Australian carbon capture company gets first commercial customer

Austrian-headquartered refractory materials maker RHI Magnesita will become both a shareholder in and the first commercial customer of Canberra-based carbon capture and storage startup MCi Carbon.

RHI leads the world in manufacture of refractory materials, used in high-temperature industrial processes. The size of their investment was not given.

According to a statement from MCi, RHI will “explore the deployment pathway of MCi’s decarbonisation solution” to bring down Scope 1 emissions, supporting an industrial scale-up of the technology on Kooragang Island in Newcastle, NSW. 

MCi captures industrial emissions and utilises them to make products and materials using a chemical process called mineral carbonation.

“MCi Carbon and RHI Magnesita have formed a values-led collaboration to accelerate the  scaling of MCi’s ‘Circular Carbon Platform’”, said MCi Carbon co-founder and CEO Marcus Dawe.  

“After a year of successful pilot studies, RHI Magnesita will be MCi’s first commercial customer  and a shareholder, helping advance the technology and decarbonise the global refractories  industry.”

The two companies have been exploring MCi’s technology to abate carbon dioxide and create magnesium  carbonate with a lower emissions profile for use in select RHI Magnesita refractory production facilities.

Describing the partnership as a potential decarbonisation breakthrough and a seamless match for RHI’s sustainability strategy, CEO Stefan Borgas said: “We  still have a long way to go but our early-stage investment and the clear intention of a long-term  collaboration make this day so memorable.”

Picture: supplied