Three University of Adelaide-led projects have received government funding from the Cooperative Research Centres Projects (CRC-P) program to help create new styles of wine, explore renewable natural hydrogen and recover critical minerals.
Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Laura Parry said the funding will enable researchers at the University of Adelaide to cooperate with key industry partners on research that will benefit Australia’s wine, mining, and renewable energy industries.
“By working in tandem with industry, we can make a tangible difference to the future sustainability of our planet and the well-being of its people,” Prof Parry noted.
A grant of nearly $3 million will assist an Australian Vintage project to make wines with lower alcohol and calorie content than traditional varieties.
An interdisciplinary team led by Professor Kerry Wilkinson and Dr Armando Corsi from the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine and the Adelaide Business School will collaborate on the study with colleagues from the Australian Wine Research Institute.
Professor Graham Heinson, Professor Simon Holford and Associate Professor Rosalind King from the School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences and the Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Resources received a grant of $863,000 as a partner on a project to accelerate the exploration and development of renewable natural hydrogen.
This project, which is being led by the Australian-based renewable natural hydrogen technology business H2EX, will make it possible to use passive and green exploration methods to find natural hydrogen more quickly.
The university said the extraction solutions study will provide a clear path to drill and extract the lowest cost hydrogen, which is projected to be up to 75 per cent less expensive than creating hydrogen.
Meanwhile, Associate Professor Chaoshui Xu and Professor Peter Dowd from the School of Chemical Engineering and the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Resources will collaborate on a $2,415,000 grant-funded project with mining and mining-services companies Orica Australia Pty Ltd, OZ Minerals Limited, and Core Resources Pty Ltd.
Through laboratory testing, the development of an accurate modelling tool, and proof of concept via in-field demonstration, this project will study the possibility of in-place recovery as an environmentally beneficial alternative.
Grants for Cooperative Research Centre Projects offer financing for transient research partnerships. The Australian government announced these awards as part of CRC Projects Round 14.
