CO2CRC announced today that its Otway National Research Facility, located near Nirranda South in South- Western Victoria, will be now officially known as the Otway International Test Centre.
CO2CRC was pleased to welcome the Minister for Education and Member for Wannon, The Hon Dan Tehan MP, to commemorate the renaming of the Otway International Test Centre and appreciated his acknowledgement of the world-leading research being conducted at the site.
“CO2CRC’s Otway National Research Facility has been the centrepiece of CCUS technology advancement in Australia over the past 15 years – developing national R&D capabilities, informing policy and regulatory settings and conducting community education,” said Mr Martin Ferguson AM, Chairman of CO2CRC.
“The decision by CO2CRC to rename the facility to the Otway International Test Centre caps off the successful completion of a major infrastructure investment program which was funded by industry, the Victorian Government and the Federal Department of Education, Skills and Employment’s Education Infrastructure Fund (EIF).
“We believe the new name for the facility, is a truer reflection of its global significance in CCUS technology validation and will mark Australia’s enhanced capability to partner with world leading researchers and international industry to develop technologies to advance the deployment of CCUS.
“The Otway International Test Centre (OITC) will be the cornerstone of CO2CRC’s continued progress in advancing CCUS technologies and allow future users to demonstrate and validate CCUS technologies at a realistic scale, furthering the commercialisation of CCUS technologies and techniques,” he said.
Mr Ferguson reinforced the role of scientific research and technology development in validating lower cost CCUS technology solutions which will advance the realisation of the goals of the Australian Government’s Technology Investment Roadmap.
“CO2CRC is already a trusted technical focal point and knowledge hub for the CCUS community in Australia and internationally. Through the Otway International Test Centre, CO2CRC will extend its reach with major international researchers and companies and seek further collaborations and investments. Clean (no emissions) hydrogen produced from gas or coal, with carbon emissions captured and geologically stored, is also integral to realising Australia’s ambition to become a hydrogen superpower.
“CO2CRC has recently completed the successful installation of four new monitoring wells equipped with the latest technologies in fibre optics sensing and instrumentation together with ancillary surface infrastructure. The upgraded capability of the facility means that it is able to provide CO2 monitoring data on demand. It is now arguably the most advanced field scale CCUS research site globally,” he said.
