GETCO2 Archives

ISGTCO2: A Grand Success

Posted on December 7, 2023December 14, 2023 by Anna Knudsen

The inaugural International Symposium on Green Transformation of Carbon Dioxide (ISGTCO2) was a grand success, with over 170 delegates from around the world gathering in Brisbane, Australia, from 28 November to 1 December 2023.

The symposium aimed to inspire and advance research collaboration on using carbon dioxide as a resource and developing solutions to accelerate the progress toward net-zero targets. With the theme, “Cooperating on a global opportunity,” the symposium embodied the spirit of GETCO2 as an international, multi-institutional, inter-disciplinary, and highly collaborative ARC Centre of Excellence.

Over three days, ISGTCO2 covered 100 presentations across three concurrent streams. The topics spanned across CO2 capture, CO2 reduction technology landscape, catalysts, membrane electrolysis, system simulation, advanced characterisation, and carbon bonds. In between the highly technical discussions and presentations, there was also time to network, attend a gala dinner at the beautiful Customs House on the Brisbane River – and an opportunity to meet some local Australian wildlife!

The feedback from delegates was overwhelmingly positive and confirmed the importance of bringing experts together from across the world to share their insights and join forces in the journey towards a sustainable future.

Now it is time to GETCO2!

Symposium stats:

171 delegates from 10 countries
36 female delegates
100 presentations
1 wombat, 1 owl and 3 reptiles (representing the local wild Australians)

Symposium Plenary speakers:

Prof. Robin Batterham, The University of Melbourne, Australia
Prof. Alexis T. Bell, Berkeley University of California, USA
Prof. Debra Bernhardt, The University of Queensland, Australia
Prof. Sir Anthony Cheetham, University of California, Santa Barbara
Dr. Mark Jacobs, Queenland Government, Department of Environment and Science, Australia
Prof. Feng Jiao, Washington University in St. Louis, USA
Prof. Graeme Henkelman, The University of Texas at Austin, USA
Prof. Sandra Kentish, The University of Melbourne, Australia
Prof. Shizhang Qiao, The University of Adelaide, Australia
Prof. Jennifer Wilcox, The University of Pennsylvania, USA
Prof. Huijun Zhao, Griffith University, Australia
Prof. Chuan Zhao, The University of New South Wales, Australia

Symposium award winners:

Congratulations to:

Dae-Hyun Nam, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST) – winner of the Shimadzu Best Presentation Award, sponsored by Shimadzu Corporation
Yu Yang, the University of Sydney – winner of the Best Student Presentation Award, sponsored by Elsevier Materials Today Chemistry
Ahmad Zhafran Md Azmi, University of New South Wales – winner of the Best Student Presentation Award, sponsored by Elsevier Materials TodayChemistry
Aoni Xu, Technical University of Denmark– winner of the PerkinElmer Outstanding Young Researcher Award, sponsored by PerkinElmer
Timothy Duignan, Griffith University – winner of the Wiley Outstanding Young Researcher Award, sponsored by Wiley

Symposium sponsors:

A big thanks to our sponsors for their support:

Program booklet and more info:

For more information about ISGTCO2 2023 please visit the Symposium website and check the program booklet.

GETCO2 Highly Cited Researchers 2023 Awards

Posted on November 17, 2023November 17, 2023 by Anna Knudsen

Congratulations to GETCO2 researchers Professor Xiwang Zhang, Professor Chuan Zhao, Professor Zaiping Guo and Professor Feng Jiao (Partner Investigator) on receiving the Highly Cited Researcher 2023 Award from Clarivate!

The prestigious award recognises the exceptional performance of researchers who have a significant number of papers in the top 1% most cited in their field and year of publication. To highlight just how significant these awards are, they are only bestowed on ~1 in 1000 researchers.

This select group of scientists contribute disproportionately to extending the frontiers of knowledge and gaining for society innovations that make the world healthier, more sustainable and more secure.

The full list can be found online here.

Debra J. Bernhardt joins GETCO2

Posted on October 18, 2023December 6, 2023 by Anna Knudsen

We are excited to welcome Professor Debra J. Bernhardt to GETCO2 as a UQ Chief Investigator.

Debra is an ARC Australian Laureate Fellow in the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) and School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences (SCMB) at The University of Queensland. She was the recent recipient of the RACI Margaret Sheil Leadership Award 2023.

Debra is taking over from Suresh Bhati, who is currently an Emeritus Professor at UQ and will convert from Chief Investigator to Associate Investigator with GETCO2. Suresh’s expertise and leadership have been invaluable in advancing GETCO2, and we appreciate his continuing involvement with GETCO2 as an Associate Investigator.

Debra Bernhardt will contribute renowned expertise in theoretical and computational methods for studying new materials and fluids, and she will be part of Research Theme 4 – Characterisation and Computation.

Curious about computation?

In this video, Debra explains how computational models can be used in the development of theory and computational methods for the study of molecular systems;

You can learn more about Debra’s research at the International Symposium on Green Transformation of Carbon Dioxide in Brisbane, 29 Nov – 1 Dec 2023, where she will present a plenary talk on Contributions of Simulation to Green Transformation of Carbon Dioxide.

Fast-tracking CO2 capture technologies with Machine Learning

Posted on October 16, 2023October 16, 2023 by Anna Knudsen

Carbon capture and storage technologies play a crucial role in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. One of the challenges is the search for the best material to store CO2 in the most efficient and inexpensive way.

GETCO2’s Associate Investigator Dr Babarao and his team at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in collaboration with Dr Aaron Thornton from CSIRO have looked at a new class of materials called Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) to capture CO2.

You can design these nano-materials in infinite ways, by tuning the shape and composition of the structures. However, optimisation can quickly become costly, both in terms of materials used and computational requirements in simulations. This calls for cheaper and faster methods of evaluating the growing list of candidates.

Tuning the building blocks

Using Machine Learning the research team has managed to dramatically reduce the time it takes to evaluate the materials and find the best candidates. One of the building blocks in the machine learning model is a descriptor that predicts which materials are best suited for CO2 capture. Dr Babaro’s team has developed a new descriptor, that significantly outperforms others, being hundreds of thousands of times faster. They call it the “Effective Point Charge (EPoCh)” descriptor.

The team aims to use this fast method to find suitable materials for CO2 capture and storage that the experimentalist can test and then scale up for commercial use.

This work is funded by the CSIRO Permanent Carbon Locking Future Science Platform and is recently published in Nature Communications Chemistry journal.

Meet the experts at ISGTCO2 29 in Brisbane this November

You can learn more about the research and meet Dr Ravichandar who will present at the International Symposium on Green Transformation of Carbon Dioxide.

For more information, please visit the ISGTCO2 symposium website.

Image:
From left: Supervisor Dr Aaron Thornton and Team Leader Dr Cara Doherty from CSIRO, Dr Ravichandar Babarao from RMIT and Director of CarbonLock FSP Dr Andrew Lenton from CSIRO.

Zaiping Guo – Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science 2023

Posted on September 18, 2023September 18, 2023 by Anna Knudsen

GETCO2 Chief Investigator Professor Zaiping Guo has been elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science Fellowship 2023.

Zaiping is a materials scientist and GETCO2 Node Director at the University of Adelaide, where she has made pioneering contributions to our understanding of how electrode materials and electrolytes behave. Her world-leading research focuses on developing more powerful, longer-lasting and safer rechargeable batteries for portable devices, electric vehicles and smart grids.

Zaiping’s research investigates novel electrode materials and electrolytes for lithium-ion batteries to increase the amount of energy they can store and extend their cycle life. One of her research team’s innovations is a synthesised silicon-carbon composite that can replace graphite as the anode in lithium-ion batteries. This will boost the energy density compared to the current lithium batteries. She also pioneered potassium ion batteries, which have the same chemical properties as lithium but are more abundant and cheaper.

Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science are among the Nation’s most distinguished scientists, elected by their peers for ground-breaking research and contributions that have had clear impact, and Zaiping hopes her Fellowship will inspire other young women in science to follow in her footsteps and push other boundaries.

Meet Zaiping Guo and learn more about her research in this video from the Australian Academy of Science.

See the 20 new 2023 Fellows on the Australian Academy of Science here.