Reactions to the federal budget

A welcome focus on growing Australian capability Industry-research collaboration advocate Cooperative Research Australia (CRA) has praised the focus on growing Australia’s science and technological performance, continued support for Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) funding, and plans to transform Australian R&D. Budget 2024 “has put education, research, manufacturing and industrial transformation at its core” said CRA CEO…

ARENA awards $59.1 million to hydrogen, steel-related R&D projects

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has announced $59.1 million in funding supporting 21 R&D and commercialisation projects involving renewable hydrogen and low emission iron and steel. According to a statement from the federal government’s ARENA on Wednesday, the funding supports research teams “from some of Australia’s top universities, research organisations, startups and companies.” The…

Sparc Hydrogen reports success with photocatalytic water splitting

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…

Fortescue opens Gladstone electrolyser facility

Mining and green technology manufacturer Fortescue has officially opened its electrolyser manufacturing facility in Gladstone, Queensland – one of the first globally to house an automated assembly line (pictured). The 15,000sqm advanced manufacturing facility, constructed in just over two years, will have capacity to produce over 2GW of Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyser stacks annually.…

Best of the week — the five most popular stories among readers, March 18 – 22, 2024

What were the five biggest stories of the week? Here’s what visitors to this site were reading. 5) Australian Vanadium produces first battery electrolyte Australian Vanadium has successfully produced its first high purity vanadium electrolyte, ready for use in vanadium redox flow batteries. Production follows the commissioning of the company’s vanadium electrolyte manufacturing facility in Perth in December.…

If you can’t tow a caravan with an EV, then excavate iron ore

The ability of electric powered machines to do the job – even towing a caravan – has been demonstrated with Fortescue’s first operational electric excavator reaching one million tonnes of ore moved. Over the past three months, the excavator had been running at partial capacity while the Cloudbreak mine site team familiarised themselves with the…