Swinburne secures AEA funding in aerospace, critical metals, sustainable steel production and protective helmet design

Swinburne University of Technology researchers have secured over $1.6 million in funding from Australia’s Economic Accelerator (AEA) Ignite grants. 

The four projects will partner with industry to lead groundbreaking initiatives across aerospace, critical metals, sustainable steel production and protective helmet design for defence and law enforcement personnel. 

Swinburne’s Pro Vice-Chancellor, Flagship Initiatives, Professor Alan Duffy says these projects reflect Swinburne’s commitment to address real world challenges. 

"Through strong industry partnerships, these projects will translate Swinburne's world-class research into practical innovations that will have lasting benefits for society,” says Professor Duffy.

Transforming the manufacturing of aerostructures 

A project led by Dr Mohammad Ravandi with a team of engineers from Swinburne’s Aerostructures Innovation Research Hub (AIR Hub) has received $495,877 to establish Australia’s first automated, high-rate manufacturing capability for aerospace-grade thermoplastic composite aerostructures. This project is in partnership with Kite Aerospace Pty Ltd, who will contribute towards aircraft design data and lead the structural ground testing and in-flight validation of the manufactured wings.

The project will focus on transforming how primary structures (such as wings) of small to medium uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV) – or drones – are manufactured, to reduce production times while maintaining quality.

Australia’s UAV industry is currently constrained by slow, labour-intensive composite manufacturing methods based on traditional thermoset materials. These processes are difficult to scale, costly and highly sensitive to supply chain disruption. 

“Our project directly addresses these challenges by introducing an automated, high-rate manufacturing approach using high-performance thermoplastic composites. Further, this close collaboration with industry ensures the technology is practical in a real operational environment and can be adopted quickly by industry,” says Dr Ravandi. 

In addition to productivity gains, thermoplastic composites also offer significant durability and sustainability advantages. 

Extracting critical metals from end-of-life batteries 

A project led by Professor Akbar Rhamdhani and supported by Professor Geoffrey Brooks has received $497,364 to develop a net-zero carbon process route and technology to extract critical metals from end-of-life batteries. This project is in partnership with Calix Ltd and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

Extracting critical metals from end-of-life batteries requires fast, robust processes that can handle high volume of materials, all while producing little to no emissions.

Swinburne, Calix and CSIRO will all contribute in different ways to this project; Swinburne will provide the understanding and modelling of the process, while Calix and CSIRO will provide the technologies and facilities to test and refine the process. 

“At Swinburne, we will develop the fundamental understanding and identification of optimal process conditions through laboratory scale experiments and thermodynamic modelling,” says Professor Rhamdhani.

“We will then be testing the reduction of blackmass into lithium oxide, lithium carbonate and cobalt-nickel metal in a pilot scale at Calix Ltd. The resulting lithium oxide will be tested at CSIRO using Lithsonic technology to turn it to lithium metal 

"In the Calix reactor, we will be using renewable electricity for heating and hydrogen for reduction, hence there will be no carbon emissions. While in the Lithsonic reactor, we will be using carbon from the black mass for circularity.” 

Sustainable steel production 

A project led by Dr Bintang Nuraeni has received $437,086 to develop novel materials for inert (non-reactive) anodes that will enable industrial scale low-emission electrolysis processes to make steel. Other Swinburne researchers involved in this project include Professor Akbar Rhamdhani, Professor Geoffrey Brooks, Associate Professor Andrew Ang and Professor Joy Sumner. 

This project also partners with HILT CRC and Steelcap Ventures. 

The steel industry currently contributes seven to nine per cent of global carbon emissions. Molten oxide electrolysis can play a major role in decarbonisation, however anodes need to be non-reactive and cheap. 

“This project will develop inert anode materials that are low-cost, long-lasting, reliable and enable a truly zero-carbon operation. We will also be testing the materials for processing of Australian iron ores with the support of Australian industries through HILT CRC. Once the materials are developed, it will facilitate the larger adoption of molten oxide electrolysis for industrial steelmaking,” says Dr Nuraeni.  

Development of lightweight blunt-ballistic biphasic helmets 

A project led by Associate Professor Kwong Ming Tse has received $199,995 to deliver a next-generation modular two-phase helmet that provides strong protection against both blunt and ballistic impacts. The helmet is designed to improve survivability and operational readiness for defence and law enforcement personnel. This project is being delivered in partnership with Armor Australia. Other Swinburne researchers involved in this project include Professor Dong Ruan and Dr Shanqing Xu.

Traumatic brain injury remains a leading cause of death and disability among military and law enforcement personnel exposed to blunt and ballistic impacts. Conventional combat helmets primarily focus on ballistic protection, which can reduce their effectiveness against blunt impacts in situations where both threats are present. 

“To overcome this limitation, we conceptualised a new two-phasic helmet with two shell layers. This is made up of an underlying blunt impact protective shell to be worn during peacetime operations, and an overlying ballistic protective layer to be attached for high-risk operations, with a high-performance slip-plane interface in between to mitigate angular impacts,” says Associate Professor Tse.