Researchers from the University of Queensland are working with international energy storage company Bicarb Sequestration on the project.

UniQuest, the university's main commercialisation company, facilitated the contract for the chemical engineering team to spend six months on establishing a principle for using a solution mining-based process to enable CO2 to be converted into carbonates/bicarbonates (mostly NaHCO3) and then stored underground.

Should the initial research prove successful, it will be extended to establish the optimum operating conditions and optimum process equipment to allow a preliminary design for a pilot plant to be created and initial economic analysis conducted.

Bicarb Sequestration is owned by North American and Australian salt and potash miner Sirius Exploration.

Sirius chairman Richard Poulden said he was confident the project would be able to overcome the issues previously encountered when research teams have looked into the possibility of converting CO2 into carbonates in an onshore environment.

"This program forms part of Sirius’s ongoing research activity to identify second-generation commercial applications for our properties that can be deployed after the mining activity has concluded,” he said.