Like a phoenix from the ashes, scientists are turning coal dust into concrete to create sustainable homes and jobs.
The innovation is one of dozens of Murdoch University projects that are mapping a greener pathway for cities by turning industry trash into treasure, creating world-first virtual power plants with blockchain technology, and bolstering Australia’s nascent green hydrogen economy.At the Harry Butler Institute’s Centre for Water, Energy and Waste, environmental engineer Dr Martin Anda says his systems make cities smarter and cleaner.
He is calling for officials to cut housing and industry red tape and embrace “visionary” sustainability projects.
“We need to be bolder and more innovative and get on with the job of transforming our cities into smart cities,” Dr Anda says.
One sustainable housing research development in Fremantle, 22km south of Perth, allowed residents to trade harvested rainwater, recycled wastewater and solar power from rooftop panels via the online database Blockchain.
Called RENeW Nexus, it was the first energy and water peer-to-peer trading model in the world. Dr Anda says his team is using “biomimicry” – taking cues from nature to solve human design challenges.
Industrial revolution
The institute’s projects span the energy, building and industrial sectors. Scientists are transforming fly ash from burning coal into concrete and repurposing industry waste into feedstock.One such system, called industrial symbiosis, gives purpose to manufacturing waste such as steam and is transforming the industrial footprint of Kwinana, 40km south of Perth.
“It’s already a world’s best practice example of industrial symbiosis,” he says.
There are 175 product and byproduct exchanges that occur in that area. Basically, what is one company’s waste is another company’s raw material next door.”
Dr Martin Anda, Harry Butler Institute
Two hours south of Perth’s industrial hub, in the South West town of Collie, coal is mined and burned to produce 50 per cent of Perth’s electricity.
Here, Murdoch scientists are scooping up the soft fly ash from the power stations and mixing it with construction waste, which would otherwise be sent to landfill, to create a greener alternative to concrete, called “Collie-crete”.
Collie-crete will hopefully reduce the need for unsustainable and destructive practices.
Conventional cement production is a dirty process and one of the world’s biggest polluters of carbon - responsible for eight per cent of industrial global emissions.
Image caption: Geopolymer students mix and test Collie-crete made from fly-ash and construction waste.
Concrete manufacturing also harms seagrass meadows, which are mined for shells, and blasts holes into Perth’s hills to extract rocks needed for production.
A blueprint of WA’s energy future, released by the WA Liberal Party last year, concluded that whilst coal will continue to be part of the generation mix, it will reduce output as it is displaced by lower cost technologies.
Under Dr Anda’s instruction, environmental engineering students Hendrik Gildenhuys and Ramon Skane hope to use Collie’s tailing dams, which contain a century’s worth of old fly ash, as the basis for a green manufacturing industry that will inject fresh jobs into the local economy.
Costing the earth
This International Renewable Energy Agency recently found that renewable energy projects using solar and wind produce cheaper electricity than coal. The cost of large-scale solar power has fallen by more than 85 per cent in just a decade.But despite the cost of producing renewable energy plummeting, more than 3 billion people across the world still rely on wood, coal, charcoal or animal waste for cooking and heating, according to the United Nations.
Scientists at the Centre for Water, Energy and Waste are making renewable energy, such as solar and wind, more efficient and accessible.
The revolutionary work extends beyond the lab and into the world of politics for Murdoch University sustainable energy and climate policy expert Associate Professor Anis Zaman.
Political power
Dr Zaman is working with the United Nations and politicians in Asia-Pacific countries, such as Indonesia, Tonga and Bangladesh, to help them transition away from fossil fuels by 2030.“It is done through a lot of analytic work to create policy measures that will help countries build a roadmap to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 7,” Dr Zaman says.
“We look at data across the entire sector, so all the technological data such as consumption, supply and the development plans that a country might have. This allows us to take everything into account and then forecast a country’s energy future.”
Dr Zaman has also developed a tool, called the National Expert SDG for Energy Planning, that is being used to change energy policy across the world, but also to speed up the transition to low-carbon living.
Winds of change
Back home in Australia, wind energy scientist Dr Jonathan Whale is improving the quality and reliability of small wind turbines.
His work has transformed an unregulated industry marred by unethical manufacturers into a renewable business alternative to rooftop solar panels.
Dr Whale says when people think of wind turbines, they picture the massive machines with 60m blades dotted across swathes of open country. But Dr Whale is working on making the small wind market – where the blades can sit on a roof and are just 8m long – more viable to consumers.
Image caption: A small wind turbine on a pylon, the type which could urbanise wind power generation.
“Initially, we were working to improve the quality and understanding of wind turbines for the small wind industry to try and improve uptake,” Dr Whale says.
Alongside the International Energy Agency, Dr Whale created the first set of proper small wind turbine standards and regulations.
He says he is working on wind energy as a future resource for micro grids – the same type of decentralised electricity sources that Dr Anda has installed in Fremantle.
Dr Anda says the next wave in the sustainability mission is renewable hydrogen.
Hydrogen gas is produced by zapping water with electricity and Murdoch scientists are using the power of solar, wind and tides to launch WA’s green hydrogen future.
“We want to be working with nature, not against it,” Dr Anda says.
This research supports UN Sustainable Development Goals 13 and 15.