Project goal
Pairing Valorify's proposed Ararat Biomethane project with CO2CRC's storage-ready Otway International Test Centre to create Australia's first integrated BECCS value chain and the Asia-Pacific region's first BECCS carbon removal credits.
Client
Valorify
Asset
Ararat Biomethane project (Valorify) paired with the Otway International Test Centre (CO2CRC)
Location
Ararat and the Otway Basin, south-west Victoria, Australia
We know the technology works. The open questions are commercial. Is there a market for low-cost, carbon-negative fuel in Australia? At what scale? And can the industry grow fast enough to support sovereign energy demand? The Valorify–CO2CRC partnership is designed to answer exactly those questions, using Australia’s oldest and best-understood carbon storage site.
1st
BECCS CARBON REMOVAL CREDITS IN ASIA-PACIFIC
20+
YEARS OF CO₂ STORAGE RESEARCH AT THE OITC
2
CLIMATE OUTCOMES: RENEWABLE GAS AND PERMANENT CO₂ REMOVAL
From farm waste to permanent storage: biogas from agricultural residues, food waste, manure and wastewater sludge is upgraded to biomethane; the separated CO₂ is compressed, transported and injected into deep geological storage at the OITC, delivering net-negative emissions. Click the image to open a larger version.
The challenge
Australia’s bioenergy sector is growing rapidly, driven by waste recovery, emissions reduction and domestic fuel security. Biogas upgrading, however, produces a stream of near-pure biogenic CO₂ that is typically vented, and the carbon-negative potential of the fuel is left unrealised.
Capturing and permanently storing that CO₂ turns biomethane into a carbon-negative fuel and unlocks a new revenue stream through carbon removal credits. But no one in the Asia-Pacific region had yet built the full chain, from farm waste to verified geological storage, or tested whether the credits could be generated, verified and traded at commercial scale.
Valorify needed a storage partner with proven, monitored geological storage, deep regulatory and MMV experience, and the technical credibility to support a first-of-a-kind credit pathway with international registries.
Our approach
CO2Tech, drawing on the research and operating capability of CO2CRC, can bring the storage end of the chain, for your BECCS or DAC-CCS project.
CO₂ separated during biogas upgrading at Ararat would be transported roughly two hours south to the OITC and injected into deep, proven storage formations that CO2CRC has characterised and monitored for more than two decades.
Our expertise spans the storage value chain: optimising CO₂ compression and sequestration; storage-site evaluation and plume modelling; design of the monitoring, measurement and verification (MMV) program; HSE, regulatory and community engagement planning; and the technical evidence base that underpins the generation of verifiable carbon removal credits.
Working with Valorify, the partnership has progressed through pre-assessment with Puro.earth, the carbon removal standard and registry majority-owned by Nasdaq, positioning Valorify as the first organisation in the region to explore trading BECCS credits.
Note: CO2Tech is a fully-owned subsidiary of CO2CRC.
“It’s a combination that more than 20 years of world-leading carbon management technologies research at the OITC has prepared us for. We'll optimise CO₂ compression and sequestration and support the generation of verifiable carbon removal credits.”
Paul Barraclough
Business Development Director
Benefits
A carbon-negative fuel
By storing the biogenic CO₂ that would otherwise be vented, biomethane moves from carbon-neutral to carbon-negative, providing a decarbonisation pathway for gas users and LNG producers with few other options.
High-integrity carbon removal credits
Geological storage provides durable, measurable removal. Combined with an independent registry pathway through Puro.earth, the project tests a credit stream that can be sold or applied against hard-to-abate emissions.
De-risked with existing infrastructure
The OITC is Australia’s oldest and best-understood CO₂ storage site, developed with State and Federal Government and industry support. Using it avoids the cost and lead time of characterising a new storage site for a first-of-a-kind demonstration.
Regional and sovereign benefits
The chain uses local agricultural waste, delivers renewable gas into a tight Victorian market, and builds on the Otway region’s engineering, gas production and maintenance workforce, supporting energy security and regional jobs.
Why it matters to you
If you produce biogas, biomethane, ethanol, hydrogen or any process stream with a concentrated biogenic CO₂ by-product, the addition of CCS can convert an otherwise vented emission into a verified removal credit and a new revenue line. The same applies to direct air capture developers who need a proven storage partner to close the DAC-CCS loop.
The barriers are rarely the capture chemistry. They are storage access, monitoring and verification credibility, regulatory approvals, and a defensible pathway to credit issuance. These are precisely the disciplines CO2CRC has built over two decades at the OITC, and that CO2Tech now offers to industry.
Crucially, the storage end of the chain has already been through that scrutiny. To be awarded voluntary carbon removal credits, a project must be assessed as a whole – capture, transport and permanent storage. Through the Valorify pre-assessment with Puro.earth, CO2CRC’s geological storage at the OITC has been assessed and deemed suitable, so any BECCS or DAC-CCS proponent working with us starts with that piece already in place. Bring us your project and we can work with you to determine whether it can generate voluntary carbon credits, and what it will take to get there.
Otway International Test Centre: more than 20 years of CO₂ injection, monitoring and verification research make the OITC Australia’s oldest and best-understood carbon storage site, and a ready-made home for BECCS and DAC-CCS demonstration.
Core knowledge: CO2CRC’s reservoir characterisation, injection and monitoring expertise underpins the storage end of the BECCS chain and the technical evidence behind verifiable carbon removal credits.
What CO2Tech offers
Storage-site evaluation, reservoir characterisation and CO₂ plume modelling
CO₂ capture, compression, transport and injection design and optimisation
Monitoring, measurement and verification (MMV) program design, drawing on 20+ years of OITC field data
Technical evidence and data to support carbon removal credit methodologies and registries such as Puro.earth
HSE, regulatory and community engagement planning for CO₂ storage projects
Access to the OITC for research-scale demonstration of BECCS and DAC-CCS, and independent third-party validation for investors and offtakers
BECCS and Carbon Removal Services
CO2Tech brings more than 20 years of field-proven CO₂ storage science from the Otway International Test Centre to bioenergy, biomethane and direct air capture developers who want to turn a vented emission into a verified carbon removal.
If you are planning a BECCS or DAC-CCS project and need a storage partner, an MMV program or the technical evidence behind carbon removal credits, contact us today to see how CO2Tech can support your next step.
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