LETA accelerates carbon capture technology
Low Emission Technology Australia (LETA) has joined a major international effort to advance carbon capture technology for energy-intensive industries.
In partnership with the US Department of Energy and industry leaders, LETA is investing in GTI Energy’s advanced ROTA-CAP technology, an innovation designed to make carbon capture systems smaller, cheaper and more easily scalable for industrial settings.
Alongside LETA, the project team includes US Steel, Amrize (formerly Holcim US) and Enbridge.
The ROTA-CAP carbon capture technology will be tested at pilot scale at US Steel’s Edgar Thomson facility in Braddock, Pennsylvania. The project aims to assess the technology’s readiness for commercial scale-up and enable wider deployment across the steel, cement and other hard-to-abate industries.
LETA’s participation brings valuable industrial expertise and international perspective to the project, helping advance global efforts to reduce industrial carbon dioxide emissions.
LETA chief executive Mark McCallum says he is confident that this project will make a direct contribution to the future of Australian manufacturing.
“Projects like ROTA-CAP could provide a cost-effective solution, crucial to securing a future for Australia’s hard-to-abate industries like steel and cement manufacturing,” he said.
“Globally these two industries combine to account for around 15% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. The work we are undertaking with GTI Energy directly aligns with the [Federal] Government’s focus to reduce emissions while building Australia’s workforce.”
With mechanical design in progress, the project is on track to begin manufacturing components in coming months. LETA’s support helps ensure the pilot will generate meaningful insights for how the system performs under real industrial conditions which can then be scaled for deployment in places like Australia, the US and Canada.
ROTA-CAP has undergone extensive proof-of-concept and performance validation testing at the National Carbon Capture Center in the US. Testing in real industrial environments will further advance the technology toward commercial readiness.