The Research Hub for Energy-Efficient Separation (ARC-EESep) led by Professor Xiwang Zhang at Monash University has been officially launched.
Funded with $8 million over 5 years through the ARC and industry partners, the new hub aims to make separation processes used by many Australian industries more energy-efficient, cost-competitive, and environmentally sustainable.
The new hub has an enormous potential financial value for industries such as water, food, mining, chemicals, and oil and gas, ARC chief executive officer Professor Sue Thomas said at the launch.
A total of 25 institutions will partner in the project including eight Australian universities (Monash, UQ, UNSW, VU, Deakin, UTS, QUT, Curtin) and the CSIRO.
Its primary objective is the development of advanced separation materials such as new membranes and adsorbents, while it will also train a highly-skilled workforce with capabilities in the manufacturing of advanced separation materials and equipment.
An example for the kind of research at the hub is a new way of producing advanced membranes that could improve the water processing efficiency in various industries, such as wastewater treatment for power generation and clean drinking water production.