The UNSW’s Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT Centre) launched an Industrial Transformation Research Hub in 2015, aimed at developing scientifically-based solutions to some of the most challenging waste burdens within a framework particularly applicable to the Australian context.
The SMaRT Centre’s award-winning research was brought into the limelight at the Australian Engineering Excellence Awards 2014 (AEEA), held in Sydney. Their project ‘Green Materials – Novel processes to transform waste automotive glass and plastics into value-added materials’, submitted by Professor Veena Sahajwalla HonFIEAust CPEng NER and team at the SMaRT Centre, emerged the winners of the President’s Award. The project was a joint entry with OneSteel and Brickworks Building Products.
Since winning the AEEA 2014 Sydney President’s Award, Professor Sahajwalla has been awarded two large, prestigious Australian Research Council (ARC) grants, one of which is an $8.8 million cash and in-kind grant from the Federal Government and industry over four years for the ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub.
Building on successes in ‘green’ steel manufacturing, the Research Hub will undertake world-leading research into the high temperature transformation of glass- and plastic-rich waste streams into value-added manufacturing intermediates and novel products. This new Research Hub allows Professor Sahajwalla and her team to keep pushing forward and develop scalable, sustainable solutions for the manufacturing industry, reducing the consumption of primary resources and reducing landfill.
The Research Hub will assist Australian manufacturers to achieve sustainability targets, obtain new products from re-formed waste streams and enable them to become more competitive at a global level through the development of ground-breaking processes and product innovations. It will create a unique opportunity for completely different industries to come together, with a common goal of creating value from mixed plastic and glass waste in manufacturing.
“From our context, it’s a perfect win-win outcome. In a collaborative manner, we can use or share our resources” said Prof Sahajwalla. “The potential for innovation is enormous, leading to development of new, advanced sustainable materials and manufacturing processes."
Starting with fundamental investigations of the transformation behaviour of waste materials under high temperature conditions, the Hub will develop scalable solutions for manufacturing partners towards reducing the consumption of primary resources, while simultaneously diverting waste streams from landfill. Additionally, the potential of using such transformations to yield improved products, such as wear-resistant grinding media and light-weight building materials, will be established, thereby enhancing Australian manufacturing.
Australian Engineering Excellence Awards 2016 submissions close Friday 8 July 2016.
Only a few more days remain for you to submit your entry to highlight your engineering research and innovations through the Australian Engineering Excellence Awards (AEEA) 2016.
Winning an AEEA Award can assist in building a globally recognised team to create a professional culture around capability, competency and currency.
To secure your project submission into the AEEA Awards, payment must be made by Friday, 8 July.
To find out more about submitting a project into the AEEA Sydney Awards, please visit the AEEA 2016 website.
Image: Prof Veena Sahajwalla (2nd from left) at ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub with Daniel Miles (OneSteel), the Federal Minister for Education and Training, Senator Simon Birmingham and Steven Mouzakis (Building Brickworks Pty Ltd). Courtesy of UNSW SMaRT Centre.