Slightly dated news, but just came across it..

QUT Lava Blue partnership wins Financial Review Higher Education Award

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23rd August 2023

The strategic partnership between QUT and Australian-based battery minerals producing company Lava Blue has won the Industry Engagement Award in the Australian Financial Review Higher Education awards, announced on Tuesday night.

The partnership is helping expand Australia’s emerging battery industries and strengthening Queensland’s position as a leading high-tech developer of the world’s future energy needs.

The award recognises strategic collaborations between higher education institutions and the private sector that have significant depth and breadth and are genuinely reciprocal, mutually beneficial, and highly valued by both parties.

QUT has partnered with Lava Blue and the Innovative Manufacturing CRC to build a $5 million research facility at Redlands Research Park to boost Queensland’s capacity to produce critical minerals for battery and renewable energy systems.

QUT project leader, Professor Sara Couperthwaite, said the Lava Blue Centre for Predictive Research into Speciality Materials (PRiSM) is scaling up processes developed by her team to extract high-purity, valuable minerals from kaolin clay and mining aluminium rich waste streams.

“Our collaboration is establishing ways of converting a wide variety of aluminium-rich sources into high purity alumina (HPA), which is used to make LEDs and separators for lithium-ion batteries,” Professor Couperthwaite said.

"The technology will soon be used for transforming other battery mineral processing by-products into HPA to strengthen Australia’s battery supply chain and minimise mine wastes.

“This partnership is a win-win for QUT and Lava Blue, as it has given our researchers real-life opportunities to solve a global challenge, while giving Lava Blue access to our ground-breaking research.

“QUT is establishing a wealth of expertise and facilities, working with industry partners like Lava Blue and Future Battery Industry CRC, to produce supply lines for critical minerals used in battery technologies at PRiSM and to test battery performance and battery systems in real-world conditions at the QUT National Battery Testing Centre,” she said.

The Industry Engagement Award is one of eight award categories, with entries open to any public or private institutions offering nationally regulated qualifications at associate degree level and above, and/or diplomas and advanced diplomas accredited in the Australian Higher Education sector.

Top picture: Professor Sara Couperthwaite. Picture: QUT

Inset picture: Professor Couperthwaite after the award ceremony in Melbourne. Picture: LinkedIn