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Media Release

July 28 2004

International Fellowship supports hydrogen energy made from organic wastes


Producing hydrogen energy from biomass wastes will be the aim of Australian Research Council Linkage – International Fellowship winner at the University of South Australia.

The chief investigator for the research Fellowship, worth $76,844, is Dr Bo Jin, Senior Research Fellow and head of UniSA’s Water Environment Biotechnology group in the School of Natural and Built Environments.

Dr Jin will take the leading role in researching techniques for generating hydrogen energy from biomass materials in waste streams, not only because hydrogen is a clean and high efficient energy, but because it can be a process for waste treatment.

Biomass waste is food and agricultural industry wastes or any organic wastes from paper, oil, wine and other industries including sewerage treatment plants, according to Dr Jin.

“In determining the feasibility of biological hydrogen production, we will isolate enriched hydrogen producing bacteria from the active sludge and use the waste material as a food or an energy source for hydrogen production while at the same time reducing organic waste. It’s an integrated biological production and treatment technology,” Dr Jin said.

“Through this research we aim to gain a better understanding of the biotechnology processes and pathways that lead to high energy hydrogen productivity and yield.”

Dr Jin will support Dr Zhihui Bai from the Research Centre for Environmental Ecology Sciences, which is one of China’s top research institutes funded by the Chinese Academy of Science.

The International Fellowships, awarded by the Commonwealth government, enable Fellows from overseas research institutions to work in Australia with UniSA researchers on specific projects for up to one year, giving UniSA researchers the chance to build strong ongoing collaborations with international researchers and centres of excellence.

Director of Research Services, Dr Mark Hochman, says the University’s success in winning a total of $156,988 for the two applications submitted (out of 46 applications received from universities Australia-wide), places UniSA in ninth position among universities nationally.
 

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