Australia’s economy is heavily dependent on coal-based energy and greenhouse gas intensive natural resource extraction and processing industries. As part of an international climate change mitigation effort Australia will have to undergo a national transformation to a low emissions society by mid century. Federal and State Governments in Australia, like their counterparts in other major developed economies, have been persuaded that reliance on fossil fuels in stationary energy industries such as electricity generation and minerals processing will be able to continue with the deployment of a value chain of technologies fitted to these installations for capturing carbon dioxide, transporting it to a disposal site, and then injecting it into subsurface geological formations for permanent storage (carbon capture and storage, or CCS). Understanding the likely effectiveness of CCS for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from stationary energy industries is therefore critical to policy formulation for, and management of, Australia’s emissions mitigation effort and national transformation over the decades ahead. / This thesis aims to offer a clearer understanding of the practicalities, limitations and uncertainties surrounding future CCS use in Australia and of the contribution CCS can make to mitigating emissions from the Australian stationary energy sector in the period to 2050. It considers two central questions: Is CCS a realistic option for emissions mitigation in Australia? Are Australian climate policies formulated to facilitate CCS deployment and optimise its potential contribution? The criteria employed in this thesis for answering these questions are restricted to those having an ascertainable causal impact on the timing, pace and ultimate scale of CCS deployment within Australia. The methodology used for the research is grounded in critical approaches and integrated assessment within a holistic, trans-disciplinary paradigm. / This thesis finds that under Australia’s existing climate policy framework it is unrealistic to expect CCS can contribute more than 75 million tonnes of CO2 per annum to emissions mitigation by 2050. Australia does have sufficient potential geological storage resources to expect some environmentally safe CCS infrastructure could be engineered over time, but commencement of large scale build-out is not likely before 2025. When CCS will become a commercial mitigation option in Australia is unpredictable and dependent more on the political economy of climate change than on Australian research, development and demonstration activities. / The thesis also finds that the existing climate policy framework is increasing rather than decreasing the risks to timing and usefulness of CCS even to the level of 75 million tonnes of CO2 per annum by 2050. This thesis concludes that Australian Governments are not developing the institutional capability to oversee a holistic decarbonisation of the stationary energy sector. This capability is required not only to address the risks to CCS deployment but also to prevent market failures that foreclose an optimal contribution from all other potential mitigation technologies. The thesis proposes that an Australian national CCS company be created with responsibility for CCS integration, transport and storage services in order to develop Australian capability rather than that of international corporations.

A bicyclo-[2.2.2]-octa-2,5-diene (BOD) is a molecular photoswitch which makes up a so-called molecular solar thermal energy storage system. A molecular photoswitch has the ability to capture, store and release solar energy as heat. These processes can be enhanced by functional groups introduction. In this thesis, the effect of functional group introductions on the BODs' solar energy storage capacity and the thermal activation energy required for energy release was investigated. Various functional groups were introduced onto the BOD, and the corresponding storage and thermal back conversion energies were computed. Correlations were identified, and further tested using a practical BOD and its related structures. Conclusively, it was revealed that a storage energy might relate to (i) an electron withdrawing functional group strength, and (ii) an electron rich atom placed next to an electron withdrawing group. A dimethyl introduced bridge was observed to reduce storage energy and seemed to have a positive effect on the thermal back conversion barrier energy. The practical BOD λmax calculation was also computed, however, the result was not so promising as expected. Very little could be said about the thermal back conversion barrier energy due to long computational time and unreliable data. / En bicyklisk-[2.2.2]-okta-2,5-dien (BOD) är en molekylär fotoväxlare som ingår i ett så-kallat molekylär sol-termisk energilagrings-system. En molekylär fotoväxlare kan fånga, lagra och släppa tillbaka solenergin i form av värme. Dessa processer kan förstärkas av funktionella gruppers introduktion. I den här kandidatuppsatsen utforskades effekten av introduktion av funktionella grupper på BODs solenergilagrings-kapacitet och den termiska aktiveringsenergin som behövs för energiutlösning.  Olika funktionella grupper introducerades på BODn, och korresponderande lagringsenergier och termiska tillbakaomvandlingsenergier beräknades. Korrelationer identifierades och testades extensivt mot en praktisk BODs och dess relaterade strukturer. Sammanfattningsvis identifierades lagringsenergins möjliga relationer till (i) en elektron-accepterande funktionell grupps stryka, och (ii) en elektron-rik atom placerade nära en elektrondragande grupp. En dimetyl introducerad bro verkade reducera lagringsenergin och positivt påverka den termiska tillbakaomvandlingsenergin. Beräkning av den praktiska BODns λmax gjordes också, men resultatet var inte det förväntade. Mycket begränsade slutsatser kunde dras om den termiska tillbakaomvandlingsenergin på grund av lång beräkningstid och opålitliga data.

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