Development of Dry Coated Pigment Particles: Durability and Dispersion. Tiwest is the only business in the world that mines, separates, refines and manufactures titanium dioxide products in one region. Tiwest has a major impact on the Western Australian economy with more than 700 full time and contract jobs, export earnings of $400M (in 2004) and regular incomes for an estimated 500 businesses. The current wet pigment particle coating process, to ensure ease of handling and longevity, is a major ....Development of Dry Coated Pigment Particles: Durability and Dispersion. Tiwest is the only business in the world that mines, separates, refines and manufactures titanium dioxide products in one region. Tiwest has a major impact on the Western Australian economy with more than 700 full time and contract jobs, export earnings of $400M (in 2004) and regular incomes for an estimated 500 businesses. The current wet pigment particle coating process, to ensure ease of handling and longevity, is a major cost. An optimised pigment dry-coating process would ensure Tiwest's competitiveness through reduced processing costs and improved performance. This development has the potential to increase Tiwest's profitability by 10%.Read moreRead less
Reduction of risk in exploration for petroleum liquids. Australia has an urgent need to establish additional reserves of crude oil. A feature of petroleum exploration in recent decades has been discovery of vast reserves of natural gas but an inability to replace our diminishing reserves of crude oil. Clearly new technology is required to enhance our capability to recognise crude oil-prone rather than gas-prone source rocks. The proposed project will establish the fundamental geochemical pro ....Reduction of risk in exploration for petroleum liquids. Australia has an urgent need to establish additional reserves of crude oil. A feature of petroleum exploration in recent decades has been discovery of vast reserves of natural gas but an inability to replace our diminishing reserves of crude oil. Clearly new technology is required to enhance our capability to recognise crude oil-prone rather than gas-prone source rocks. The proposed project will establish the fundamental geochemical processes that will support the potential exploration techniques, developed with Woodside Energy Limited support.Read moreRead less
Enhanced metal recovery from a modified Caron leach of mixed nickel-cobalt intermediate concentrate. Nickel metal production from lateritic deposits involves dissolution in acid followed by purification and selective alkaline precipitation of the nickel and cobalt as hydroxide phase. Hydroxides from several plants are transported to a central refinery where the hydroxide is redissolved in ammoniacal solutions and nickel and cobalt are separated and reduced to metal.
This project will examine t ....Enhanced metal recovery from a modified Caron leach of mixed nickel-cobalt intermediate concentrate. Nickel metal production from lateritic deposits involves dissolution in acid followed by purification and selective alkaline precipitation of the nickel and cobalt as hydroxide phase. Hydroxides from several plants are transported to a central refinery where the hydroxide is redissolved in ammoniacal solutions and nickel and cobalt are separated and reduced to metal.
This project will examine the effect of preparation conditions and aging of the hydroxide precipitate on the refining process.
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Intelligent real time multi-site controller for conserving energy in remote areas and in the resource industry. This project researches the issues in achieving demand response for electricity usage in remote regions of Australia through the use of smart meters and web of things framework to provide ubiquitous monitoring and control of devices, intelligent control systems to dynamically change energy usage patterns and community-based social network architecture. This will lead to several benefit ....Intelligent real time multi-site controller for conserving energy in remote areas and in the resource industry. This project researches the issues in achieving demand response for electricity usage in remote regions of Australia through the use of smart meters and web of things framework to provide ubiquitous monitoring and control of devices, intelligent control systems to dynamically change energy usage patterns and community-based social network architecture. This will lead to several benefits, such as (a) the strengthening of Australian business competitiveness in these regions by reducing energy costs and increasing energy trading, (b) reduction in ecological impact through smarter utilisation of energy and shifting to renewable sources, (c) encourage local generation and distribution of electricity where communities can trade excess energy.Read moreRead less