But MBD managing director Andrew Lawson is confident that Australia will reach its target of 50 million tonnes per annum of gas sequestration by 2020.

“I think there’s a growing desire from the community and from business[es] to actually get on with the business and start looking for the opportunities within sustainable provision of energy and other aspects – I think that’s where we should head,” he said.

“We’re very confident that the combined scaling of these projects will achieve the 50 million tonnes of gas sequestration in each state. What we can’t guarantee is just really the uptake and the pace at which these projects are rolled out.”

MBD and Bio CCS are working towards finding sustainable solutions to reducing greenhouse gases. Its abatement solutions, including carbon projects, grazing management and forestation, would help Australia reach a target of 50Mtpa in gas sequestration per year.

Lawson said MBD’s approach is to explore the opportunities with algae as a method of greenhouse gas sequestration while retaining coal as a significant source of power generation.

“We see a great opportunity to use the CO2 as a sustainable feedstock for production of oil and meal,” he said.

“We think that coal is a very important resource for Australia, it’s a very significant income generator, we’d like to think that Australia ... in addition to exporting coal, we can be looking at exporting solutions.”

Lawson will be joined by coal producers and government representatives at the 4th Annual Coal Tech Conference at Brisbane in June.