The Effective Treatment of Hot Dip Galvanizing Effluent Streams. Hot Dip galvanizing effluent represents a significant environmental hazard. This wastewater is currently trucked offsite and treated by contractors to precipitate a heavy metal sludge that is disposed of through landfill. Industrial Galvanisers, as the largest hot dip galvanizing company within Australia, are keen to eliminate this hazard. We will consider the use of an innovative membrane based process for this purpose; to recover ....The Effective Treatment of Hot Dip Galvanizing Effluent Streams. Hot Dip galvanizing effluent represents a significant environmental hazard. This wastewater is currently trucked offsite and treated by contractors to precipitate a heavy metal sludge that is disposed of through landfill. Industrial Galvanisers, as the largest hot dip galvanizing company within Australia, are keen to eliminate this hazard. We will consider the use of an innovative membrane based process for this purpose; to recover valuable zinc and iron compounds from the effluent and allow the water to be re-utilised. If successful, this project will lead to a pilot plant wastewater treatment plant being constructed at an Industrial Galvanizers site.Read moreRead less
The Treatment Of Galvanizing Wastewater: Delivering An Environmentally And Economically Sustainable Approach. This project will investigate a process to treat wastewater from industrial galvanizing sites around Australia. When implemented, the process will substantially reduce the consumption of acid and fresh water at these sites. Further, the process will recover the zinc content of the wastewater in a saleable form and can also generate ferric chloride for sale as a water treatment chemical. ....The Treatment Of Galvanizing Wastewater: Delivering An Environmentally And Economically Sustainable Approach. This project will investigate a process to treat wastewater from industrial galvanizing sites around Australia. When implemented, the process will substantially reduce the consumption of acid and fresh water at these sites. Further, the process will recover the zinc content of the wastewater in a saleable form and can also generate ferric chloride for sale as a water treatment chemical. The quantity of heavy metals disposed to landfill will also be dramatically reduced. Scientific knowledge of multicomponent liquid-liquid equilibria will be of value to a wider range of solvent extraction processes including zinc and copper metal refining.Read moreRead less
Emulsion Stability and Solvent Extraction Equipment Design in the Pharmaceutical Industry. The project aims at developing reliable prediction of large scale performance of liquid extraction columns. This will be done through a study of the columns in operation at GlaxoSmithKline's operation at Port Fairy alkaloids plant. In addition a detailed study of the influence of impurities on the coalescence rate of liquid dispersions will be undertaken as this is an important rate limiting step in colu ....Emulsion Stability and Solvent Extraction Equipment Design in the Pharmaceutical Industry. The project aims at developing reliable prediction of large scale performance of liquid extraction columns. This will be done through a study of the columns in operation at GlaxoSmithKline's operation at Port Fairy alkaloids plant. In addition a detailed study of the influence of impurities on the coalescence rate of liquid dispersions will be undertaken as this is an important rate limiting step in column performance. The benefit to GlaxoSmithKline will be a more efficient and optimised plant. The benefit to Australian processing industries is a reliable method of relating small scale trials to full size column performance which is a significent problem in the minerals industry at present.Read moreRead less
Next Generation of Separation Equipment for Natural Product Extraction. The benefit to GlaxoSmithKline will be the potential to upgrade to a more efficient plant which is important for maintaining their competitive position in this global business. The benefit to other Australian processing industries will be an improved understanding of the performance of membrane contactors when used for natural product separation and more specifically a reliable method for controlling fouling in this type of ....Next Generation of Separation Equipment for Natural Product Extraction. The benefit to GlaxoSmithKline will be the potential to upgrade to a more efficient plant which is important for maintaining their competitive position in this global business. The benefit to other Australian processing industries will be an improved understanding of the performance of membrane contactors when used for natural product separation and more specifically a reliable method for controlling fouling in this type of equipment which is a currently a significant industry problem.Read moreRead less
Methane Coupling Using Mixed Conducting Catalytic Ceramic Hollow Fibre Membrane Reactor. The Gas product industry is one of the most important economic sectors in Australia, employing 10000 people with market value of $ 100 billion per year from power generation and LNG export. However, there are increasing concerns over issues of the green house gases emission and petroleum dwindling. This project addresses the technology needs in converting natural gas to more useful chemicals via a more effic ....Methane Coupling Using Mixed Conducting Catalytic Ceramic Hollow Fibre Membrane Reactor. The Gas product industry is one of the most important economic sectors in Australia, employing 10000 people with market value of $ 100 billion per year from power generation and LNG export. However, there are increasing concerns over issues of the green house gases emission and petroleum dwindling. This project addresses the technology needs in converting natural gas to more useful chemicals via a more efficient and cleaner means of methane utilization. The project target is to make the natural gas resources in Australia to delivery high value products with considerable economic benefits and increased employment opportunities. Read moreRead less
Environmentally Sustainable Solvents for Natural Pharmaceutical Extraction Processes. Australia supplies 25 per cent of the world's pain relieving medicinal opiates which contributes to a $200 million export industry for Australia. The active pharmaceutical ingredients are extracted and purified at GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) Port Fairy processing plant using a solvent extraction based process. Together with GSK the project team aim to examine the use of environmentally sustainable bio-derived natur ....Environmentally Sustainable Solvents for Natural Pharmaceutical Extraction Processes. Australia supplies 25 per cent of the world's pain relieving medicinal opiates which contributes to a $200 million export industry for Australia. The active pharmaceutical ingredients are extracted and purified at GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) Port Fairy processing plant using a solvent extraction based process. Together with GSK the project team aim to examine the use of environmentally sustainable bio-derived natural solvents to replace the volatile organic compound (VOC) fossil fuels based solvents used in the current process. Due to environmental and health concerns associated with VOCs the development of alternative solvents will be of great benefit to not only GSK but a range of other processing industries that also use VOC based solvent extraction processes.Read moreRead less
Perovskite Asymmetric Hollow Fibres for Oxygen Separation in Clean Coal Energy Delivery. The coal industry is one of the most important economic sectors in Australia, employing 30000 people, whilst black coal is Australia's largest export worth around $24.5 billion. Energy security of supply is critical to Australia's social stability and economic growth, though Australia's reliance on coal for energy delivery is under strong scrutiny due to carbon mitigation. This project addresses the technolo ....Perovskite Asymmetric Hollow Fibres for Oxygen Separation in Clean Coal Energy Delivery. The coal industry is one of the most important economic sectors in Australia, employing 30000 people, whilst black coal is Australia's largest export worth around $24.5 billion. Energy security of supply is critical to Australia's social stability and economic growth, though Australia's reliance on coal for energy delivery is under strong scrutiny due to carbon mitigation. This project addresses the technology needs in tonnage oxygen separation towards a more efficient and cleaner means of generating energy. The project's benefits target at providing Australian consumers with affordable electricity in a decarbonised economy, enabling clean coal energy delivery to underpin the international competitiveness of the entire Australian economy.Read moreRead less
Development of nanoporous materials for capture and release of oxygen. This project aims to develop new materials to make lighter, more efficient oxygen concentrators. The project will combine materials that can capture oxygen with particles that can be magnetically heated, making it possible to release the oxygen rapidly and efficiently when needed. Expected outcomes from this project include new composite materials and better understanding of how gases are trapped and released within composite ....Development of nanoporous materials for capture and release of oxygen. This project aims to develop new materials to make lighter, more efficient oxygen concentrators. The project will combine materials that can capture oxygen with particles that can be magnetically heated, making it possible to release the oxygen rapidly and efficiently when needed. Expected outcomes from this project include new composite materials and better understanding of how gases are trapped and released within composite materials. Benefits from this project may include oxygen concentrators that are more portable and have longer battery life, both with industrial and medical applications.Read moreRead less
Designing the surface and structural properties of MFI zeolite membranes for low energy ion-selective desalination. Desalination is being established in response to climate change and growing demands on existing supplies. Fresh water from infinitely abundant ocean sources using little energy input will benefit communities by providing affordably a vital resource with minimal greenhouse gas emissions. Fresh water from current desalination costs $2 per kl, being a major expense for a vital resourc ....Designing the surface and structural properties of MFI zeolite membranes for low energy ion-selective desalination. Desalination is being established in response to climate change and growing demands on existing supplies. Fresh water from infinitely abundant ocean sources using little energy input will benefit communities by providing affordably a vital resource with minimal greenhouse gas emissions. Fresh water from current desalination costs $2 per kl, being a major expense for a vital resource normally $0.2 per kl. As energy input accounts for half of the desalination cost, the smart ion-selective membrane to be developed in this project has the capability to reduce desalinated water price by 50%. Such an advancement derived from fundamental material properties is a novel contribution to both science and membrane desalinationRead moreRead less
Production of Concentrated Fresh Milk Products. This project focuses on developing production processes for concentrated fresh milk ingredients for the international market. Ultrafiltration of whole milk solutions will be extended to maximise the product protein concentration. Electrodialysis and nanofiltration will be tailored to separate salts from lactose and produce 'designer' products with minimum wastage and energy consumption. Production of lactitol from dairy lactose, a potential new man ....Production of Concentrated Fresh Milk Products. This project focuses on developing production processes for concentrated fresh milk ingredients for the international market. Ultrafiltration of whole milk solutions will be extended to maximise the product protein concentration. Electrodialysis and nanofiltration will be tailored to separate salts from lactose and produce 'designer' products with minimum wastage and energy consumption. Production of lactitol from dairy lactose, a potential new manufacturing operation for Australia, will be assessed. This project will result in diversion of quality ingredients from commodity markets to products with significant added value. The Korumburra region will benefit financially and socially from expansion in the local dairy industry.
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