Overview
The background
The Queensland Carbon Hub is based on a decade of collaboration between the Australian Government and LETA in developing low emission technology.
The hub is designed to create business, improve energy security and sustainability and harness the social and economic benefits of Australia’s natural resources in the transition to a low emissions economy.
The work
Australia’s first carbon hub will be built on the foundations of Glencore’s Carbon Transport and Storage Company (CTSCo) Project in southern Queensland. This integrated project involves building a carbon capture plant and permanent storage infrastructure, which will see carbon emissions captured, transported and stored, and prove the ability to store up to three billion tonnes of CO2 in the region.
The work at Glencore’s CTSCo Project will attract new carbon-based industries, including clean hydrogen production, enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and recycling carbon for industrial uses. It is predicted to create hundreds of jobs.
Carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) hubs are being encouraged by the International Energy Agency (IEA) to support new technology investment for emissions reduction. The Queensland hub will be similar to cross-industry hubs in Teeside in the UK, the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Norway’s Full Chain CCS project.
The outcomes
Once operational the Queensland Carbon Hub will see CO2 captured from a variety of existing industries including coal and natural gas-fired electricity generation and biofuel production. It will also create an industrial-scale carbon storage facility as well as a mechanism to reuse captured CO2 – two measures critical to Australia meeting its international climate commitments.
As it unlocks new, clean industries and energy sources, the hub will help establish Australia as a world leader in low emission technology and exporter of clean energy.