Australia-based carbon capture and utilisation company Airbridge has secured the maximum A$1.5 million ($660,755) grant under the Government of Western Australia Carbon Innovation Grants Program Round 2 administered by the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation.
The project will see Airbridge scale its technology from an operational Perth pilot into heavy industry in the Pilbara.
The funding will support a pilot project at Yara Pilbara Fertilisers’ ammonia and ammonium nitrate facility on the Burrup Peninsula, in Western Australia, one of the world’s largest ammonia production sites, as part of a broader effort to decarbonise emissions-intensive industrial processes in the state.
The Airbridge-Yara Commercialisation Project will involve the design, construction and operation of a pilot plant capable of capturing at least 2,000 t/y of carbon dioxide from Yara’s low-concentration, hard-to-abate emissions streams.
The captured CO₂ will be mineralised and converted into commercially valuable products commonly used in already established markets.
Airbridge already operates a pilot plant at Jandakot in Perth, where its patented reactor technology is capturing carbon dioxide under real-world operating conditions.
The Pilbara project represents the next stage of commercialisation, moving from a controlled pilot environment into a fully integrated heavy-industry site, Airbridge says.
Airbridge Chief Executive Officer, Nick Lockwood (pictured), said the transition from pilot operation to industrial deployment was a deliberate and disciplined step.
“We have spent the last several years proving the chemistry, the engineering and the operability of the system in Jandakot,” Lockwood said. “This project is about taking a technology that already works and integrating it into a live industrial process, where reliability, uptime and economics matter just as much as capture performance.”
Airbridge’s globally patented process operates at ambient temperature and pressure, allowing it to be retrofitted into existing industrial facilities without the energy penalties typically associated with conventional carbon capture systems operating at high pressures and temperatures.
For Yara, the pilot offers a potential pathway to materially reduce emissions from a hard-to-abate sector widely regarded as among the most difficult to decarbonise.
Yara Pilbara’s facility produces approximately 840,000 t/y of ammonia, supplying this commodity to range of Australian and overseas customers.
Yara Pilbara Chief Operating Officer, Laurent Trost, said the project aligned with the company’s broader decarbonisation strategy while remaining grounded in operational reality.
“Ammonia production is critically important but inherently emissions-intensive, and there are limited options available today that can be integrated into existing plants,” he said. “This pilot allows us to test a decarbonisation solution that fits our current operations and converts emissions into value-added products we already manufacture and use.
“Yara is proud to align itself with Western Australian companies like Airbridge that produce solutions locally. We are well placed to support this important research and development solving the challenges associated with decarbonisation.”
Construction and commissioning are expected to commence from 2027, with the project designed to validate technical performance, operating costs and commercial returns.
Lockwood added: “This pilot is about demonstrating that emissions can be treated as a feedstock, not just a liability, and that decarbonisation can be achieved without undermining industrial competitiveness.”
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