Portable and field-deployable analytical platforms for water monitoring. This project sets out to tackle one of the costliest and most challenging environmental problems, namely, nutrient pollution in water systems. At present, nutrient pollutant monitoring is predominantly carried out using an antiquated manual approach with numerous shortcomings, inadequate to achieve truly effective water quality management. The in-situ analyser developed and deployed within this project will provide continuo ....Portable and field-deployable analytical platforms for water monitoring. This project sets out to tackle one of the costliest and most challenging environmental problems, namely, nutrient pollution in water systems. At present, nutrient pollutant monitoring is predominantly carried out using an antiquated manual approach with numerous shortcomings, inadequate to achieve truly effective water quality management. The in-situ analyser developed and deployed within this project will provide continuous real-time observations and will allow users to remotely monitor water quality; alerting them to pollutant levels, enabling immediate action to be taken to prevent environmental damage. The system is low-cost, facilitating mass adoption, yet delivers an analytical performance comparable to leading laboratory analysers. Read moreRead less
Harnessing light and electricity to drive chemical synthesis. This project will explore and establish original strategies that use inputs of energy (light and electricity) to break or form chemical bonds, which can provide new or improved access to valuable compounds. In this way, this research will augment or enhance existing methods for the selective and direct manipulation of molecules by creating tools that allow chemists to prepare molecules under particularly mild conditions. The outcomes ....Harnessing light and electricity to drive chemical synthesis. This project will explore and establish original strategies that use inputs of energy (light and electricity) to break or form chemical bonds, which can provide new or improved access to valuable compounds. In this way, this research will augment or enhance existing methods for the selective and direct manipulation of molecules by creating tools that allow chemists to prepare molecules under particularly mild conditions. The outcomes of the project will include the development of new technology for organic synthesis and forging novel approaches for chemical alkylation and cross-coupling reactions. This can contribute to making important compounds more efficiently, safely and cheaper to produce in the future.Read moreRead less
Switchable and stereocontrolled photoredox catalysis. This project aims to develop new catalytic synthetic reactions for the rapid and more direct functionalisation of organic compounds under mild conditions with the use of visible light. An integrated experimental and computational approach will be used to design potent visible-light photocatalysts that retain the advantages of standard photoredox catalysis but with the added ability to intercept and, thus control, reactive intermediates in sit ....Switchable and stereocontrolled photoredox catalysis. This project aims to develop new catalytic synthetic reactions for the rapid and more direct functionalisation of organic compounds under mild conditions with the use of visible light. An integrated experimental and computational approach will be used to design potent visible-light photocatalysts that retain the advantages of standard photoredox catalysis but with the added ability to intercept and, thus control, reactive intermediates in situ. This will enable the control of stereochemistry in photoredox reactions – not possible with standard catalysts - and establish other useful synthetic transformations. These strategies will make it easier to prepare valuable classes of organic molecules – efficiently, safely, and cost-effectively.
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Dust to the ocean: Does it really increase productivity? This project aims to investigate the relationship between dust deposition and marine productivity. This project will quantify dust deposition to the ocean and its chemical and ecological impact by using new geochemical techniques and novel approaches with autonomous ocean sensors. Expected outcomes of this project include improved estimates of dust deposition to the ocean and the development of globally-applicable methods for quantifying t ....Dust to the ocean: Does it really increase productivity? This project aims to investigate the relationship between dust deposition and marine productivity. This project will quantify dust deposition to the ocean and its chemical and ecological impact by using new geochemical techniques and novel approaches with autonomous ocean sensors. Expected outcomes of this project include improved estimates of dust deposition to the ocean and the development of globally-applicable methods for quantifying the link between dust and biology using profiling floats. This should provide significant benefits such as improved dust models used to predict future changes in nutrient deposition, with implications for predicting future ocean fish production and carbon uptake.Read moreRead less
Global Citizen Deliberation: Analysing a Deliberative Documentary. The project will enact and film the world’s first truly global citizens’ deliberation, a global citizens’ assembly (GCA) on genome editing, and proceed to analyse the impact of the ‘deliberative documentary’ film on public understanding of complex, fast-evolving science and technology. It will investigate the cross-cultural capacity of citizens to deliberate complex value-laden issues, and so ascertain prospects for an informed g ....Global Citizen Deliberation: Analysing a Deliberative Documentary. The project will enact and film the world’s first truly global citizens’ deliberation, a global citizens’ assembly (GCA) on genome editing, and proceed to analyse the impact of the ‘deliberative documentary’ film on public understanding of complex, fast-evolving science and technology. It will investigate the cross-cultural capacity of citizens to deliberate complex value-laden issues, and so ascertain prospects for an informed global public response to challenges posed by genome editing. Research will test the effects of the deliberative documentary on viewers, examining benefits of communicating complex issues via the work of the GCA. Other benefits include improving public trust in governance and advancing the Australian film industry.
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Sustainable Hydrogen Certification: A Multistakeholder Governance Approach. The project aims to assist policy analysts to devise a sustainable certification scheme for hydrogen that meets multistakeholder requirements. Its significance lies in challenging a techno-economic mindset focusing only on the fuel’s carbon intensity within a production plant. Taking a comparative historical approach, and incorporating the views of energy experts and stakeholders, the expected outcome is options for a ne ....Sustainable Hydrogen Certification: A Multistakeholder Governance Approach. The project aims to assist policy analysts to devise a sustainable certification scheme for hydrogen that meets multistakeholder requirements. Its significance lies in challenging a techno-economic mindset focusing only on the fuel’s carbon intensity within a production plant. Taking a comparative historical approach, and incorporating the views of energy experts and stakeholders, the expected outcome is options for a new sustainable certification scheme that addresses all technical, economic, social, environmental and governance requirements. The benefits to Australia are a ‘gold standard’ sustainable certification scheme that assures the country’s competitiveness in export markets and influence in global certification negotiations.Read moreRead less
Industrial Transformation Research Hubs - Grant ID: IH220100012
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$5,000,000.00
Summary
ARC Research Hub for Carbon Utilisation and Recycling. This Research Hub aims to develop technologies to transform carbon dioxide emissions from our energy and manufacturing sectors into valuable products and create pathways to market to drive industry transformation. This hub aims to achieve this by developing novel electro, thermo, and biochemical methods for converting CO2 from sectors that cannot easily avoid emissions and a technological pathway for CO2 recycling. The outcomes of this Hub a ....ARC Research Hub for Carbon Utilisation and Recycling. This Research Hub aims to develop technologies to transform carbon dioxide emissions from our energy and manufacturing sectors into valuable products and create pathways to market to drive industry transformation. This hub aims to achieve this by developing novel electro, thermo, and biochemical methods for converting CO2 from sectors that cannot easily avoid emissions and a technological pathway for CO2 recycling. The outcomes of this Hub are likely to be transformative for industry, the economy, and society in moving the fate of CO2 from pollutant to feedstock. The benefits to Australia are intended to be the stimulation of a new industry, a skilled workforce for this emerging industry and a contribution to meeting CO2 reduction targets.Read moreRead less
Metal complexes for sustainable light-driven synthesis. The aim of this project is to use cheap, abundant transition metal ions and visible light to enable challenging synthetic chemical reactions. The significant problems addressed are that most synthetic reactions using visible light currently require expensive precious metals, and fundamental reaction pathways used by Nature remain inaccessible. Both of these problems limit the scope of synthetic applications. The outcomes will be new knowled ....Metal complexes for sustainable light-driven synthesis. The aim of this project is to use cheap, abundant transition metal ions and visible light to enable challenging synthetic chemical reactions. The significant problems addressed are that most synthetic reactions using visible light currently require expensive precious metals, and fundamental reaction pathways used by Nature remain inaccessible. Both of these problems limit the scope of synthetic applications. The outcomes will be new knowledge and sustainable technologies that can better harness visible light for useful synthetic chemistry applications. The benefits will be more efficient and cost-effective routes to valuable molecules ubiquitous in everyday life.Read moreRead less
Faster, greener, stronger: a new approach to synthesis of polymer materials. The project will investigate new approaches towards polymer material synthesis in the complete absence of hazardous solvents, with the aim of creating materials that have superior physical or chemical properties compared to those prepared using existing methods. This project is significant for driving advances in material design and characterization using simple starting materials and environmentally sustainable conditi ....Faster, greener, stronger: a new approach to synthesis of polymer materials. The project will investigate new approaches towards polymer material synthesis in the complete absence of hazardous solvents, with the aim of creating materials that have superior physical or chemical properties compared to those prepared using existing methods. This project is significant for driving advances in material design and characterization using simple starting materials and environmentally sustainable conditions. Expected outcomes include the production of unique nanomaterials, hydrogels and polymer monoliths with targeted applications, in addition to advances in 3D printing. This project will significantly benefit the sustainable material manufacturing industry into the future.Read moreRead less