Author: Geoff Marchiori

Project title: Wood chipping residue products

Industry partner: Midway is a private company that is publicly listed. Midway is Australia’s largest high quality wood fibre processor and exporter. Midway has operations in Victoria, Queensland and the Northern Territory covering all stages of the wood chipping process- from plantation to export. The company prides itself on managing the business activities in order to achieve social, economic and environmental outcomes. Some 1.5M tonnes of woodchips are exported to China annually for paper and clothing fibre. Recent changes to local Councils green waste collection strategies has reduced the market for waste wood products produced by Midway. Midway has some 18,000 cubic metres of waste wood product stockpiled.

Project aim: Through the process of producing woodchips an amount of residue or side product is produced.

• Current accumulation of residue – 18,748 m3
• Expected annual production of residue 17,200 m3

This project aims to find the best use for the residue considering end-product value, necessary investment and market potential.

IMAGE: William Warby. Woodchip. Flickr.com. https://www.flickr.com/photos/wwarby/12140895823/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic Licence.

Project title: Reimaging Victorian Police Office

Industry partner: Victoria Police

Project aim: The aim of this project is to develop design proposals speculating on the future of policing and re-imagining what a ‘police station’ of the future might look like.

Task: As a design studio, the students will look carefully at the above issues while thinking beyond the practical, and explore ideas around the future of the physical presence of the police. In order to assist students to think in an adventurous manner we will spend time thinking about:

• What is a police station and its purpose? How has this differed over time?
• What are the architectural origins of the modern police station and how are they different in different parts of the world?
• What are the cultural, technological, social, policy, economic and other trajectories of change that might influence the future of the police station?
• How does the police station of the future integrate technology?
• What does it mean to have a mobile presence architecturally?
• Precedent study around police stations with emphasis to those precedents that work cleverly with space and the urban realm.

Students will be allocated existing stations that are embedded in a suburban, urban context for them to rethink how they integrate the police presence in a unique and impactful way.  This may involve a new police service delivery model and/or re-purposing the existing police station asset.  Each group of students will work on developing a brief and narrative for this station and then individually work on their own proposition.

Students will begin to design and test their brief through a mixture of precedent based explorations, design process and digital techniques, model making and other explorative processes.  Work will be presented in class weekly, and updates and adjustments to the brief made in conjunction with ongoing design and exploration

IMAGE: Mattinbgn. Police station at Sunbury, Victoria. Flickr.com. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sunbury_Police_Station.JPG This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence.

Project title: Tailings Dam Management

Industry partner: Mandalay Resources operates a gold and antimony mine located in Costerfield, Central Victoria. The operation is spread across two sites. Augusta is the underground site and the processing plant is named Brunswick. The mine’s final product is a concentrate containing approximately 50% antimony and 80 grams per tonne gold. The concentrate is sent to China for processing where the antimony is ultimately used as a fire retardant in plastics and other synthetic materials. Historically antimony was mainly used as an alloying element in the production of munitions. There is currently a workforce of approximately 200 people engaged at the Costerfield mine site. An exploration team is currently working to secure the future of mining at Costerfield.

Project aim: The management of tailings is crucial in any mining operation. Tailings storage uses a large footprint and is expensive to manage. Is there another way to manage tailings other than as a waste?

• Tailing dams sediment, are there reuse options for example additions to cement, road materials?
• Composition analysis and evaluation of tailing dam materials, model and design new materials
• Can a tailings dam capped site be re-purposed? modelling of site options including potential for solar panel (PV) array?
• Feasibility study and business case to best use tailing dam materials? Find potential industries who will use the sediment as a resource.

IMAGE: Kelly Michals. Caterpillar Elphinstone R1600G LHD. Flickr.com. https://www.flickr.com/photos/rocbolt/7977719765/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic Licence.

Project title: Modelling of anaerobic systems and potential yield of methane for subsequent energy generation.

Industry partner: Rivalea (Australia) Pty. Ltd. is a leading Australian agri-business supplying approximately 20% of the domestic fresh pork market. The company is headquartered in Corowa, NSW and has piggery operations in Corowa, Albury, Deniliquin, Bendigo and St Arnaud in western Victoria. Rivalea has stock feed mills and meat processing facilities in Corowa and Laverton, Melbourne. Rivalea’s operations are energy intensive both in the milling of feed, rearing livestock and meat processing operations. The introduction of the Federal government carbon abatement programs and large increases in energy prices in recent years has incentivized the company to build out its own energy generation plant using farm and plant resources. Rivalea recognizes that biogas generated in the waste water treatment lagoons is a potential source of energy in the operations of the farm and processing facilities.

Project aim: The aim of this research is to design a model using BioWin software to represent the lagoon system at the Corowa site. This model can then be calibrated with the known effluent parameters and methane generation. This will allow for as assessment of the accuracy of this modelling. If the model is found to be a good fit to the site, then it can be used to simulate a range of hypothetical scenarios. Adjustments of lagoon temperature can be made within the model to assess the significance of heating the lagoons, and how this might then in turn affect the methane generation.

IMAGE: Pat M2007. Frosty Morning. Flickr.com. https://www.flickr.com/photos/patmilphotos/14945466672/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic Licence.

Project title: Biofuel production potential in Australia: Sustainable use of waste water resources.

Industry partner: Rivalea (Australia) Pty. Ltd. is a leading Australian agri-business supplying approximately 20% of the domestic fresh pork market. The company is headquartered in Corowa, NSW and has piggery operations in Corowa, Albury, Deniliquin, Bendigo and St Arnaud in western Victoria. Rivalea has stock feed mills and meat processing facilities in Corowa and Laverton, Melbourne. Rivalea’s operations are energy intensive both in the milling of feed, rearing livestock and meat processing operations. The introduction of the Federal government carbon abatement programs and large increases in energy prices in recent years has incentivized the company to build out its own energy generation plant using farm and plant resources. Rivalea recognizes that biogas generated in the waste water treatment lagoons is a potential source of energy in the operations of the farm and processing facilities.

Project aim: The project will investigate lagoon biogas emission and carbon balance estimates of a Rivalea piggery in Corowa, NSW using historical data. The aim of this project is to assess the impact on waste water treatment on energy and greenhouse gas balance using historical data (2012-2018) such as flow rate, BOD, COD, VFA, pH EC, total solids
The report generated from this study will make recommendations for improving greenhouse gas emissions to facilitate a sustainable development of energy supply.

IMAGE: jbdodane. Pig farm. Flickr.com. https://www.flickr.com/photos/jbdodane/9735162122/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic Licence.

Project title: Solutions for Timber Waste

Industry partner: Hopley Recycling
Hopley Recycling Pty Ltd, part of The Hopley Group, is a local central Victorian waste resource recycler turning construction and demolition waste into approved and accredited recycled aggregates and road base including crushed brick, recycled concrete and recycled asphalt. The project site is at East Bendigo.

Project aim: To conduct an investigation on possible recycling solutions for timber waste which is collected from demolition waste.

IMAGE: Bentley Smith. 200611 recycled timber. Flickr.com. URL This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic Licence.

Project title: Australia-South Asia Sustainability Tech-tie-up: Market Scoping and Strategy

Industry partner: cKinetics is a mission driven Sustainability Insight, Innovation & Capital Advisory firm with offices in New Delhi, India and California, USA. The company works with clients and partners globally to develop solutions that are both sustainable and profitable.

Project aim: To conduct a research about the Australian clean-tech market (i.e. companies that provide sustainability solutions such as sustainable energy or waste-water treatment) and evaluate if they are relevant to Southeast countries.

The research might include:

• Applicability of the different solutions to the target markets
• Interests of the solution developers to explore target markets- which would involve interacting with them
• Market entry strategy for the different solutions (segment/ industry, pricing, approach etc.,). This will entail travel to India to meet different potential customers
• Possible business model of engagement between cKinetics and the Australian solution providers.The success of the internship would be measured if 1-2 tie ups are facilitated.

Benefits: 

• Be guided by an academic supervisor and gain course credits (12 or 24CPs)
• Monthly stipend of US$500
• Internationalise your resume and gain a competitive edge in the global job market
• Create memories that will last a lifetime.

Work method: 

• Research for clean-tech companies is mainly conducted in Australia
• Students are required to pay a field visit to India for 3-4 weeks in the beginning of the project and 3-4 weeks during the end of the project
• If students enrol in a course for summer semester, they will be supervised by an academic and gain course credits. They will also be provided with support from cKinetics staff while they are in India.

Intern selection criteria: 

• Postgraduate or Honours students are preferred
• Self-directed and highly motivated
• Research skills
• Experience in conducting marketing campaigns or developing new markets would be desirable.

IMAGE:  eltpics. Green Technology Flickr.com. https://www.flickr.com/photos/eltpics/8482514433/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic Licence.

Project title: A Feasibility Study of Cassava-based Sustainable Products

Project aim: To conduct a feasibility study of cassava-based sustainable products, including: (i) literature review of all existing and potential green products from cassava; (ii) technical and financial feasibility of producing these green products in Vietnam; and (iii) market scan and business potential for these green products in Australia, NZ as well as Southeast Asia.

Industry partner: SEPON Vietnam and Ayres Australia

IMAGE: Claire Benjamin. 9K5B7065_V2. Flickr.com. https://www.flickr.com/photos/155160264@N07/37182796326/in/album-72157686427277750/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic Licence.

Project title: Energy Use Protocols – Electricity consumption

Project aim: To develop on-going protocols for WWTP operations, with specific attention to energy usage and optimization.

Industry partner: Western Water

Western Water provides water, sewerage and recycled water services to 61,000 properties with a population of 162,000 across a region of 3,000 square kilometres to the north-west of Melbourne. Since the authority’s establishment 20 years ago, Western Water has seen its service population more than double. This strong growth rate is projected to continue as suburbs around Melton and Sunbury develop over the coming decade. Nearly all towns in the service area now have a secure water supply through provision of alternate supplies to local water. These include interconnection to adjoining supply systems as well as access to Melbourne water.

IMAGE: Simon Yeo. 20100417_SX1IS_075. Flickr.com. https://www.flickr.com/photos/smjb/4529771431/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic Licence.