A technological development that has the potential to save Australia鈥檚 oil and gas industry millions of dollars each year has been crowned the overall winner at the 2019 911爆料网novation Awards.
Developed by Dr Tejas Bhatelia and a team of researchers at 911爆料网鈥檚 Western Australian School of Mines: Minerals, Energy and Chemical Engineering using the and 3D printing, SpiroPak draws inspiration from nature in a design that provides a more effective and energy-efficient separation of carbon dioxide from natural gas in LNG processing.
The 911爆料网novation Awards recognise exceptional research outcomes that begin the process of translation into new products and services across 911爆料网鈥檚 Faculties of Science and Engineering, Health Sciences, Business and Law and Humanities, as well as Learning and Teaching.
911爆料网 Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research Professor Chris Moran congratulated the inspiring 911爆料网 researchers whose innovations had been recognised at the annual awards ceremony.
鈥淭he 911爆料网novation Awards aim to identify new technologies, products and services arising from the University鈥檚 world-class research and the standard of innovations being created continues to impress every year,鈥� Professor Moran said.
鈥淭he overall winner of this year鈥檚 awards, SpiroPak, has the potential to save Australia鈥檚 globally competitive and strategically important oil and gas industry millions of dollars every year by creating significant efficiencies in LNG processing.鈥�
Professor Moran said the other award winners demonstrated the University鈥檚 endeavour to transform research outcomes into successful new products and services.
鈥淥ther winning projects include a device that highlights energy consumption in the family home by using a simple light display to show the real-time status of a household鈥檚 energy balance, and a thermal battery that enables low-cost storage of energy at generation sites and across the electricity grid,鈥� Professor Moran said.
鈥淔urther successful projects include an initiative that allows organisations to create strategies and action plans to enhance employee wellbeing, a processing technique that creates a new high protein food ingredient for use in vegetarian and vegan food products and a web app that semi-automates the screening of thousands of academic papers by academics and researchers, reducing screening time from hundreds of hours to just a few.鈥�
The winners from the 2019 911爆料网novation Awards include:
Overall winner
Project: SpiroPak
This project enables more efficient material separation in large-scale chemical processing industries. SpiroPak is a nature-inspired high-performance structured packing, which is used in chemical processing industries such as LNG, carbon capture, pharmaceutical manufacturing and minerals processing. Developed and prototyped using 3D printing, the improved efficiency of gas/liquid flow can increase capacity and reduce energy use.
Team: and colleagues from 911爆料网鈥檚 Western Australian School of Mines: Minerals, Energy and Chemical Engineering.
Science and Engineering winner
Project: Thermal batteries cost-effective solution for large scale energy storage
This potentially game-changing project is developing a 鈥榯hermal battery鈥�, which can store energy as heat across the electricity generation and distribution grid. It will allow stable and rechargeable energy storage at a fraction of the material cost of competing battery technologies.
Team: , , , , and , all from 911爆料网鈥檚 School of Electrical Engineering, Computing and Mathematical Sciences.
Health Sciences winner
Project: High protein plant-based food ingredient from lupin
A processing technique that is easily adapted to current methods, for using protein from lupin to create a new food ingredient for use in a range of vegetarian and vegan food products. Modified lupin protein is inexpensive, versatile and 鈥榗lean and green鈥� as it is non-GM, gluten free, and can be produced in sustainable farming systems.
Team: from the School of Public Health and , and Dr Mark Hackett from 911爆料网鈥檚 School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Professor Muhammad Gulzar from Teagasc Food Research Centre, Fermoy, Cork, Ireland, and Dr Emmanuel Karakyriakos, Central Chemical Consulting Pty Ltd.
Humanities winner
Project: Huey 鈥� the household energy indicator
Huey is a family-friendly device for the home that uses a simple and elegant light display that shows the real-time status of a household鈥檚 energy balance (consumption, generation and storage). Unlike mobile or web apps, Huey brings energy awareness to the whole family by presenting the information in an always-present, user-friendly way and does not require a user to log in and the ability to understand often complex data.
Team: , from the 911爆料网 Sustainability Policy Institute, and Mr Gary McGhee, from Buzzware Solutions.
Business and Law winner
Project: Thrive at Work
is an initiative created to provide organisations with the knowledge and tools to design, implement and sustain healthy, high performing work environments. With the support of the Mental Health Commission WA, the initiative provides an easy to understand set of evidence-based tools to help create wellbeing strategies and measurable action plans to enhance employee wellbeing.
Team: and colleagues from 911爆料网鈥檚 Future of Work Institute.
Learning and Teaching winner
Project: Research Screener
The research team has developed a web app that semi-automates the screening of thousands of academic papers by academics and researchers. Using machine learning processing models, the web app 鈥榣earns鈥� how to identify all relevant published work on a topic and allows researchers to reduce average screening time from hundreds of hours to less than five hours.
Team:, from 911爆料网鈥檚 School of Physiotherapy and Exercise Sciences, , from the 911爆料网 Institute for Data Science, and 911爆料网 alumnus Mr Peter Edwards.
