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A cheaper, cleaner and faster power system
The company behind a marine plug-in hybrid power system says it could offer the maritime industry both financial and environmental gains.
The Australian company Ampcontrol, in collaboration with Steber International and the University of Newcastle, have successfully designed, constructed and demonstrated a 600kW hybrid power and propulsion system for a 13 m-long boat.
The team built the alpha prototype from 2017-2021 before revealing a beta prototype for demonstration purposes in November 2023. This was soon followed by a successful and fruitful journey from the Hawkesbury to Sydney Harbour.
Driving large-scale battery adoption in Western Australia
Built on the site of a decommissioned coal-fired power station, this modular big battery is the first stage in decarbonising Western Australia’s electricity grid.
This article was originally published in the August edition of create with the headline “Electricity megastorage”.
It’s unsurprising that residents in Australia’s sunniest state have enthusiastically adopted rooftop solar. An average of almost nine hours of sunshine a day in Perth explains why more than 460,000 Western Australian households – or around 30 per cent of homes – had installed solar units as of last year.
Their combined output adds up to the largest power station on the South West Interconnected System (SWIS) grid, the state’s main electricity network which has more than 1.1 million customers and serves most of the state’s population.
How this construction company flood-proofed a Tasmanian town
The Latrobe Flood Mitigation Project has transformed the management of floodwater and flow of wastewater in a vulnerable regional township.
Only a few thousand people live in the town of Latrobe, southeast of Devonport in Tasmania. But the population has experienced a number of severe flood events, most notably in 2016, that laid bare the need to bolster the town’s waterway infrastructure.
BridgePro Engineering, a local contractor better known for bridge construction projects, was engaged to undertake an ambitious flood mitigation project. It was a simple enough idea, but complex to execute – and essential for community safety.
The $14 million project is now a finalist in the Engineers Australia Excellence Awards, in the Project of the Year category.
What role can rammed earth play in low-carbon construction?
The modern desire for low-carbon materials means rammed earth, a paleolithic technology, is enjoying a resurgence in popularity.
This article was originally published in the August 2024 issue of create with the headline “Rammed earth”.
With a known history dating back around 10,000 years, rammed earth is perhaps a surprising contender to be an on-trend building material.
But architects and engineers across the globe are rediscovering and reworking the ancient technique, driven in large part by its promise of ultra-low embodied emissions.
The pros and cons of deep-sea mining
Deep-sea mining is the next frontier. Do the economic and commercial benefits outweigh the environmental risks?
The ocean floor is filled with trillions of deposits of rare earth elements including lithium, cobalt, copper, nickel, aluminium, manganese and zinc. Engineers are devising ways to mine them at depths from 200-6000 m below the surface.
Commercial deep-sea mining is not expected to begin until 2026, with the International Seabed Authority (ISA), which regulates activities in the seabed beyond national jurisdictions, so far issuing 31 exploration permits to 22 contractors.
More than half are in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone between Mexico and Hawaii, which is estimated to possess six times more cobalt and three times more nickel than all known land-based stores. These are critical minerals for the lithium-ion batteries powering the green energy transformation.
The promise and potential of pumped hydro
Pumped hydro currently provides most of the energy storage for the electricity industry, offering large-scale, low-cost, off-the-shelf energy storage in unlimited quantities.
This article was originally published in the August 2024 issue of create with the headline “Under the hydro pump”.
Australia’s future solar-dominated energy system will need long-duration storage capable of riding through night-time and a “wet windless week in winter”: 10-100 hours or more.
This is the realm of pumped hydro, with its very low energy storage cost and its operational lifetime of a century or more. The long-duration energy storage requirements in the 2030s will be much larger than current energy storage needs.
How to achieve a 6 Star Green Star rating in construction
In the past 12 months, Laing O’Rourke has earned multiple 6 Star Green Star ratings. How has the construction company done this?
According to the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA), a 6 Star Green Star rating showcases world leadership in sustainable building practices. Ratings look at the sustainability and liveability of the entire project’s design, construction and operation, covering everything from energy efficiency to water use to material selection.
The construction failures that caused this bridge to collapse
The collapse of the bridge, which killed six people, was a clarion call for enhancing safety procedures in construction.
This article was originally published in the August 2024 issue of create with the headline “An avoidable disaster”.
On 15 March 2018, the 53 m-long main span of a pedestrian bridge at Florida International University collapsed, falling 5.6 m onto the road below in less than half a second.
Eight vehicles were crushed by the bridge, which was still under construction and not being used by pedestrians at the time. Six people were killed and 10 injured.
5 graphs that unpack the battery minerals conundrum
As battery innovation increases, the mix of battery chemistries used in new technology will continue to evolve. These five graphs describe how demand is shifting, why mineral demand will reduce after it peaks, and how to close the battery loop.
Key points:
- As battery demand grows, energy density should continue rising, with more energy stored in fewer kilograms.
- However, chemistry change, density improvement and recycling could lead to a reduction in mineral demand by 2030.
- Up to 95 per cent of the components found in lithium-ion batteries can either be recovered or used in new batteries.
How ROVs are enhancing safety in underwater operations
Installing and maintaining underwater cables has long been considered a high-risk operation, but remotely operated vehicles have changed that.
How this plant cut nitrous oxide emissions by 95 per cent
Technology installed at Orica’s Kooragang Island facility in Newcastle has nearly halved the site’s greenhouse gas emissions, far exceeding expectations.
This article was originally published in the August 2024 issue of create with the headline ‘No laughing matter’.
In an Australian first, tertiary abatement technology installed in June 2023 has been reducing nitrous oxide emissions from Kooragang Island’s three nitric acid plants – used in the production of ammonium nitrate – by at least 95 per cent.
“When we make nitric acid, one of the by-products is nitrous oxide (N2O), or laughing gas,” Paul Hastie, Orica’s Sustainability and Development General Manager, told create. “It’s a serious greenhouse gas pollutant.
“This project aimed to put a catalyst on the exhaust pipe of all three nitric acid plants to break down that nitrous oxide into nitrogen and water.”
Building a hydro dam 1300 m above sea level
An enormous Soviet-era hydro dam project in Tajikistan has been revitalised thanks to modern engineering ingenuity.
This article was originally published in the August 2024 issue of create with the headline ‘Flying high’.
The right tool for the job. In the right place. At the right time. It’s an engineer’s definition of happiness.
But what if that place is 1300 m above sea level in the Tajik mountains? And what if that job is to haul 3000 t an hour of alluvial material between cliffs 650 m apart while building a 335 m-tall embankment dam?
It’s a job that tests the boundaries of possibility. And that’s the fun part, according to the engineers behind the Flyingbelt conveyor.