MELBOURNE, Australia - Australian SMEs Clean TeQ and Ionic Industries have joined forces with Monash University to scale up graphene-based water and wastewater filtration technology.
The new wastewater filtration products will use graphene oxide with the aim to dramatically improve performance and reduce current energy use.
The research and development team behind the project recently won funding through the Australian Government’s Cooperative Research Centres Projects (CRC-P) program and aim to deliver working products in the next two to three years.
The aim is to use the CRC-P funding to support the delivery of low energy, continuous flow processes for the water and wastewater treatment market.
Hailed as a wonder-material, graphene is a lattice of carbon atoms so thin it’s considered to be two-dimensional, providing incredible performance characteristics and range of potential applications.
Lead researcher Associate Professor Mainak Majumder from Monash University and his team perfected a technique in 2016 that could create graphene filters on an industrial scale.
“Graphene has special properties which could disrupt current commercial filtration techniques and significantly reduce the energy required to filter wastewater,” he said.
Peter Voigt, executive director at Clean TeQ, said: “We plan to be the first to take this breakthrough technology to market in Australia and in developing countries such as China, India, South America and South Africa, where access to clean freshwater is a significant issue.”
Professor Deletic will be involved in the project, along with fellow Monash researchers Dr Rico Tabor and Associate Professor David McCarthy.
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