Carbon capture technology specialist Kapture has signed an agreement with concrete manufacturer Permacast to permanently store carbon dioxide (CO2) in Western Australia’s concrete infrastructure.
Kapture will provide Permacast with a proprietary material made from CO2 captured from diesel combustion.
The material will be used in Permacast’s precast concrete products, reported Australian Manufacturing.
“This partnership demonstrates that captured carbon can be transformed into valuable materials – and the journey to net-zero can be scalable and immediate,” Kapture founder and chief executive officer Raj Bagri said.
Earlier this year, Kapture completed its first commercial pilot, capturing five tonnes of CO2 from a 30 KVA diesel generator between January and March. The captured emissions were converted into a solid form and supplied to Permacast.
Permacast says that the CO2-embedded concrete ensures long-term carbon storage. Even in the event of demolition, the captured carbon remains locked in the solid material and does not re-enter the atmosphere.
“We’re proud to lead the charge in sustainable construction. Embedding captured CO2 into our concrete is a practical, permanent solution — and a powerful step toward a lower-carbon future,” Permacast chief executive officer Darren Hedley said.
Addressing Australia’s carbon emissions
Australia is a party to the Paris Agreement. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in the year to December 2023, annual net greenhouse gas emissions were 432.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
This is 29 percent below emissions in the year to June 2005 (the baseline year for Australia’s 2030 target under the Paris Agreement).
Annual net greenhouse gas emissions were down 0.5 percent (2.4 Mt CO2-e) on the previous year.
As for the Permacast and Kapture deal, Kapture says that its system is designed to retrofit onto any diesel engine, capturing up to 90 percent of CO2 emissions before they are released into the atmosphere.
The process is plug-and-play, requires no engine modifications and uses non-toxic, non-hazardous chemicals to turn CO2 into a usable solid.
Kapture’s next focus will be on regulatory validation, scaling up production, and forming new partnerships to expand its reach.
Photograph: Supplied
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