Beyond Decarbonisation: Can We Defossilise Industry?

CLEAN ENERGY AND WATER TECHNOLOGIES PTY LTD (CEWT) Beyond Decarbonisation: Can We Defossilise Industry? LinkedIn Post — CEWT Carbon Recycling Technology (CRT) Platform The energy transition is usually framed around decarbonisation. At Clean Energy and Water Technologies (CEWT), we believe another question deserves attention: Can industry be defossilised without abandoning carbon as a useful process molecule? Carbon itself is not the problem. The problem is continually extracting new fossil carbon, using it once, converting it to CO₂ and releasing it to the atmosphere. CEWT's Carbon Recycling Technology (CRT) is being developed around a different principle: Use carbon → recover carbon → recycle carbon → reuse carbon. In the proposed CRT architecture, carbon-containing process streams are recovered rather than routinely discharged. Where appropriate, CO₂ is separated, reacted with hydrogen through methanation, and returned as methane to the industrial energy and process system. The objective is therefore not simply carbon capture. It is carbon recycling. One platform — multiple industrial pathways Power generation Oxy-combustion can produce an exhaust dominated by CO₂ and H₂O. Condense the water, recover the CO₂, convert it back to methane using hydrogen, and recycle the carbon-containing fuel. AI and data centres The challenge facing data centres is increasingly not merely access to renewable electricity, but access to reliable, continuous power at scale. CRT could potentially provide a firm-power platform complementing renewable generation, storage and grid supply. Cement Cement is particularly important because CO₂ comes from both fuel combustion and limestone calcination: CaCO₃ → CaO + CO₂. Instead of treating this process CO₂ only as a waste stream requiring disposal, CRT creates the possibility of treating recovered CO₂ as a carbon feedstock for recycling, subject to the required hydrogen and energy balance. Glass High-temperature glass furnaces present another potential application. Oxy-fuel operation can avoid much of the nitrogen dilution associated with air combustion, creating a more concentrated CO₂/H₂O exhaust stream suitable for downstream recovery and recycling. Aluminium Primary aluminium requires enormous quantities of continuous electricity. A CRT-based firm-power system could potentially complement renewable electricity and storage in supporting continuous smelter operation. The aluminium process itself presents additional carbon challenges that must be addressed separately. Caustic soda and chlor-alkali Chlor-alkali production is electricity intensive but also produces hydrogen as a coproduct. That hydrogen creates an especially interesting opportunity for integration with a carbon-recycling energy system. Solar-grade silicon and polysilicon The solar industry itself has an industrial-energy challenge. Production of metallurgical silicon and subsequent purification to solar-grade material involves high-temperature and energy-intensive processing. CRT could potentially contribute firm low-emission energy and carbon-management integration to this upstream solar-PV supply chain. From a technology to an industrial platform The individual process configuration will necessarily be different for every industry. CRT does not mean that one flowsheet can simply be copied from a steel plant into a cement kiln, aluminium smelter or silicon facility. Each application requires its own: mass balance → energy balance → carbon balance → hydrogen balance → oxygen balance → water balance → economics But the underlying philosophy remains the same: do not continually introduce new fossil carbon when the carbon already circulating within an industrial system can potentially be recovered and reused. That is what CEWT means by defossilisation. Extract → Burn/Process → Emit ↓ Use → Recover → Transform → Reuse Our current work on Green Iron + CRT baseload power is one application of this broader platform. The longer-term opportunity may extend across power generation, AI data centres, cement, glass, aluminium, chlor-alkali, desalination and the solar-PV manufacturing supply chain. Keep the carbon molecule working — without continually extracting another fossil carbon molecule from the ground. CEWT — Clean Energy Without Trash #CarbonRecycling #Defossilisation #CRT #GreenIron #GreenSteel #Cement #DataCentres #AIInfrastructure #Aluminium #Glass #ChlorAlkali #SolarPV #Polysilicon #CleanEnergy #IndustrialDecarbonisation #CircularCarbon #EnergyTransition

CRT: An Australian Technology Platform for the Next Generation of Green Iron

CRT: An Australian Technology Platform for the Next Generation of Green Iron Clean Energy and Water Technologies Pty Ltd (CEWT) Australia’s Opportunity Australia has some of the world’s largest iron ore resources and some of the world’s best renewable energy resources. The opportunity is not simply to export both. The greater opportunity is to bring them together and convert more Australian iron ore into higher-value, lower-emissions iron products in Australia. Clean Energy and Water Technologies Pty Ltd (CEWT) is developing Carbon Recycling Technology (CRT) as a single integrated energy platform designed to help make that possible. Green Iron Needs More Than Hydrogen Much of the discussion about green iron understandably focuses on hydrogen. Hydrogen is essential, but an industrial ironmaking facility requires more than a hydrogen supply. Continuous iron production requires three fundamental energy services: 24/7 firm electrical power, high-temperature process energy, and a reliable reducing gas such as hydrogen-rich syngas. Renewable electricity can produce hydrogen through electrolysis. However, large industrial facilities must also operate continuously through periods when wind and solar generation fluctuate. CEWT’s approach is therefore to integrate renewable electricity, hydrogen production, carbon recycling, synthetic fuel, firm power generation and thermal-energy recovery within a common technology platform. Carbon as a Circulating Process Material CRT starts from a different way of looking at carbon. Rather than continuously extracting fossil carbon, using it once and releasing the resulting carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, CRT seeks to maintain carbon as a managed circulating inventory within the industrial energy system. For iron reduction, hydrogen-rich syngas containing hydrogen and carbon monoxide can be used as the reducing gas. Hydrogen removes oxygen from iron oxide and forms water. Carbon monoxide removes oxygen from iron oxide and forms carbon dioxide. Instead of treating that carbon dioxide simply as a waste stream requiring disposal, CRT is designed to recover it and return the carbon to the energy and reducing-gas cycle. Conceptually: CO → CO₂ → recovery → synthetic methane → reforming → hydrogen-rich syngas → CO. Renewable hydrogen provides the continuing external reducing-energy input, while carbon is progressively recycled through the process. This is the central distinction between carbon capture and carbon recycling. One Platform — Multiple Energy Functions CRT is not being developed solely as a green-iron process. It is being developed as a common industrial energy platform capable of supporting several applications from substantially the same core architecture. 24/7 Firm Power Renewable electricity can be converted into hydrogen and combined with recovered carbon dioxide to produce synthetic fuel. That fuel can provide dispatchable power when renewable generation is unavailable, with the resulting carbon dioxide recovered again for recycling. The objective is to convert variable renewable energy into firm, controllable 24/7 energy. Data Centres The same architecture can be configured behind the meter for data centres. In this application, CRT can potentially provide continuous electrical power while recovering thermal energy for integration with cooling systems. Instead of treating electricity generation and cooling as unrelated infrastructure, they can be designed as an integrated energy system. Green Iron For ironmaking, CRT can potentially provide the three energy services required by a continuously operating DRI facility: firm electricity, process thermal energy and hydrogen-rich reducing gas. Carbon dioxide arising from the reducing gas, residual carbon dioxide within the process gas and recoverable carbon dioxide from carbon-containing process-heating fuels can be directed back into the common carbon-recycling system. The objective is therefore not merely to capture carbon. It is to follow the carbon and keep using it. Retrofitting Existing Iron and Steel Plants One of the potentially important applications of CRT is not only the development of new greenfield green-iron plants, but also the progressive decarbonisation of existing iron and steel facilities. Around the world, substantial industrial infrastructure already exists for iron and steel production, including plants that use natural gas and other carbon-containing fuels. These facilities represent major investments in furnaces, utilities, material handling, power infrastructure, land and skilled workforces. Rather than assuming that all of this infrastructure must ultimately be replaced, CEWT believes an important question should be examined: Can existing iron and steel plants be progressively integrated with renewable electricity, hydrogen production, carbon recovery and recycled synthetic fuels? CRT is being developed with this potential retrofit pathway in mind. Where natural gas is presently used as a fuel or process-energy source, the resulting recoverable CO₂ could potentially become an input to the CRT carbon-recycling system. Instead of the conventional linear pathway — Natural gas → industrial process → CO₂ → atmosphere — CRT seeks to establish a circular pathway: Recycled synthetic fuel → industrial process → CO₂ recovery → renewable H₂ + methanation → regenerated synthetic fuel → industrial process. The objective is therefore to progressively substitute the continuous consumption of new fossil carbon with a managed circulating carbon inventory, while renewable electricity and renewable hydrogen provide the continuing external energy inputs. The exact retrofit configuration would necessarily depend on each plant’s existing process technology, gas composition, furnaces, heat requirements, emissions sources and infrastructure. However, if technically and commercially demonstrated, this approach could provide an important additional pathway for industrial decarbonisation: preserving valuable existing industrial assets while progressively changing the way their energy and carbon are supplied and managed. From Australian Renewable Energy to Australian Green Iron Australia already exports enormous quantities of iron ore. Australia also has extraordinary renewable-energy resources. The next industrial opportunity is to combine those advantages. Rather than considering renewable electricity, hydrogen, firm power, industrial heat, and green iron as separate industries, CRT seeks to integrate them into a common system. Australian renewable energy → Renewable hydrogen → CRT carbon recycling and synthetic energy carriers → 24/7 power + process heat + hydrogen-rich reducing gas → Australian iron ore → Australian green iron. CEWT is developing CRT around a simple principle: Carbon does not necessarily have to be a disposable fuel. It can become a managed material circulating within an integrated energy system. If that principle can be demonstrated technically and commercially at industrial scale, it could provide Australia with another pathway for converting its renewable-energy and mineral advantages into higher-value manufacturing. One Australian technology platform. Multiple industrial applications. One objective: keep the energy productive and keep the carbon circulating. Important notice: CEWT is developing Carbon Recycling Technology (CRT) and progressing its engineering, intellectual-property, and technology-partner development. References to potential industrial applications and retrofits describe areas being investigated and should not be interpreted as completed engineering assessments of specific third-party facilities. # Green Iron Investment Fund Grant@ Green Iron # Carbon Recycling technology# # Industrial Decarbonisation # Australian Innovation # Defossilisation

Carbon Utilisation Is Not the End of the Carbon Story

Carbon Utilisation Is Not the End of the Carbon Story Carbon capture and utilisation is increasingly becoming part of the global decarbonisation discussion. Captured CO₂ can be converted into fuels, chemicals, building materials and other useful products. This is an important technological development. But there is a fundamental question that should always follow: Where does the carbon atom ultimately go? Capturing CO₂ and converting it into another carbon-bearing product does not make the carbon disappear. Consider: CO₂ → methane CO₂ → methanol CO₂ → polymers CO₂ → carbonates or construction materials All are forms of carbon utilisation. But they can have very different environmental outcomes. If captured CO₂ is converted into a fuel that is subsequently sold, combusted and released into the atmosphere, the carbon has merely travelled through another intermediate product. If it is incorporated into a material for decades or centuries, the outcome is different again. And if the carbon is converted into a product, used within a defined industrial system, recovered and continuously recycled, it becomes a managed circulating carbon inventory. This is why carbon utilisation alone should not automatically be equated with net zero. The system boundary matters Every carbon-management claim should begin by defining two domains: THE SYSTEM | THE SURROUNDINGS Then follow the carbon atoms across that boundary. Within the system: CO₂ → conversion → carbon-bearing product → use → CO₂ recovery → conversion again The carbon may circulate repeatedly. But whenever carbon crosses from the defined system into the surroundings, its destination must be accounted for. That leads to an important distinction: Carbon utilisation is a process. Carbon circularity is a system property. Net zero is a boundary-level outcome. This distinction becomes particularly important when evaluating emerging carbon utilisation technologies. Producing a useful product from captured CO₂ is valuable. But the environmental accounting should not stop at the factory gate. We must follow the carbon through the complete lifecycle of that product. From decarbonisation to defossilisation This is also where the concept of defossilisation becomes useful. The objective should not necessarily be to eliminate every carbon atom from industrial and energy systems. Carbon is an extraordinarily useful element. The deeper objective is to progressively eliminate the requirement to introduce new geological fossil carbon into those systems. Instead of: Geological carbon → extraction → product/fuel → CO₂ → surroundings we should investigate where engineering can enable: Managed carbon → product/fuel → recovered CO₂ → managed carbon with renewable energy providing the additional energy required to sustain the cycle. The carbon circulates. The useful energy leaves the system. Renewable energy replenishes that energy. And the requirement for newly extracted fossil carbon progressively approaches zero. Follow the carbon atom This suggests a simple test for any carbon utilisation technology: 1. Where did the carbon originate? 2. Where does it go after utilisation? 3. How long does it remain there? 4. Does it subsequently cross the system boundary into the surroundings? 5. How much new fossil carbon must enter the system to maintain operation? Only after answering these questions should we determine the appropriate environmental claim. The future of carbon management therefore should not be judged simply by how many tonnes of CO₂ are captured or utilised. It should also be judged by the ultimate fate of those carbon atoms. Capture the carbon. Follow the carbon. Define the boundary. Close the mass balance. Then make the environmental claim. That is an important principle of Defossilisation – The Next Chapter of the Energy Transition. Clean Energy and Water Technologies Pty Ltd (CEWT) #Defossilisation #CarbonUtilisation #CarbonManagement #CircularCarbon #CCU #CarbonCapture #EnergyTransition #SystemsEngineering #NetZero #CEWT

The Real Cost of CO₂ Is Not Measured Only in Dollars per Tonne

The Real Cost of CO₂ Is Not Measured Only in Dollars per Tonne Clean Energy and Water Technologies Pty Ltd (CEWT) We often discuss carbon dioxide in terms of tonnes, carbon prices and the cost of capture. But perhaps we are measuring the wrong cost. Around the world, communities are experiencing extreme heat, wildfires, floods, droughts and destructive storms. These events take lives, destroy homes and infrastructure, disrupt businesses and agriculture, and place enormous pressure on governments and communities. The World Meteorological Organization reports that 2015–2025 were the hottest 11 years on record. In 2025 alone, extreme weather affected millions of people and caused billions of dollars in economic losses. And the extremes have continued into 2026. There is another way of understanding the scale of the problem: look at what it takes to reverse the chemistry after carbon has been emitted. In developing Carbon Recycling Technology (CRT), we have been examining what happens when captured CO₂ is not simply stored, but is converted back into a useful carbon-based energy carrier. The engineering lesson is striking. CO₂ is carbon in a highly oxidised state. To convert that carbon back into methane requires hydrogen. Producing low-carbon hydrogen requires substantial energy. CO₂ must also be captured, purified, compressed and processed. In other words, releasing carbon through combustion is relatively easy. Putting the carbon back is expensive. That tells us something fundamental about climate change. The value of preventing additional geological carbon from entering the atmosphere may be much greater than the carbon price alone suggests. And the real cost is certainly greater than the cost of the equipment required to capture it. The ultimate price can be measured in damaged homes, destroyed infrastructure, lost productivity, disrupted food and water systems — and, most importantly, human lives. This is why I believe we need to think differently about carbon. CO₂ itself is not the enemy. Carbon is one of the fundamental building blocks of our economy and our lives. The problem is continuously extracting additional geological carbon, using its stored chemical energy once, and releasing the resulting CO₂ into the atmosphere. What if, instead, we treated carbon as an inventory? Capture it. Recycle it. Combine it with low-carbon hydrogen. Use it again. The engineering is challenging, and the energy requirement is substantial. But that difficulty itself teaches us an important lesson: “When we calculate how expensive it is to recycle carbon after combustion, we begin to understand how valuable it is not to waste carbon to the atmosphere in the first place.” Climate change has a price. Engineering can put numbers around part of that price. But the lives, homes and communities affected by a warming world remind us that its full cost cannot be expressed in dollars per tonne of CO₂. Context and references • World Meteorological Organization (WMO): State of the Global Climate and related climate updates. WMO reports that 2015–2025 were the hottest 11 years on record and that 2025 was approximately 1.43°C above the 1850–1900 average. • Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): Sixth Assessment Report. The IPCC concludes that losses and damages increase with every increment of global warming. • WMO Atlas of Mortality and Economic Losses from Weather, Climate and Water Extremes: reported that weather-, climate- and water-related disasters caused more than 2 million deaths and trillions of US dollars in economic losses over 1970–2021. Note: Climate change does not mean that every individual disaster is caused solely by global warming. Scientific assessments show that human-caused warming is increasing the risks and severity of many climate and weather extremes.

CEWT | Defossilisation – The Next Chapter of the Energy Transition

CEWT | Defossilisation – The Next Chapter of the Energy Transition Article 1: Defossilisation – A New Framework for the Global Energy Transition The global energy transition has largely been framed around one objective: decarbonisation. But carbon itself is not the fundamental problem. Carbon is an essential element of life, industry and many of the fuels and materials on which modern society depends. The deeper problem is the continuous movement of geological carbon into the active carbon cycle. Coal, oil and natural gas contain carbon that has remained underground for millions of years. When these resources are extracted and consumed, additional carbon is introduced into the atmosphere-ocean-biosphere system. That suggests a different way of defining the long-term objective: Defossilisation Defossilisation means progressively reducing—and ultimately eliminating wherever technically and economically possible—the requirement for newly extracted fossil carbon. Follow the carbon Consider the conventional fossil-energy pathway: Geological carbon → extraction → processing → fuel → useful energy → atmospheric CO₂ Most climate policy focuses strongly on the final part of that chain: emissions. Defossilisation asks us to look at the beginning as well. How much new geological carbon must continuously enter the economic system? That question produces a useful physical metric: Fossil carbon entering the system / useful energy or product delivered The objective is to drive that ratio progressively toward zero. This is not an argument against decarbonisation Electrification, renewable electricity, efficiency, batteries, hydrogen, carbon capture and genuine carbon removal can all contribute. The distinction is one of system boundaries. A technology may reduce emissions at one point while still depending elsewhere on fossil extraction, fossil-derived hydrogen, fossil backup power or carbon-intensive supply chains. Defossilisation therefore asks us to examine the whole material and energy pathway. Renewable electricity changes the equation As solar and wind become increasingly competitive, renewable electricity can become more than simply a replacement source of electrons. It can become the primary energy input for entirely new industrial systems. Renewable electricity can directly power equipment. It can produce hydrogen. Hydrogen can provide industrial heat, act as a reducing agent, or react with recovered CO₂ to produce carbon-containing molecules. This introduces another possibility. Instead of continually extracting carbon: Extract → use → emit some applications could increasingly operate through: Recover → reuse → recover with renewable energy continually entering the cycle. Carbon does not necessarily have to disappear This distinction is important. A future energy system may still contain methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and carbon-based industrial products. The critical question is where their carbon originated and where it ultimately goes. A carbon atom recovered from an industrial process and reused is physically different, from a system-accounting perspective, from introducing another carbon atom from a geological reservoir. This leads from a linear fossil-carbon economy toward a managed circular-carbon economy. Measure before making the environmental claim Defossilisation must also be measurable. For any proposed system we should be able to establish: Fossil carbon entering + recycled carbon circulating + carbon leaving the system alongside the complete energy and water balances. Only after establishing those physical flows should environmental claims be made. That approach becomes increasingly important as regulators, customers, investors and communities demand evidence rather than broad labels such as green, clean or carbon neutral. A technology-neutral framework Perhaps the greatest advantage of defossilisation is that it does not prescribe one technology. If direct electrification provides the lowest-cost reliable pathway with the lowest fossil-carbon requirement, use it. If batteries provide the required storage, use them. Where hydrogen is the appropriate molecule, use hydrogen. Where permanent carbon removal is required, capture and store carbon permanently. And where recovered carbon can provide useful system value without requiring continued fossil extraction, investigate carbon recycling. The test remains the same: How effectively does the complete system reduce its dependence on newly extracted fossil carbon while continuing to provide the energy and materials society requires? That is the proposition behind Defossilisation – The Next Chapter of the Energy Transition. It moves the conversation beyond labels and individual technologies toward something fundamentally physical: Follow the carbon. Measure the fossil-carbon input. Then engineer it toward zero. Clean Energy and Water Technologies Pty Ltd (CEWT) Defossilisation – The Next Chapter of the Energy Transition #Defossilisation #EnergyTransition #CarbonManagement #CircularCarbon #RenewableEnergy #Hydrogen #SystemsEngineering #NetZero #CleanEnergy #CEWT