Carbon capture technology developed at the University of Newcastle aims to help India meet its climate change commitments to the United Nations.
Professor Ajayan Vinu, director of the university's Global Innovative Centre for Advanced Nanomaterials (GICAN), said the technology could significantly reduce carbon emissions.
India is the third highest emitter of carbon dioxide and responsible for 6.9 per cent of global emissions, according to the UN.
India has committed to reduce the emissions intensity of its gross domestic product by 33 to 35 per cent from its 2005 levels by 2030.
Unlike Australia, India has ratified the Paris Agreement - an international treaty on climate change.
Professor Vinu's technology is different to the contentious "carbon capture and storage", in which carbon emissions are planned to be stored underground.
His technology is "carbon capture and conversion".
This involves converting carbon dioxide into "value-added products" like "clean fuel and fine chemicals".
"It can be used for any plant that emits carbon dioxide like power plants and cement and steel factories," he said.
"Once we have developed the technology, it could be attached to coal-power plants all over India and other parts of the world including Australia."
The research is being partly funded by Defence Bio-Engineering and Electro Medical Laboratory (DEBEL), a research wing of the Indian government.
Professor Vinu said carbon capture hadn't been done on a commercial scale before because of a lack of technology to capture and adsorb large amounts of carbon emissions.
He has this technology, which is being developed in partnership with Andromeda Metals, Minotaur Exploration and their joint research and development company Natural Nanotech.
These companies recently gave $4 million to Professor Vinu's research centre to further their work in this area.
The adsorbent being used is "halloysite-derived carbon nanomaterials". It involves the use of nanotechnology that Professor Vinu discovered called "nanoporous carbon nitride".
A massive amount of halloysite-kaolin clay is available in Camel Lake in South Australia.
Professor Vinu's team can transform this "low-cost, naturally available nanostructural clay material into high-value nanotubular carbon or other nanohybrids".
Andromeda Metals, which mines this clay, has told the Australian Stock Exchange that these nanomaterials were "showing excellent adsorption potential and recyclability for carbon capture and conversion purposes".
"A number of specific research grant applications are in the pipeline to provide additional funding to accelerate activity in key areas," the statement said.
This included additional funding to "accelerate planned carbon capture and conversion pilot plants".
The company's statement said Professor Vinu's team had achieved "outstanding results".
"These results are significantly superior to current commercial products.
"Optimising the adsorption and recyclability potential are considered critical to commercialisation of this technology."
Professor Vinu said this technology was developed in Australia and would "address the priority goal of developing future supply of reliable, low-cost and low-emission energy".
"This breakthrough technology, derived from Australian resources including halloysite nanotubes and other resources, can provide enormous opportunities for advanced manufacturing, clean gas and energy resources," he said.
"The pilot carbon capture plant will be installed at the University of Newcastle.
"It will be useful for providing training opportunities for research students and early career researchers, and engaging closely with industry partners.
"This will also create job opportunities for young talents, especially from regional Australia."
Professor Vinu started GICAN with a vision of "solving global environmental problems and contributing to Australia's mission of generating clean energy".
"The centre works on several technologies related to environmental issues, such as clean energy hydrogen production and storage, in addition to cleaning up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere."
$100 million Prize
Tech billionaire Elon Musk - the founder of electric vehicle company Tesla - is running a four-year competition with $100 million in prize money in this field.
The XPrize Carbon Removal competition challenges designers to develop a machine to capture massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or ocean.
It is aimed at "fighting climate change and rebalancing Earth's carbon cycle".
The winner receives $50 million, second place $20 million and third place $10 million.
"Time is of the essence," Mr Musk said in February, when he launched the competition.
The competition aims to help humanity reach the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting the Earth's temperature rise to no more than 1.5 degrees of pre-industrial levels or "even 2 degrees".
"We need bold, radical tech innovation and scale-up that goes beyond limiting CO2 [carbon dioxide] emissions, but actually removes CO2 already in the air and oceans.
"If humanity continues on a business-as-usual path, the global average temperature could increase 6 degrees by the year 2100. The climate math is becoming clear that we will need gigaton-scale carbon removal in the coming decades to avoid the worst effects of climate change."
The competition has been touted as "the largest incentive prize in history".
