Queensland (AU)

CO2 Capture and Removal Technologies: Research and Innovation

Date From 30th October 2026
Date To 30th October 2026
Price Free of charge, open to all.
Location QUT Gardens Point Campus (Room TBC), 2 George St, Brisbane City QLD 4000

Overview

Join the Joint Chemical Engineering Committee and QUT’s Decarbonisation Technology Modelling Group for an evening exploring the latest developments in CO2 capture and carbon removal.

Hear from two researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) as they discuss the technologies, modelling and engineering challenges involved in scaling carbon management solutions.

Dr Wenqin Li will explore the potential of biomass for renewable energy and carbon removal, including resource availability, technology pathways, costs and the challenges of large-scale deployment in the United States.

Dr Nathan Ellebracht will discuss LLNL’s work on next-generation CO₂ capture systems, including 3D-printed structured packings, multiphase flow modelling and machine learning approaches to developing more efficient and compact capture technologies.

The evening will provide practical insights into emerging technologies and the engineering considerations involved in delivering large-scale decarbonisation.

Presentations

Biomass for Energy and Carbon Removal: From Resource Availability to Large-Scale Deployment in the United States, Wenqin Li

Biomass offers a unique opportunity to provide renewable energy and other valuable products while potentially removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

This presentation will examine the availability and spatial distribution of biomass resources in the United States and how these resources can be converted through different technology pathways into electricity, fuels, chemicals and other products.

Different conversion pathways can result in substantially different carbon removal potential, energy and product outputs, and costs.

The presentation will also explore the factors influencing large-scale deployment, including feedstock availability and transportation, facility scale, conversion performance, infrastructure requirements and economics.

By considering resource availability, conversion technology, carbon removal potential and cost, this work aims to identify promising near-term biomass deployment opportunities and explore the resource, infrastructure and economic constraints that may shape their large-scale deployment in the United States.

Next-Generation Absorbers for Point Source Carbon Capture: Using Machine Learning Flow Modelling to Optimise Structures and Processes, Nathan Ellebracht

Capturing CO2 from industrial point sources can play an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. While conventional solvent absorbers are well established, reducing costs and improving system performance remain important to enabling wider deployment.

This presentation will explore the development of next-generation structured packings – the column internals that help mix solvent and gas – with the aim of reducing the size and cost of carbon capture systems.

The work combines 3D printing and gas–liquid flow simulations to rapidly evaluate and optimise new geometries. Machine learning-based models are being developed to accelerate this optimisation process, while experimental testing is used to guide and validate the models.

The presentation will introduce the modelling and optimisation approach, discuss the challenges of predicting complex multiphase flow at a reasonable computational cost, and highlight recent testing and scale-up of first-generation 3D-printed packings at the National Carbon Capture Centre.

Speakers

Wenqin Li, Research Scientist, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Wenqin Li is a staff scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where she leads and contributes to research on energy systems, carbon management, and emerging energy technologies. Her work integrates process modelling, techno-economic and life-cycle analysis, geospatial analysis, and energy-system modelling to understand how new technologies can move from research toward large-scale deployment. She has extensive experience in biomass conversion and biomass-based carbon removal, including co-leading the biomass carbon removal and storage analysis for the US Roads to Removal report. Her research spans biomass-to-energy, carbon capture and storage, system integration, and the infrastructure and economic factors that shape technology deployment.

Nathan Ellebracht, Research Scientist, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Nathan is a research scientist in the Materials Science Division at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), where he leads and contributes to projects focused on carbon management technology development, scale-up, and analysis with a focus on CO2 separations. His background spans chemical engineering, advanced manufacturing, porous materials, amine chemistry, and biomaterials. At LLNL, he developed and scaled 3D-printed structured packings for solvent-based CO2 capture, investigated new materials for direct air capture and reactive carbon capture, and contributed to assessment reports of carbon management technologies, including the US Roads to Removal report. His current research combines experimental testing, process engineering, flow and system modelling, and machine learning to design next-generation separation systems. He holds a BS from the University of California, Berkeley and a doctorate from the Georgia Institute of Technology, both in Chemical Engineering.

The material presented has not been peer-reviewed. Any opinions are the presenter’s own and do not necessarily represent those of IChemE. The information is given in good faith but without any liability on the part of IChemE.

Time

18:00–20:00 AEST.

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