A new research Hub focused solely on technologies to transform carbon dioxide emissions opened yesterday at Monash University.
The Australian Research Council (ARC) Research Hub for Carbon Utilisation and Recycling (RECARB) is located at the Monash University’s Clayton campus.
Through a collaboration of international and national universities and industry partners RECARB will develop technologies to transform carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the energy and manufacturing sectors into useful products.
The Hub will also develop the markets for the carbon embedded products.
The Hub is part of a five year program led by professor Paul Webley, director and professor Akshat Tanksale, deputy director of the Hub.
RECARB director, Paul Webley, Faculty of Engineering at Monash University, said research hubs provide an essential platform to bring together industry and academia to develop industry relevant research and translate it into practice,
“The RECARB hub aims to catalyse this change in thinking by working with industry, government, and university partners to develop and provide high quality solutions especially for the hard-to-abate sectors,” he said.
“The Hub will become Australia's leading research initiative for leading the decarbonisation journey.”
The RECARB Hub will play an increasingly important role in Australia's transition to a net zero emissions economy.
The RECARB Hub will focus on the development of improved, low cost, scalable and green methods for the conversion of CO2 to intermediate and high value products.
Research will cover electrochemical, thermochemical and biological technologies.
This will include research into the innovative direct air capture technology (DAC) for CO2 recycling. DAC offers a sustainable source of this greenhouse gas that can be harnessed to benefit agriculture and, more importantly, transformed into valuable products.
Within the energy and chemical manufacturing sectors, Plasmonics is emerging as a transformative field in the realm of sustainable chemistry, offering exciting possibilities for the photochemical conversion of CO2 into valuable chemicals.