The Centre for Energy and Greenhouse Technologies invests in emerging sustainable energy technologies that reduce net greenhouse gas emissions.
The Centre co-invests with the technology owners, venture capital funds, private equity sources and industry to drive new technologies towards successful commercialisation.
| Smart Storage |
Smart Storage technology is a hybrid battery combining a 'supercapacitor' and a lead-acid battery in a one-unit cell as a cost effective and high performance electricity storage solution for off-grid renewable energy sources such as solar and wind. The technology is based on the CSIRO developed 'ultrabattery' which has been successfully trailled in hybrid vehicle applications.
More information |
| Viva Blu: Energy Efficient Water Purification |
Viva Blu Pty Ltd is commecialising a water purification technology, developed in Australia, that negates the use of chemicals and dramatically reduces energy consumption compared to competing technologies.
Water treatment is a multi-filtration process and includes the removal of solids, fine particles and dissolved substances and pathogens. A final, advanced process can be used to remove remaining trace quantities of organic molecules and resistant pathogens using highly reactive free radicals, called the Advanced Oxidation Process.
Viva Blu technology improves on existing Advanced Oxidation processes through a patented nano-photocatalysis technology, offering savings in both energy and chemical costs, with energy consumption reduced by up to 50 per cent, producing fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
More information |
| Active Reactor: HID Lamp Controller |
The Active Reactor is an electronic device designed to overcome the problem of fading lamp brightness in High Intensity Discharge (HID) lamps - used for street and major road lighting and at locations such as airports, freight terminals and sports stadiums.
The technology exploits the initial excess in brightness of the lamps by continuously controlling the power to the lamps to deliver the minimum lighting requirement. Energy savings are estimated at 25%. The controller uses a fixed magnetic ballast and an electrically controlled injector to manage power to the lamp based on lamp voltage, the supply voltage and lamp current. New lamps can therefore be run at lower power consumption with power increased as the lamp ages and light output begins to fade. Additional benefits are an increase in lamp life and lower maintenance/replacements costs. More information |
| Aqua-Sciences: non-invasive deposit reduction |
Aqua-Sciences "LineClear" is a non-invasive technology to reduce the build up of deposits in the food processing industry. It uses a newly patented invention that introduces low power, low frequency signals of a specific format to agitate/oscillate fat, protein and mineral deposits at the molecular level to retard and break down deposit build-up.
Deposit build-up on the inside surfaces of equipment used in food manufacturing results in additional energy requirements to maintain processing temperatures, restricts processing run-times due to fouling of equipment and requires high frequency cleaning with chemicals and large volumes of water.
These deposits need to be removed by a cleaning procedure known as 'Clean-in-Place' (CIP) where cleaning and sanitising of equipment takes place without dismantling individual parts. CIP requires the periodic shut down of plant operations to initiate a cleaning cycle. As a result of fouling, the period of operation for some processes can be as low as five hours before a three-hour CIP cycle is required.
LineClear is targeted at extending the time between CIP cycles by significant amounts, resulting in more production hours being added to daily production schedules while also reducing energy use, water use and waste. More information |
| V-Fuel: Vanadium Bromide Redox Flow Battery |
The Vanadium Bromide Redox Flow battery represents a significant development over other redox flow batteries. Improved materials, solutions and membrane design aim to deliver twice the energy density.
Energy is stored and released via vanadium bromide solution in two half-cells, which effectively eliminates cross contamination. The new battery is expected to achieve 80% efficiency in storing and releasing electricity produced.
Development activities are targeting the commercialisation of a large scale unit for renewable energy applications, to allow energy from wind and solar power sources to be stored and injected into the transmission grid when needed. More information |
| Hardwear: In Situ Laser Surfacing |
'In Situ Laser Surfacing' technology was developed to reduce the cost and time to repair of power station turbine blades.
The technology brings high strength turbine blade repair on site at power plants, overcoming the need to remove blades from the turbine and send them off-site for repair.
The patented innovation involves the development of a nozzle for the laser and coaxial delivery of the metal surfacing powder, which together allow the unit to work front-on to the blade surface rather than from above. Development of the nozzle included having to overcome the effects of gravity on the metal powder.
By avoiding blade removal and replacement, using surfacing materials stronger than the original blade and avoiding overheating and warping the blade using a focussed laser beam, the life of the blade can potentially be extended to equal that of the entire turbine.
Direct benefits are reduced repair cost, reduced turbine down time and greenhouse gas reduction through higher turbine efficiency in the long run.
With around 1,200 large scale steam turbine operating in the US alone, there are significant export opportunities for the technology.
More information |
| Oceanlinx: Wave power renewable energy |
A wave energy converter for near shore applications that harnesses both the upward and downward motion of each wave. An innovative variable pitch blade turbine (Denniss-Auld Turbine) adjusts to the changing air flow direction created within a concentrator chamber.
The Centre will also provide support for the deployment of the first commercial plant to be located in Victoria. More information |
| Cool Energy: Raw natural gas processing |
A new cryogenic gas 'sweetening' technology which safely removes carbon dioxide contaminents without harming the environment. Now proven at small scale the technology is being developed to a full scale commercial pilot plant.
Its costs effectiveness compared to encumbent gas 'cleaning' technologies and its scalability will allow production consideration to be given to gas fields that were previously avoided because they were too small, too remote or too contaminated. At large scale the technology may be a perfect replacement for gas pre-treatment for major gas production and processing sites.
More information |
| Renewed Fuels: Waste stream pyrolysis |
Development of pyrolysis technology to process specific manufacturing waste streams at the Australian Paper - Maryvale Paper Mill. Testing and development will encompass pre-treatment processes, waste stream mixing optimisation and growth trials for char by-product potential as a commercial soil conditioning product.
More information |
| Worldwide Coating - TAG insulation additive |
An innovative new material, based on a natural substance, has been found to provide the breakthrough benefits of acting as a heat insulation material in one direction and allowing heat to transfer out in the other - creating one-way insulation.
Known as Thermally Active Granules (TAG), it can be easily added to paints and other materials and used as a coating to significantly reduce operating temperatures. TAG is a platform technology as it can be applied across a wide variety of industries and applications. TAG acts as an insulator to keep equipment cooler when the ambient temperature is higher than the equipment but allows heat to escape when the temperature of the equipment is higher than the ambient temperature.
An initial target market for the technology is the power industry, in particular, the coating of power lines where lower temperatures can reduce power line resistance and power losses as well as 'line sag', when power lines droop and come in contact with trees. More information |
| AquaSpy Group |
AquaSpy Group (previously Agrilink Holdings) have developed a range of next-generation water saving devices including soil moisture and weather sensors for agricultural and turf industries using technology that closely monitors water usage and weather conditions to ensure crops, turf and plants are only watered when needed.
Increased water efficiency in the agricultural sector has a significant positive impact on energy efficiency and reduced emissions as less water is needed to be pumped by on-farm electric and diesel powered pumps.
More information |
| MIGfast - high efficiency robot MIG welding |
Robot MIG (Metal Inert Gas) or Gas Metal Arc Welding is now widely used across metal fabrication but it requires a significant amount of electricity and uses carbon dioxide (CO2) as a shielding gas. Both contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.
The MIGfast product is a consumable welding contact tip that provides significant benefits in welding productivity, weld quality and fume reduction.
The patented MIGfast welding tip has been designed to be interchangeable with existing welding tips to allow simple and cost-effective take-up of the new technology. It allows more efficient welding for both pulsed and non-pulsed MIG welding processes.
Other advantages include reduced weld fumes and spatter, resulting in a cleaner and safer work area and significantly reduced heat distortion in welded parts as half the energy is injected into the weld for the same result.
More information |
