Jul. 22, 2022

Nippon Steel Corporation

We are pleased to announce that our joint research proposal from Nippon Steel Corporation, The University of Queensland (Australia), and Urban Utilities (Australia) has been funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) through the Linkage Project scheme.

1．Overview
As a part of our widespread efforts toward achieving a decarbonised society, by adopting “Nippon Steel Carbon Neutral Vision 2050” as our own new initiative, we will consider and implement various measures as a top priority management issue.  CCU (Carbon Capture and Utilization) technology to produce valuable chemicals offer opportunities towards achieving our goal of carbon neutrality.

CCU is a technology for synthesizing raw materials for valuable chemicals by reusing CO₂. Much of the research and development into CCU utilizes chemical reactions with catalysts. In general, while chemical process requires high temperatures, elevated pressures and expensive catalysts, microbial process can occur under mild temperature and pressure, allowing significant energy- and cost-savings.

We partnered with The University of Queensland in Australia and Urban Utilities to develop a project that aims to convert CO₂ into valuable chemicals, using a combination of microbial and electrochemical processes. Our research proposal was funded by the ARC under the Linkage Projects scheme. In this project, we will generate significant value upgrade from waste CO₂ by targeting the production of medium-chain carboxylates (MCCs), which are important platform chemicals for various applications in the nutraceuticals and agriculture industries, and that can potentially be converted into fuels.

Dr Bernardino Virdis and his team at the Australian Centre for Water and Environmental Biotechnology at The University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, have already demonstrated microbial synthesis of these chemicals from waste CO₂ at the laboratory scale. In this project, the research team aims to optimize the technology and to resolve practical challenges related to its upscaling.

We have been investing in research and development of technologies based on the use of microorganisms for treatment of wastewater from steelmaking industry for over 20 years. We will apply same approach to CCU. 

2．Project Description
Project title：Production of valuable chemicals from gaseous waste
Organisations：
The University of Queensland：Administering Organisation
Urban Utilities：Partner Organisation
Nippon Steel Corporation：Partner Organisation
Period：2022～2024
Funding Amount：AUD 515,725

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