 23 prize winning student teams chosen from 195 applicants globally.

The award funding is well deserved international recognition for the Sydney Sustainable Carbon Team’s collaboration with SGG in developing Direct Air Capture of CO2 (DAC) technology as a scalable and sustainable solution for capturing atmospheric CO2.

SGG sees DAC as a potential “platform technology” for large scale deployment in multiple applications directed towards mitigating the effects of climate change. These include the manufacture of e-fuels such as Renewable Methane and the capture and storage of atmospheric CO2 for Carbon Removal.
The Wallumbilla Renewable Methane Demonstration Project is SGG’s first initiative, with project partner APA Group, supported by funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), and the involvement of the University of Sydney and the University of Newcastle. The project will generate cost and technical data to assist the joint potential commercialisation effort by SGG and APA into the feasibility of larger commercial scale, renewable methane production.

SGG’s second initiative is a memorandum of understanding with project developer Corporate Carbon. This entails a future collaboration for a 1 tonne per day carbon capture and storage project at Moomba, with the potential to scale-up at Moomba or at other storage sites.
Once demonstrated in the field, solar powered DAC units could be deployed at large scale in Australia’s solar rich and extensive regional lands for both Renewable Methane and Carbon Removal projects. Together these two DAC applications can drive scale and lower unit costs to the benefit of both applications. SGG is also collaborating with Swiss Re on risk transfer mechanisms to help scale up Carbon Removal as an industry.

“The Sydney Sustainable Carbon Team led by Professor Deanna D’Alessandro are world leaders in their field of metal organic frameworks (MOFs) technology and its application to DAC. In addition, they are innovative problem solvers and true collaborators, and we look forward to continuing thisimportant work with them,” said Southern Green Gas Managing Director, Rohan Gillespie.