Queensland-based biotechnology company PolyGenomX (PGX) has entered into a technology collaboration agreement with CSG Enviro Services to market PGX’s sustainable solution for the treatment and use of coal-seam gas water (CSGW).
According to PGX, Queensland’s four major CSG companies could generate $61 million additional annual profits from the adoption of PGX technology instead of their $36 million recurring electricity costs for traditional reverse osmosis water purification.
The savings are based on the cost of 1300kWh of electricity per millilitre needed to process, by reverse osmosis, 300ml of salt water every day – scaling at full CSG mine production to 800ml a day. PGX’s bioremediation system uses highly salt-tolerant epigenetically adapted plants to treat salt brines and yield valuable cleansed water for agricultural use. The scalable PGX system takes six to 12 months to reach full production and can be tailored to meet variable mining needs, short and long term. It also promotes healthy site remediation.
CSG Enviro Services is recognised as a leader in CSG development. Under the agreement, it will use PGX’s technology as part of its solution for CSG environmental remediation, engineering and project development.
The company’s chief executive officer Dr Lee Fergusson said polyploidy or ‘plant’ technology uses salt-consuming plants that also can be grown for biofuels and timber with no salt contamination of
the environment.
“It is an environmentally friendly and sustainable way to meet legislative requirements for CSG and underground coal gasification extraction processes,” he said.
PolyGenomX managing director Peter Rowe said adopting natural and sustainable solutions to remediate CSG water contamination could have a significant impact on the future of the industry and help assuage public health concerns.
“As PGX’s PolyX process enhances plants to grow faster, more robustly and increase yields, it has flow-on benefits to industries aligned with mining such as forestry, agriculture and farming,” he said.
“It does not involve the creation of GMO’s and is uniquely sustainable.”
