Australian research will be put to the test inside American technology that uses dyes and sunlight to capture and release carbon dioxide.
Seattle-based Banyu Carbon is preparing to demonstrate its carbon capture technology in a fridge-sized prototype at the CSIRO's In-Situ Laboratory in Western Australia from October 25.
But the technology is already familiar to Australia's national science agency as it patented the underlying chemistry more than a decade ago.
The trial comes amid growing investment in carbon capture and storage, and after the United Nations Environment Programme called for greater use of the technology to limit global warming.
Workers from the US start-up installed its direct-air-capture technology at the CSIRO's 1.6-hectare lab in southwest WA for demonstrations at the Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies Conference.
The technology used a specialised dye to absorb carbon dioxide in the dark, Banyu Carbon chief executive Alex Gagnon said, before using sunlight to release the captured gas.
The process builds on research patented by the CSIRO in 2014 and licensed to the company in 2024.
"Pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, out of the environment is really hard," Dr Gagnon told AAP.
"Our hope is that this is the first step towards being able to co-develop this. This is a global problem where there's a really exciting Australian piece of the solution."
The technology was still in its early stages, he said, and only two companies worldwide had independently verified carbon removal credits using direct-air-capture technology.
During the next 12 to 18 months, Banyu Carbon would develop a process to store the captured carbon within rock formations to meet growing demand from companies in hard-to-abate sectors such as aviation.
Cutting emissions directly would be a more efficient way to address global warming, Dr Gagnon said, but carbon capture could help more companies reach their climate goals and do so faster.
"I am incredibly proud of the creative solution that we're trying to scale for the world, and excited about the impact, and at the same time I'm sad that we have to work on this problem," he said.
"We should be able to just do decarbonisation and that is always the priority, but we are in this spot where we have to do both."
While the carbon capture trial was the first of its kind at CSIRO's Harvey-based lab, business development manager Chanti Richardson said more could follow, including companies investigating carbon storage.
"It's a great opportunity for CSIRO to collaborate with a start-up company and deploy a prototype unit in Australia," she said.
"(It could) send signals to the marketplace that this facility is open for research for other organisations."
Australian Associated Press