Inventions changing your life

The Brilliant, a global news hub for best practice in science communication, has featured work by the UNSW SMaRT Centre in a list of key "inventions changing your life right now".

Below is an excerpt and here is a link to the full story that lists 34 Australian inventions, with SMaRT Director Professor Veena's coming in at number 3.

CREATING NEW PRODUCTS FROM LANDFILL

The invention: Green steel, a polymer injection technology that is an environmentally-friendly process for using recycled rubber tyres in steel making. So far, this process has prevented millions of waste tyres otherwise destined for landfill as a partial replacement for coking coal. Inventor, Professor Veena Sahajwalla, went on to create, in 2018, the world’s first e-waste microfactory which processes metal alloys from old laptops, circuit boards and smartphones. Every year we dump a massive 2.12 billion tons of waste – this waste is in Sahajwalla’s sights.

Inventor: Professor Veena Sahajwalla from UNSW SMaRT Centre, who in recent years has been collaborating with Australian steel manufacturer Molycop on commercialisation and new research in this area.

Commercialisation: Steel maker Molycop, which is using Green Steel technology as head licensee in various electric arc furnaces in Australia and overseas. Research collaboration in relation to Green Steel is continuing.