Protecting groundwater from mining and industrial waste
23 August, 2013A team at the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training has developed a cheaper and more efficient way to test the design of store-release covers, which can prevent toxic chemicals leaching from landfill and mining waste.
Floating oil and gas partnership proposal welcomed by university
20 August, 2013Kevin Rudd’s proposal to create a National Floating Systems Research Centre has been welcomed by the University of Western Australia. The centre would be developed with industry, government, UWA and three other Australian universities as research partners.
Citizen scientists invited to analyse underwater robot images
12 August, 2013Thousands of budding marine biologists have been invited to examine images captured by Sirius, an autonomous underwater vehicle belonging to the University of Sydney’s ACFR designed to track the location of kelp and sea urchin populations.
CSIRO helps smelters cut energy consumption
12 August, 2013Large smelters in electricity-intensive, metal-winning industries can use as much power as a medium-sized city, so finding ways to reduce their energy requirement is a high priority. In a bid to help smelters cut their consumption and associated emissions, the Australian research agency CSIRO, in partnership with industry players, is assessing and testing new electrical connection systems.
Sensor start-up declines $10m and stays in Australia
09 August, 2013An optical sensor technology start-up has stuck to its guns and will continue to work from Australia, despite an appealing $10 million offer from Chinese investors to move offshore.
New research facility to revolutionise manufacturing research
02 August, 2013A new research facility that combines Monash University and CSIRO research could transform manufacturing in areas such as biomedicine, transport, aerospace engineering and mineral processing.
Increased mining automation could threaten jobs
29 July, 2013While increasing automation in mining tasks can improve safety, it may jeopardise on-site jobs, a new report from the UQ’s Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining has found.
CSIRO’s slag performance database: adding value to Australia’s coal resources
29 July, 2013A growing international coal gasification market offers potential for coal deposits previously ranked of low value to become a highly marketable resource.
Dell delivers high-performance cloud for NCI
25 July, 2013Dell has been contracted to supply a 3200 core high-performance computer cloud for the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI).
Can we trust robots?
09 July, 2013Humans still seem to worry that the robots we build to serve us may one day turn against us. To address this irrational fear, a UK research project will explore how robots can interact with humans in an increasingly safe and trustworthy manner.
Printing Australia’s largest solar cells
03 June, 2013Scientists have produced the largest flexible, plastic solar cells in Australia - 10 times the size of what they were previously able to - thanks to a new solar cell printer that has been installed at CSIRO.
Metso and CSIRO initiate a new phase of collaboration
29 May, 2013A new initiative between Metso and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia strengthens the ability of both organisations to further develop and provide advanced technological services and solutions to industry.
Waste opportunities - transforming waste energy into cost-saving and sustainable processes
07 May, 2013 by Ed Sugay*, Head of Energy EfficiencyAround half of the primary energy consumed in industrial processes is currently wasted. Even steel produced by recycling scrap metal in electric-arc furnaces, for instance, requires approximately 370 kWh per metric tonne.
CSIRO unveils robotics research on Star Wars Day
06 May, 2013CSIRO has released details about its latest crop of robots that indicates advances in ICT research will see closer collaboration between people and robots in the not-too-distant future.
Harvesting unused energy with flat thermoelectrics
29 April, 2013A large proportion of the energy we produce disappears unused into thin air via waste heat. Tiny thermoelectric generators can tap this potential, producing electricity by way of temperature differences. However, so far their production has been laborious and expensive. At the same time there is a lack of suitable materials.
