Tara Busbridge

Tara helps clean up coal.

The 22-year-old is completing her PhD in Griffith's Nanoscale Science and Technology Centre. "I'm working on geosequestration – taking C02 from the atmosphere and storing it in underground coal seams that can't be mined,"Tara said.

"Coal is a fossil fuel so its complex structure differs depending on the plants, animals and geology of the place where it formed. "My job is to find out which types of coal safely store C02 most efficiently."

Her work has already taken her to Chicago to examine coal samples in one of the world's leading labs. But taking junk out of the atmosphere is just the first step towards clean power.

Tara is collaborating with researchers in the Nanoscale Science and Technology Centre who are working on a project to develop hydrogen power technology. It's possible to get power from coal without burning it by using a chemical reaction that produces hydrogen
and CO2.

That hydrogen can then power everything from cars to electricity plants and the unwanted CO2 can be stored underground.