Australian chemical company EcoMag is working to turn Australia's carbon footprint into homes and office buildings, with scientists producing plasterboard from waste. 

EcoMag utilises the waste from the Pilbara's salt industry to extract magnesium for use in industrial, environmental and pharmaceutical applications.

The company is now working with the University of New South Wales (UNSW) School of Chemical Engineering to turn that magnesium, alongside carbon sequestered from Pilbara's nearby resources industry, and agricultural waste such as pine and straw, into plasterboard for the construction industry.

EcoMag chief executive Tony Crimmins said offsetting carbon emissions was going to be a key part of Australia's future.

"And if we can actually make the products that have low carbon footprints using our materials, we're opening up markets that are future-protected for CO2 generation.

"It's an amazingly obvious idea to take CO2 and put it into our process."

So simple, it was overlooked

While sequestering carbon into plasterboard using three different waste streams might seem complicated, UNSW associate professor, Jason Scott, said it was such a simple process, he asked himself regularly why it had never been done before.

"It's such a simple process and it's an easy way to capture and value add to say, carbon dioxide emissions, using multiple waste streams – not only CO2 but your waste bitterns stream, and if we integrate it in with some form of agri-waste then you've got a third waste stream.

"I think that is actually something which is quite unique to the process that we're looking at developing."

Mr Scott said he had never before worked on a project with such potential. 

"Given that it's such a simple process and it utilises multiple waste-streams, and it's very current and very relevant to industry and the needs of society moving forward ... it's very exciting in that regard." 

Market already excited: EcoMag 

Tony Crimmins said early discussions with Australian companies about EcoMag's plans had been well received. 

Shareholder interest in companies actively participating in carbon sequestration projects was behind the broad interest, Mr Crimmins believed.

"It's not something they're doing lightly - they want to do it in a 'real' process.

"[The companies] are very inquisitive to make sure that the project that we have actually has carbon going into it, and it can be stored for a long period of time." 

While putting the plasterboard on the market as an alternative building product for homes and offices would require years of further development, testing and regulatory approvals, Jason Scott said EcoMag and scientists at UNSW were already in the prototype phase of their work. 

He believed the product could be produced quite quickly, but it would take time to be commercially acceptable and welcomed by society.

In April this year, EcoMag received a $2 million grant from the Northern Australia Development Program.