The petroleum industry is highly dependent on leading edge technology and innovation. In a uniquely Australian model, the Australian Government actively supports this innovation through the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) Program. This program brings together industry, tertiary institutions and research organisations such as the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and Geoscience Australia.
The Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (CO2CRC) is collaborating with industry, universities and government agencies to determine the economic and environmental benefits of the capture and deep geological storage of carbon dioxide (CO2).
The geological environment is a major natural long-term sink for CO2 (much longer term than vegetation for example). Since 1999 the CO2CRC has been undertaking world-class research into deep geological storage of CO2 through its GEODISCTM program and has shown that Australia has a very high potential for cost effective geological storage of CO2.
The CO2CRC also collaborates with some of the world's leading research organisations in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and North America. It has in place a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the University of Regina and the Petroleum Technology Research Centre in Canada. The MOU aims to integrate capture and storage research in Australia and Canada.
The CO2CRC also has close links with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in the USA with five defined collaborative projects.
The CO2CRC is currently engaged in the development of a geosequestration research project in western Victoria (The Otway Basin Pilot Project) which will inject carbon dioxide produced from a natural accumulation in the subsurface into a depleted natural gas field in the same vicinity. This research project aims to simulate the capture of CO2 from power stations and demonstrate, under Australian conditions, that CO2 can be safely captured, transported and stored underground for thousands of years.
The commercial arm of the CO2CRC provides the path for the commercial application of research outputs and also offers consultancy services in geological sequestration of CO2. Further information can be found at: www.co2crc.com.au.