ASX Firms Driving Decarbonization

ASX Firms Driving Decarbonization, Nadine McGrath

Environmental Clean Technologies’ COLDry technology is decarbonizing lignite, also known as brown coal

· LaTrobe Magnesium has developed a low-cost, low-emission process of producing magnesium metal

· Hazer Group’s tech enables production of clean and economically competitive hydrogen and high-quality graphite

While resource stocks often dominate decarbonization discussions, many ASX-listed companies are developing technologies and products to reduce CO2 emissions, which is as crucial as finding metals like lithium and copper for the net-zero transition.

Decarbonization, the reduction of CO2 emissions, is critical for limiting global warming and has become a global priority, driven largely by the 2015 Paris Agreement, with the international treaty aims to limit global temperature increases to below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, with a goal of 1.5°C.

In Part 2 of our series on ASX companies advancing decarbonization, we highlight additional leaders in the field.

Environmental Clean Technologies (ASX:ECT)

ECT’s technology suite enables the adoption of net zero emission targets by decarbonizing conventional resources to create net zero emissions energy, industrial and agricultural products.

ECT’s COLDry technology provides world-leading efficiency in drying high-moisture lignite at minimal temperature and pressure, offering a zero-emissions solution and enabling its use in a range of downstream applications to create low, net-zero and net-negative emission products.

Also known as brown coal, lignite has faced criticism and been linked to high CO2 emissions because of its high moisture content and extensive use in power generation.

However, ECT and its groundbreaking patented COLDry technology is looking to rehabilitate lignite’s reputation.

ECT is set to commercialize its COLDry demonstration facility at Bacchus Marsh in Victoria early next year to showcase its zero-emission process.

Victoria is home to one of the world’s largest lignite deposits, a vast resource of ~430 billion tons.

The company says its immediate focus is agriculture and it has teamed up with ESG Agriculture to produce a granulated lignite-urea product to benefit farmers.

Latrobe Magnesium (ASX:LMG)

LMG’s has developed a low-cost, low-emission and environmentally sustainable process of producing magnesium metal and other valuable commodities such as silica, char, iron oxide and calcium carbonate.

The company says its hydrometallurgical extraction/thermal reduction technology is the only process capable of producing magnesium oxide (MgO) from brown coal fly ash and ferro nickel slag tailing feedstocks.

LMG has developed a demonstration plant in Victoria’s LaTrobe Valley, which has one of the world’s largest deposits of brown coal and several thermal power stations in the region.

The company says the plant produced the world’s first environmentally sustainable MgO in the middle of May 2024. The full demonstration plant is due to be be commissioned in the second of half of this calendar year.

A commercial plant with a capacity of 10,000tpa of magnesium is also being built in the LaTrobe Valley with a targeted completion in 2026.

CEO David Paterson told Stockhead LMG has a distributor called Metal Exchange Corporation to sell the entire annual production of refined magnesium production under long-term contracts to US customers.

“Because of its strength-to-weight ratio, magnesium is used in cars, and in electric vehicles where it is especially important to be lightweight due to the extra 25% weight of a lithium battery,” he says.

“Magnesium has become critical for the production of steel and aluminium due to its strength and durability.

“There is no current producer in the Middle East, Japan, US or Europe, which is why we have attracted a lot of interest.”

LMG’s project manager Sal Awad told Stockhead its projects are leading the way for metal production without environmental degradation.

“We contribute to a circular economy by recycling waste resources into a critical metal, and transitioning to a low carbon, sustainably responsible future,” he says.

“Our patent process is at the forefront of low-carbon critical metal production to develop sustainable supply chains, and drive demand for green technology that ultimately helps meet climate goals.”

Hazer Group (ASX:HZR)

HZR’s advanced technology enables the production of clean and economically competitive hydrogen and high-quality graphite, using a natural gas (or biogas) feedstock and iron-ore as the process catalyst.

Developed at the University of Western Australia, the Hazer Process is a methane pyrolysis technology converting bio-methane to renewable hydrogen and graphite.

HZR says unlike traditional methods, it does not produce CO2 during the reaction process, but instead captures the carbon in the feedstock as solid graphite.

By using biogas derived from biomass and waste, the Hazer Process promises a significant reduction in carbon emissions with >50% emission reduction compared to fossil fuel-based hydrogen production.

The technology has been commercially validated at the company’s commercial demonstration plant (CDP) in Perth, which has an output of 100 tpa H2 and ~380 tpa graphitic carbon and is a carbon negative process.

The CDP officially achieved first hydrogen and graphite production early this year and has since achieved over 100 hours of hot operations.

HZR says the Hazer Process was designed to be a plug-in technology into existing infrastructure, replacing the current tech with a clean option, easily integrated into hard-to-abate industries such as steelmaking, petrochemical, refining, power and mobility.

HZR says what makes the company unique is that it is not intending to be an energy producer but instead a provider of technology via a licensing model with plants to be operated by the licensees.

The company says its addressable market is upwards of US$12 trillion in 2050 up from a cumulative US$90 billion in 2030 with ~200-600 Mt of hydrogen required to fill the gap needed to complete the transition to 100% renewable energy.

HZR is currently working with leading global companies to explore how its technology can be incorporated into their processes to reduce carbon emissions and make the various sectors more sustainable.