A GROUP of Western Australian companies have showcased their environmentally clean energy technologies at a recent climate change and energy symposium in the US.

The companies have developed better ways of treating domestic rubbish, removing carbon dioxide from natural gas reserves, and providing solar energy to power remote communities.

The firms took part in the Road to Renewables symposium in Los Angeles, which looked at the global need to move from fossil fuels to renewable technologies.

The symposium was organised as part of the recent G’Day USA promotion, which was held in the US in the lead up to Australia Day on January 26.

For the companies involved, their timing couldn’t have been better. Days after the conference, US President George Bush underlined the importance of clean energy sources by committing $2.25 billion to counter climate change and help develop clean energy technologies.

Among the companies putting their technology on show was Cool Energy, the runner up to 2007 WA Inventor of the Year award.

The Perth-based company has developed an innovative process to remove carbon dioxide from natural gas deposits by freezing and separating the gases.

The process is set to make hundreds of gas fields around the world more economically viable and means that the CO₂ can be geosequestered, or stored underground.

“For us, it was an opportunity to expose our technology to the US marketplace for the first time, both from the perspective of engineering companies there who provide solutions globally to the CO₂ issues in natural gas, and also to look at the US market as a place to do business,” says Jessie Inman, Cool Energy’s managing director.

Inman says earlier in January, Cool Energy was also one of six Australian firms invited to take part in an ‘Innovation Shootout’ in New York to an audience of US investors.

“The purpose of that was to showcase WA technology, and we competed with several other companies, one from each State,” she says.

“The purpose wasn’t to win, the purpose was to tell the investment community what we are doing – and we were extremely well received.”

There’s a good reason why the WA firms are keen to test the US market. California, for instance, is one of the world’s top 10 economies, with a population of more than 37 million – much larger than Australia’s.

And thanks to the efforts of its governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the State is seen to be leading the push on climate change initiatives in the US.

Speaking from Los Angeles, David Doepel said that the WA companies were well received at the Road to Renewables symposium.

“I think collectively they gave a really good impression that WA is serious about this technology, and that we have a growing industry cluster and that we are worth looking at,” he said.

Mr Doepel is the regional director for the Americas for the WA’s Trade and Investment Office, which is part of the Department of Industry and Resources.

He says to help companies get a foot in the door in the US markets, the office has developed several key alliances.

“The primary ones for innovative technologies are the Los Angeles business Technology Center (LABTC) which is in Pasadena, and also the Houston Technology Center,” he says.

“Both of those are commercialisation/incubation centres we’ve developed strategic alliances with that make it easier for West Australian companies to come here and try on the US market for size.

“And with both of those come alliances, interest from venture capital and potential market development opportunities here, and exposure to government agencies that are driving this sort of thing.”