UQ Chemical Engineers have secured almost $2.7M million from the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Projects 2025 Round 2 to address national challenges in energy, environment and advanced manufacturing for the benefit of all Australians. -
The funding supports partnerships to deliver practical solutions across national priority areas, from decarbonising Australian gas supply to upcycling post-consumer plastic waste into graphene for high-performance aerospace, automotive, construction and defence applications.
Linkage Projects 2025 Round 2 scheme recipients:
- Professor Peter Halley and team including Professor Ashok Kumar Nanjundan and Mr Damien Digney, have received $550,122 to transform plastic waste into high-value materials for use in construction, automotive and other industries, with Repurpose Recycling.
- Associate Professor Muxina Konarova and team including Associate Professor Xiaoguang Duan, Dr Gloria Monsalve Bravo, Dr Penghui Yan, Adjunct Professor James Snow, Dr Greg Perkins and Dr Xiangkang Zeng have received $351,449 to convert carbon dioxide into usable fuel using renewable feedstocks to support cleaner energy systems, with Oakley Greenwood and Wildfire Energy.
- Dr Huadong Peng with Professor Esteban Marcellin and team including Dr Georg Fritz, Associate Professor Yit-Heng Chooi, Dr Jitendra Joshi and Dr Rodrigo Ledesma Amaro have received $400,000 to convert industrial carbon emissions into valuable products such as omega-3 oils for aquaculture. with Woodside Energy.
- Professor Geoff Wang and team including Professor Thomas Rufford, Dr Xiaodong Ma, Dr Ai Wang, Dr Timothy Evans and Dr Lanjie Li have received $750,549 to support Australia’s iron ore industry by enabling lower-grade ores to be used in emerging green steel technologies, with Hamersley Iron (Rio Tinto); HBIS Group.
- Professor Liu Ye and team including Dr Zhiyao Wang, Professor Yijiao Jiang, M. Clare Idriss and Mr Anthony Bodycoat have received $576,774 to improve gas capture and treatment systems to help the water industry reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- Professor Xiwang Zhang and team including Dr Mike Tebyetekerwa, Associate Professor Lei Ge, Dr Travis Mitchell and Mr Bowen Wang have received $468,966 to develop a greener way to produce hydrogen peroxide for safe, local and low-emission disinfection.
Dr Tuan Nguyen is also a Chief Investigator on a collaborative project led by Griffith University, awarded $661,405, focused on developing safer and more sustainable battery recycling technologies.
All recipients of 2025 Round 2 ARC Linkage Project scheme are listed on the ARC website.
