Carbon Loop #012
🎂 The birthday edition -- Hubs, NDCs and GtLs
🎂 The birthday edition!
Thanks to all the subscribers that have supported this nerdy newsletter for the last 12 months.
Asian CCUS Hubs Study ..
Several heavy-hitting globals are collaborating to investigate the potential for CCUS hubs in Asia and Northern Australia. The consortium brings together BHP (bhp.com), which is leading the study, alongside steel giants ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India (AM/NS India) (amns.in), JSW Steel (jswsteel.in), and Hyundai Steel (hyundai-steel.com), as well as energy and infrastructure players Chevron (chevron.com) and Mitsui & Co. (mitsui.com). Together they aim to test the feasibility of shared capture, transport and storage networks that could aggregate emissions from multiple industrial sites, reduce costs through scale, and enable cross-border CO₂ storage — a model seen as essential for decarbonising steel and other hard-to-abate sectors.
Our world simply doesn’t work without a reliable supply of steel. So finding a way to produce it at a lower carbon-intensity isn’t just a nice-to-have solution, it’s a “gee it would be good if our buildings and bridges would stop falling down” kind of solution.
It’s great to see these sophisticated organisations working together to find a solution.
→ BHP release | Reuters | Australian Mining | Carbon Capture Journal | Economic Times (India)
King launches CCUS report ..
Industry Minister Madeleine King launched a new CCUS report highlighting Australia’s progress and technology priorities. In her speech, she pitched carbon management as critical for the low-emissions transition — a clear reinforcement of CCUS in national policy.
The report is great, and reinforces what many of us already know: that government investment into a new CCUS industry can provide a platform for domestic decarbonised industrial growth while also providing a future-facing offering that can diversify Australia’s economy and increase our relevance to carbon-emitting neighbours. It even puts some numbers around it — suggesting up to $66 billion in economic activity, as many as 15,000 jobs, and the potential to capture 50 million tonnes of CO₂ a year in eastern Australia under the most ambitious deployment scenario.
NDCs target a political tightrope ..
Not directly CCUS related, but independent journalist Peter Milne (and we should all support quality independent journalism, so go pay him some money if you can afford to) wrote a strong piece arguing for an Australian carbon price. A price on carbon is effectively the benchmark against which all Australian CCUS projects are measured — the higher the price, the better every decarbonisation project looks.
Australia is due to revisit its 2035 emissions target through its next Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement, which is an excellent opportunity for government to make sure nobody is happy. Set the target too low and risk international credibility (awkward timing, given Australia is bidding to host COP31 with the Pacific in 2026). Set it too high and risk backlash from industry and economic wonks.
Milne’s article frames this as a genuine “tightrope act” — performing for all corners of the crowd while trying to balance climate integrity, economic competitiveness and electoral politics. Nobody said it was easy.
Gas-to-liquids for resilience ..
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) has weighed in on an unexpected angle: gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology as a tool for national resilience. GTL takes natural gas and converts it into liquid fuels like diesel or jet fuel, potentially reducing Australia’s dependence on imported refined fuels.
What makes this interesting in a decarbonisation context is that GTL can use the same core Fischer–Tropsch process as emerging low-carbon liquid fuels such as e-fuels. The difference is simply the feedstock: natural gas today, versus captured CO₂ and green hydrogen tomorrow. In that sense, GTL can be seen as a precursor technology — giving industry experience with the chemistry, underwriting infrastructure at scale, while leaving the door open to pivot into cleaner synthetic fuels as the economics of hydrogen and carbon capture mature.
And further, ASPI’s argument highlights that energy transition isn’t just about cutting emissions. It’s also about national resilience, fuel security, industrial know-how, and geopolitical positioning. Framing GTL as part of the pathway to CCUS-enabled e-fuels helps show how resilience and decarbonisation can be made to work together.
Northern Lights stores first CO₂ volumes ..
A world-first milestone to boot: Northern Lights has officially begun commercial carbon storage in Norway, with CO₂ shipments arriving for injection under the North Sea seabed. The project partners—Equinor, Shell, and TotalEnergies—each played a pivotal role in building what is now the first cross-border, open-access CCS service in the world. For Australia, the lesson is clear: CCUS hubs only work when policy, infrastructure, and offtake come together in harmony.
→ Financial Times | Equinor release | Shell overview | TotalEnergies project page
✈️ Around the world
🇪🇺 EU policy: Brussels puts carbon capture at the centre of hydrogen’s future. Carbon Herald
🌏 Asia finance: Standard Chartered outlines pathways to scale CCS in Asia. Sustainability Magazine
🇳🇱 Europe: Deloitte offers new perspectives on CCS progress. Deloitte
🇺🇸 Bayou Bend (US Gulf Coast): Accelerating carbon storage plans, reinforcing the Gulf as a CCS hotspot. Energy News
🇬🇧 Scotland: UK Chancellor backs jobs boost in defence and energy, with CCUS flagged as central to decarbonisation strategy. Gov.UK
🇩🇰 Denmark: Sidsel Lindsø offers bold predictions on the Danish CCS tender. LinkedIn
🇯🇵 Japan: Itochu signs on to new carbon management collaboration. Itochu release
🌐 Global CCS Institute: Notes continued rise in CCS deployment worldwide. Innovation News Network
📰 Carbon Capture Journal: Updates on tech and projects. CCJ
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