February 13th, 2024‘Green steel’ to help industry reach net zero
Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, and Swinburne University of Technology have established a new partnership to tackle global decarbonisation with innovative green steel and mineral processing research and development.
The collaboration will build national research capability across the Australian innovation system to help industry investigate low-emission steel technologies to guide future demonstrations and industry development.
The ‘Sustainable Mineral Processing and Green Steel Program’ partnership will address key net zero challenges for the mineral resources industry, including developing low-carbon routes for iron, steel and critical metals, as well as improving recycling technologies.
Bringing new skills to the energy transition challenge is a crucial aspect of the partnership, with research fellows and PhD candidates from both institutions to work alongside international researchers and industry.
Swinburne’s Professor Akbar Rhamdhani, a noted expert in sustainable processing, particularly in battery materials and critical metals, who will play a significant role.
Swinburne is emerging as a leader in the field of supply chain transformation and sustainability, a technological and societal priority area for organisations and governments worldwide.
As part of its Net Zero 2025 Pathways, the University has invested in researchers from minerals characterisation, minerals processing, pyrometallurgy and materials recycling. Coupled with CSIRO’s extensive minerals research and development expertise, researchers from both organisations will bring the program to life.
The program will also provide a platform for international conferences and industry courses, as well as engagement for students through scholarships, joint final year projects and work experience programs.
This critical work is supporting one of Australia’s hard-to-abate sectors to halve their emissions by 2035, and forms part of CSIRO’s Towards Net Zero Mission.
Swinburne Chief Scientist Professor Virginia Kilborn: “Swinburne is thrilled to be working with CSIRO on another program, this time using our combined strength in decarbonisation and green steel. The university has a long-standing relationship with CSIRO, linking world-class capability across a vast range of strategic research areas.
“Green steel makes up a key part of Swinburne’s flagship research area ‘Innovative Planet’. This partnership is another active step taken by Swinburne towards global decarbonisation to achieve net zero.”
