Government in the energy business would safeguard pricing – by Shane West

Australia’s electricity grid is being shaken up as states and the Commonwealth embrace renewables. But this also gives Australia a chance to claim back energy monopolies it lost to state owned companies from China and Singapore, argues Shane West. With coal supplying 80 percent of Victoria’s energy, the closing of the Loy Yang power station…

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Former Chief Scientist joins “era-defining” Australian hydrogen company

Electrolyser startup Hysata has announced former Australian Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel as chair of the company’s Global Advisory Council. Finkel was Chief Scientist for five years until the end of 2020, with current Chief Scientist Dr Cathy Foley his replacement, and has a background including a PhD in electrical engineering, in entrepreneurship, and as…

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Australian team examines loss of potentially dangerous plastic particles from cookware

A team of researchers from Flinders University and Newcastle University has developed a way to measure plastic particles lost from non-stick cookware. The work by the team used a “molecular spectrum approach” for directly visualising and identifying Teflon microplastics and nanoplastics, which are “generally a family member of PFAS” as well as more difficult to…

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Best of the week — the five most popular stories among @AuManufacturing’s readers

What were the five biggest stories last week? Here’s what visitors to this site were reading. FIRST DRIVE IN H2X HYDROGEN POWER WARREGO UTILITY About 100 kilometres from Amsterdam in a workshop dedicated to vehicle electrification sits one of two unique hydrogen fuel cell-electric utility vehicles – Australian company H2X Global’s Warrego utility, writes Peter…

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Beazley calls for onshore rare earths processing

By Peter Roberts Few defence ministers have done more for Australian sovereign industry capability than Kim Beazley. Most recently Governor of Western Australia, Beazley as Australian ambassador to Washington pried open US markets for Australian manufactured defence equipment, securing new markets for the likes of BAE Systems Australia’s anti-ship missile decoy rocket, Nulka. Domestically he…

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Calix licenses low-emission cement tech to German giant

Cement and lime decarbonisation technology company, Leilac has announced it has signed a perpetual global licence agreement for the use of its decarbonisation technology with Heidelberg Materials, one of the world’s largest building materials companies. The licence agreement applies to any Heidelberg Materials facility where Calix’s Leilac decarbonisation technology is installed – Heidelberg Materials operates…

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Manufacturing news briefs – stories you might have missed

EOS test launches Javelin missile from remote weapons station EOS Defense Systems USA has successfully fired anti-tank missiles and a 30mm cannon from an EOS remote weapon station mounted on a High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV, pictured). The firings, conducted at the Redstone Test Center, Ala., utilised U.S. Army-supplied Javelin missiles and the Northrop…

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