RESEARCH AREA - CLEAN ENERGY
Nanomaterials for Clean Energy Alliance with the Chinese Academy of Science - The NIRAP Project
This three year project aims to develop innovative materials that underpin emerging technologies for clean coal, hydrogen production, energy storage and hybrid and fuel cell vehicles. The alliance builds upon the existing expertise and strengths in Queensland in nanomaterials development, and those in the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in energy storage and fuel cell research.
This project incorpprates the following three researach areas
- Development of new carbon materials for supercapacitors
- Design of nanostructured materials for photocatalytic applications and hydrogen strorage
- Chemical routes for the transformation of biomass into hydrogen and clean fuels
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Sun-light Driven Photocatalysts for Solar Energy Conversion: Meeting the Sustainable Energy Challenges
The aim of this project is to develop a new class of photocatalyst for sunlight-driven wastewater purification without the UV source. This is a significant improvement towards reducing the operational cost and material cost. Particularly, it will provide an important tool for water to be recycled directly in the industrial process, thus resulting in significant reduction of industry water use and savings to our precious water resource. The project falls primarily into National Research Priority of Frontier Technologies. Specifically, the project addresses several priority areas: Environmentally Sustainable Australia, Breakthrough Science, and Advanced Materials. The impact of the project outcomes will also extend to other Priority areas, such as Frontier Technology and Transforming Existing Industries. (read more)
An integrated system for high-efficiency hydrogen assisted electricity generation from solar energy
Environmental pollution and climate change have emerged in the last decade as pressing issues as the consequence of using fossil fuels. The development and use of clean and renewable energy alternatives are the top priority for a sustainable future. This project combines Australian innovations of energy technologies such as solar energy concentration, hydrogen production by photocatalysis and advanced hydrogen storage technology, thus enabling hydrogen production from solar energy and electricity generation for base-load power supply. (read more)
Hydrogen storage technology for practical applications
The synthesis of materials for hydrogen storage and development of hydrogen storage systems for practical applications. (read more)
Membrane based processes for hydrogen production and purification from oil-based liquid petroleum fuels
Centre researchers are conducting a feasibility study into high efficiency technologies for the conversion of oil to hydrogen employing membrane technology and aim to develop a proof-of-concept (POC) catalytic membrane reactor for hydrogen production based a variety of oil liquid feed derivatives using an integrated system of innovative reforming, water gas shift reaction and hydrogen separation processes. (read more)
Catalytic conversion of carbohydrates as renewable raw materials to key platform chemicals using novel metal supported mesoporous materials
Carbohydrate chemistry is well developed and it allows the performance of many transformations in a direct and efficient way by using well established and tested procedures. However, intense efforts in the last decade to advance the use of inexpensive, large scale accessible mono and di saccharides as raw materials for chemical industry have so far unable to bridge the technological and economical gap between fossil hydrocarbons and renewable carbohydrates. The proposed research in this project will significantly improve the yield of products in chemical synthesis from carbohydrates. (read more)
Multifunctional Porous Nanospheres Engineered Composite Membranes for Hydrogen and Methanol Fuel Cells
Increasing concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and dwindling petroleum supplies have driven the development and commercialisation of fuel cells. Hydrogen fuelled PEMfuel cells and methanol fuelled direct methanol fuel cells are promising as high-efficiency and clean energy supplies for transport vehicles and portable electronic devices. (read more)
Computational nanoscience projects in sustainable energy
- Nanocomposite materials for hydrogen storage
- Metal oxide nanoparticles for photocatalytic and photovoltaic applications
- First principle computational studies of novel membrane materials for CO2 gas separation