Roads to the Future: Infrastructure and the New Development in Africa. This project aims to conduct a comparative analysis of new road schemes in East Africa and the Western Indian Ocean (a region which sits at the intersection of several major global transport and development corridors), in order to understand their economic, socio-political, cultural and public health effects. As global road-building accelerates at an unprecedented rate, especially in the developing world, there is an urgent n ....Roads to the Future: Infrastructure and the New Development in Africa. This project aims to conduct a comparative analysis of new road schemes in East Africa and the Western Indian Ocean (a region which sits at the intersection of several major global transport and development corridors), in order to understand their economic, socio-political, cultural and public health effects. As global road-building accelerates at an unprecedented rate, especially in the developing world, there is an urgent need for new models for understanding roads' potential economic benefits, as well as their risks, including their environmental risks. This project is benefitting citizens, NGOs, donors and governments, by generating new knowledge about how we have in the past, do at present, and should in the future, engage with roads.Read moreRead less
Plasma-catalytic bubbles for sustainable ammonia. Ammonia is one of the world’s most important chemicals directly sustaining over 50% of our food supply. But the current means of its production is highly eco-destructive and responsible for over 1% of global CO2 emissions, a similar value to global air travel. This project aims to produce ammonia from renewable sources of water, electricity and air, which can provide farmers with a zero-carbon fertilizer under a decentralized and even farm-level ....Plasma-catalytic bubbles for sustainable ammonia. Ammonia is one of the world’s most important chemicals directly sustaining over 50% of our food supply. But the current means of its production is highly eco-destructive and responsible for over 1% of global CO2 emissions, a similar value to global air travel. This project aims to produce ammonia from renewable sources of water, electricity and air, which can provide farmers with a zero-carbon fertilizer under a decentralized and even farm-level approach. Moreover, if driven by renewables, ammonia offers an effective means of exporting hydrogen from Australia. Hydrogen has been highlighted by the federal government as a priority technology in its Technology Investment Roadmap with ammonia seen as the best approach for its exportation. Read moreRead less
Safety and robustness of tall timber buildings under extreme dynamic events. This project aims to develop innovative and robust structural connections in tall mass timber buildings by characterising their mechanical behaviour under dynamic loads induced by extreme events like earthquakes or progressive collapse. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the safe, economic, and efficient design of mass timber buildings. Expected outcomes of this project include enhanced robustness design ....Safety and robustness of tall timber buildings under extreme dynamic events. This project aims to develop innovative and robust structural connections in tall mass timber buildings by characterising their mechanical behaviour under dynamic loads induced by extreme events like earthquakes or progressive collapse. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the safe, economic, and efficient design of mass timber buildings. Expected outcomes of this project include enhanced robustness design guidelines for the engineering community. This should lead to significant benefits, such as contributing to uptake of viable low-cost timber housing solutions in response to population growth and contributing to net zero emissions in Australia by 2050, and transition to safer and resilient infrastructure in urban development.Read moreRead less
Persuading tourists to use fewer natural resources when on holidays. This project aims to bring sustainable reductions in resource use to mainstream tourism, one of the world’s largest, most resource-intensive sectors. The project challenges the view that pro-environmental attitudes are a pre-requisite for pro-environmental behaviours, and in doing so promotes redesigning social practices in accommodation to achieve greater sustainability outcomes. Using an experimental design, this project will ....Persuading tourists to use fewer natural resources when on holidays. This project aims to bring sustainable reductions in resource use to mainstream tourism, one of the world’s largest, most resource-intensive sectors. The project challenges the view that pro-environmental attitudes are a pre-requisite for pro-environmental behaviours, and in doing so promotes redesigning social practices in accommodation to achieve greater sustainability outcomes. Using an experimental design, this project will provide empirical evidence on the efficacy of combining smart technology and interpersonal communication into a smart-service intervention to change guest resource use. The desired outcomes will be less resource consumption, greater guest satisfaction, and an evidence-based approach to a greener mainstream economy.Read moreRead less
Developing Resilient Housing for Low Socio-Economic Older People. The project aims to advance knowledge about housing design and indoor environment to improve the wellbeing of older people with low socio-economic status in South Australia, including those with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. It will gather information about indoor living environment and relationships with wellbeing of the occupants, household energy use and operational costs, to explore affordable improvement ....Developing Resilient Housing for Low Socio-Economic Older People. The project aims to advance knowledge about housing design and indoor environment to improve the wellbeing of older people with low socio-economic status in South Australia, including those with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. It will gather information about indoor living environment and relationships with wellbeing of the occupants, household energy use and operational costs, to explore affordable improvement strategies. The project is significant to address the problems faced by one-third of the population who are unable to afford proper housing and fuel-poor. Improved living conditions will lead to better quality of life and reduce public health costs while providing environmental benefits through reduced energy use.Read moreRead less
A novel ion-selective membrane for efficient lithium recovery . This project aims to fabricate a novel membrane that display selective lithium recovery from brine in a renewable energy driven electrochemical membrane technology. The fabrication of lithium selective membranes embedded with nanomaterials and metal organic framework will create new knowledge on the dynamics of ion-size sieving and accelerating lithium transportation. This project will provide significant environmental and economic ....A novel ion-selective membrane for efficient lithium recovery . This project aims to fabricate a novel membrane that display selective lithium recovery from brine in a renewable energy driven electrochemical membrane technology. The fabrication of lithium selective membranes embedded with nanomaterials and metal organic framework will create new knowledge on the dynamics of ion-size sieving and accelerating lithium transportation. This project will provide significant environmental and economic benefit by establishing a rapid and chemical free method to recover lithium affordably and orders of magnitude more efficiently than hard rock extraction. This project will bring significant commercial benefits to Australian mining industry, desalination and water treatment sectors.Read moreRead less
Next generation transport infrastructure using high performance materials. This project aims to provide structural engineers with the tools required to develop ultra-high performance fibre reinforced concrete materials and to utilise their unique material properties in design. Recent feasibility studies have shown that the replacement of conventional concrete and steel transport infrastructure with ultra-high performance fibre reinforced concrete has the potential to revolutionise the sector. Fo ....Next generation transport infrastructure using high performance materials. This project aims to provide structural engineers with the tools required to develop ultra-high performance fibre reinforced concrete materials and to utilise their unique material properties in design. Recent feasibility studies have shown that the replacement of conventional concrete and steel transport infrastructure with ultra-high performance fibre reinforced concrete has the potential to revolutionise the sector. For these cost savings benefits to be realised, guidelines for the low cost development and testing of new materials, and for the application in structural design are required. This project is expected to deliver these guidelines and potentially maximise the impact of government spending on road and rail infrastructure.Read moreRead less
Soil dynamics at extreme deformations. This project aims to conduct a fundamental study of a challenging class of geotechnical problems in which soil undergoes large strains and rapid deformations. The main goal of this project is to discover the fundamental principles governing soil behaviour at large and fast deformation rates. The expected outcomes are an innovative testing device for site investigation purposes, and robust solution and computational procedures for analysing a wide range of p ....Soil dynamics at extreme deformations. This project aims to conduct a fundamental study of a challenging class of geotechnical problems in which soil undergoes large strains and rapid deformations. The main goal of this project is to discover the fundamental principles governing soil behaviour at large and fast deformation rates. The expected outcomes are an innovative testing device for site investigation purposes, and robust solution and computational procedures for analysing a wide range of problems in soil dynamics. This should benefit government and engineers by providing safer and more cost-effective strategies for the design, construction, and maintenance of Australia's infrastructure.Read moreRead less
Efficient CO and CO2 conversion to biopolymers using phototrophic bacteria. This project aims to deliver efficient processes for the large-scale production of biopolymers from low cost inputs, using phototrophic bacteria. Feedstocks include syngas from solid wastes and carbon-dioxide-hydrogen mixes from fossil and renewable sources. The choice of phototrophic bacteria avoids the energy losses associated with existing technologies, since photons are used instead of chemical energy for metabolic n ....Efficient CO and CO2 conversion to biopolymers using phototrophic bacteria. This project aims to deliver efficient processes for the large-scale production of biopolymers from low cost inputs, using phototrophic bacteria. Feedstocks include syngas from solid wastes and carbon-dioxide-hydrogen mixes from fossil and renewable sources. The choice of phototrophic bacteria avoids the energy losses associated with existing technologies, since photons are used instead of chemical energy for metabolic needs. This project enables the production and optimisation of biopolymers through collaborations between engineers, polymer scientists and molecular biologists. The project will deliver technologies to produce tough, flexible and affordable biopolymers, converting wastes and greenhouse gases to a valuable product.Read moreRead less
New Systems for High Rise Steel Structures in Rising Factory Construction. This project will develop new and innovative ways of constructing steel structures using the rising factory concept. The rising factory is a 10 storey enclosure where the final high-rise building is safely constructed within a watertight envelope which rises as the building progresses. The project will perform the necessary research to make possible high-rise steel structural systems consisting of hot-rolled (heavy gauge ....New Systems for High Rise Steel Structures in Rising Factory Construction. This project will develop new and innovative ways of constructing steel structures using the rising factory concept. The rising factory is a 10 storey enclosure where the final high-rise building is safely constructed within a watertight envelope which rises as the building progresses. The project will perform the necessary research to make possible high-rise steel structural systems consisting of hot-rolled (heavy gauge) and cold-formed (light gauge) steel structural members and connections which can be used in the rising factory. The main benefits of the rising factory are the waterproof construction environment and the substantially increased safety as a result of no external cranes.
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