By Kathryn Willis, CSIRO; Britta Denise Hardesty, CSIRO; Katie Conlon, Ph.D., Portland State University, and Win Cowger, University of California, Riverside In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled. By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the annual carbon…
Today in our editorial series – Towards 3% R&D – Turbocharging Australia’s Innovation Effort – we turn to the role of national industry policy. Here Roy Green points to innovation and the success of a Future Made in Australia as intertwined. While lacking detail at this stage, the significance of Prime Minister Albanese’s Future Made…
Australian infrastructure, property development and investment management company Wagner has joined with Boeing to grow the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) industry to help meet Australia’s airline demand for jet fuel. With demand set to grow 75 percent over the next 25 years Wagner, which owns the Wellcamp Business Park and Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport in Queensland,…
Rio Tinto spends up big with local suppliers Rio Tinto increased its spend with suppliers and local businesses in Australia to more than $16.1 billion in 2023, as part of the company’s commitment to support communities where it operates. This was an increase of five per cent on the previous year and was spent with…
Applications have opened for SME manufacturers to apply for CSIRO’s Innovate to Grow, a free, ten-week, online program assisting companies “embarking on early-stage R&D or those venturing into new solutions”. In a statement on Monday, the nation’s science organisation said the intake of the Advanced Manufacturing cohort would be the first following the announcement of…
Hydrogen technology developer Sparc Hydrogen has successfully tested its second generation prototype photocatalytic water splitting (PWS) reactor atop a solar tower at the CSIRO Energy Centre in Newcastle, New South Wales (pictured). Sparc Hydrogen, a joint venture between the University of Adelaide, Fortescue and Sparc Technologies, tested over numerous trial runs the second generation prototype…
AML3D 3D printer gets to work in US submarine programme AML3D’s industrial-scale ARCEMY ‘X-Edition 6700’ Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) metal 3D printing system has been commissioned and is in operation at the US Navy’s Additive Manufacturing Centre of Excellence (AM CoE) in Danville, Virginia. The $1.1 million order for the machine was placed through…
CSIRO has announced $20 million in funding for its SME Connect program, which it says will allow the program to support “up to 750 SMEs through a range of programs and initiatives” including through facilitation, training, dollar-matched funding. SME Connect aims to help small to medium-sized businesses connect with R&D help. It runs programs such…
The commissioning of a new multi metal 3D printer in Melbourne as part of the iLAuNCH Trailblazer initiative is set to make space missions more affordable and efficient by creating lighter, faster and more robust aerospace components. The Nikon SLM-280 (Selective Laser Melting) at CSIRO’s Lab22 facility will print metals side-by-side in one continuous print.…
3D mapping technology designed by CSIRO has reached the International Space Station, following a launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station last week, the nation’s scientific agency has announced. According to a statement from CSIRO on Monday, astronauts on the ISS will fit the device onto NASA’s Astrobee robotic platform. Dr Marc Elmouttie, a CSIRO…
