Carbon Loop #016

A newsletter by the CCUSNA dedicated to highlighting the Australian carbon capture, utilisation and storage industry.

I hope you are all reading this upon your gradual return to work sometime in March or April.

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Not-that-hard to Abate ..

Thanks to the reader who shared this thoughtful piece (please send me more interesting stuff!) from the ETH Zurich Energy Blog, which has a go at reframing our well-worn “hard-to-abate” shorthand. Rather than treating entire sectors as a single, stubborn blob, the authors break emissions down by process, temperature, concentration, and expense — which is where the real constraints sit.

To paraphrase (almost certainly incorrectly): many of the emissions we casually dump in the too-hard basket aren’t actually that hard to abate. Or at least, not as hard as they could be. And so we shouldn’t be lazy and leave them until last — we should get to work on them now.

I admit these authors are much smarter than I am. Which means that, in nearly every parallel universe, they’re right and I’m wrong. But I think I still disagree with them.

My issue is that their argument seems to start from the premise that anything cheaper, or not-as-hard-as, direct air capture must therefore not be “hard to abate”. Which feels… uh… quite aggressive… as a benchmark?

They’re clearly coming from a good place. Their logic is: if some emissions can be tackled with technologies that are at least less punishing than direct air capture, then we have no excuse not to tackle them now.

But I don’t see that playing out in the real world. More often, that argument gets twisted into: “well, if it’s not that hard to abate, then it shouldn’t need a subsidy.” And without public support, technologies that may indeed be cheaper than the ultra-effing-nosebleed-expensive direct air capture options stay trapped in VC pitch decks and small-cap scoping studies.

Which, perversely, is the opposite of what the authors are arguing for.

And so the industry never really gets built. The emissions never really go away. We wring our hands, pat ourselves on the back, and tell each other it’s “not that hard” and that “big business just needs to put its hand in its pocket” and then politely adding, “please don’t tank our index funds, we need that money to repair our seawalls, because these damn oceans just won’t stop rising.”

👉 Which emissions are really hard to abate?

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Congratulations CCUSNA Member, Airbridge ..

CCUSNA Member Airbridge has secured $1.5 million in WA Government funding to advance its CCUS tech, supporting the scale-up of its reactor system from lab to pilot scale. The project will target CO₂ capture from industrial exhaust streams at the Yara Pilbara Ammonia Plant and aims to demonstrate the technology’s performance in a real-world operating environment.

While still early-stage, this is a great example of targeted public funding to bridge the gap between promising chemistry and industrial proof, reinforcing Western Australia’s role as a practical testbed for CCUS innovation.

👉 Airbridge secures $1.5m grant for CO₂ capture project

(also, I know, I keep plugging stories from Western Australia. Please, other States, send me your wins so that I can share them!)

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Flying too close to the sun ..

(I am extremely reluctant to share this one. I’m sure I will regret it. It reeks of Elizabeth Holmes Bad Blood. But, who cares, it’s Christmas, let’s be silly and optimistic and put on a funny hat.)

US startup Prometheus Fuels claims its latest e-kerosene production pathway could deliver sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at costs below USD $2.50 per gallon — a figure that, if real and scalable, would materially change the SAF conversation.

The company’s approach combines direct air capture–derived CO₂ with renewable hydrogen to synthesise drop-in fuels, arguing that integrated design and modular deployment can dramatically cut costs compared to first-generation e-fuel concepts.

Even if the headline number turns out to be optimistic, continued cost compression in CO₂-to-fuels pathways still matters — especially for aviation, where alternatives to liquid hydrocarbons remain thin on the ground. For the CCUS crowd, if this ends up being more than fairy dust, it could be a genuine game-changer.

One reason low-carbon liquid fuels skew so heavily toward biomass feedstocks today is simple: cost. But HEFA stocks are finite, and so there’s a closing window to land a viable eFuels pathway. Maybe Prometheus can fly just far enough from the sun to stay airborne.

✈️ Prometheus’ new e-kerosene technology and cost claims

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🌏 Global CCUS momentum ..

🇦🇺 Australia & Asia-Pacific

• 🇦🇺 SAF opportunity case: Australia framed as a leading destination for sustainable aviation fuels investment. Read more

• 🇦🇺 Scale before perfection: Focusing only on “hard-to-abate” sectors may slow hydrogen cost reductions. Read more

• 🇦🇺 WA gas outlook: AEMO flags tightening gas supply dynamics and infrastructure risk in WA. Read more

🇪🇺 Europe

• 🇳🇱🚢 CO₂ shipping goes live: Yara delivers Northern Phoenix, a dedicated CO₂ carrier for the Northern Lights JV, enabling transport of captured CO₂ from Sluiskil (NL) to permanent storage offshore Norway — up to ~800 ktCO₂ per year and ~12 Mt over 15 years. Read more

• 🇳🇴🇳🇱 CO₂ transport gets priority: Northern Lights designated a Project of Mutual Interest, unlocking EU funding and fast-track permitting for cross-border CO₂ transport infrastructure. Read more

• 🇬🇧 Cluster consultation: UK seeks feedback on North East hydrogen and CCUS deployment plans. Read more

• 🇮🇹 CCUS consolidation: Eni forms a dedicated CCUS holding company with private-equity backing. Read more

• 🇷🇺🚫 Russian gas exit locked in: EU agrees a binding phase-out of Russian LNG and pipeline gas by 2026–27, accelerating the need for alternative decarbonisation pathways in industry and power. Read more

• 🇩🇪🇩🇰 Hydrogen economics reality check: ACER finds gas-based hydrogen with CCS (~€3/kg) currently cheaper than renewable hydrogen (~€8/kg), but flags CO₂ transport, storage and regulatory uncertainty as key risks. Read more

• 🇪🇺 CBAM & IAA delayed: Commission postpones CBAM export solution and downstream scope rules to mid-December, while the Industrial Accelerator Act slips to Jan 2026 amid disputes over “European-made” criteria. Read more

• 🇪🇺 CBAM benchmarks still unresolved: Member states and Commission remain split on CBAM default values and mark-ups, prolonging uncertainty for importers ahead of full implementation in 2026. Read more

• 🇪🇺 Carbon removals framework advances: Commission adopts implementing rules under the CRCF, setting certification, MRV and audit standards for permanent carbon removals ahead of scheme recognition in 2026. Read more

• 🇪🇺 ETS signals harden: EU Carbon Market Report shows industrial emissions largely flat despite falling power-sector emissions, reinforcing the need for CCS to meet 2030–2040 targets. Read more

• 🇪🇺 Permitting simplification coming: Environmental Omnibus points to faster assessments for grids, power plants and clean-transition projects — a key bottleneck for CCS and CO₂ infrastructure. Read more

• 🇪🇺✈️🚢 Hydrogen funding continues: EU launches a €1.3bn third auction under the European Hydrogen Bank, including support for hydrogen supplying maritime and aviation off-takers. Read more

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Thanks for reading The Carbon Loop!

If you found this issue helpful, the best way to support the newsletter is by sharing it with friends or colleagues who might also be interested in the latest Australian CCUS insights.

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You can really see how much ChatGPT has improved by comparing this year’s Christmas-themed CCUS cartoon to last year’s.

Thanks again for subscribing!

— Bennett Green