RMIT will lead the RENEW Organics Hub, which will bring together academic, industry partners, and government to support Australia’s energy transition.
RENEW has received almost $5 million from the Australian Research Council (ARC) as part of the latest round of the Industrial Transformation Research Hubs initiative.
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This investment will fund the RENEW Organics Hub, which will focus on three key themes: carbon recovery and advanced materials, renewable energy and fuels, and nutrient recovery and biofertilisers.
The hub is a cross-sector collaboration involving academic, industry and government partners, and aims to produce high-quality research that can be translated into real-world impact.
Professor Kalpit Shah, deputy head of chemical and environment engineering, research and innovation in the School of Engineering, will serve as the director of RENEW.
Shah and RMIT will lead a consortium of Australian universities working at the hub, including University of Technology Sydney, The University of Queensland, The University of New South Wales, The University of Western Australia, and Curtin University.
Major industry partners include Melbourne Water, Urban Utilities, Water Research Australia, Intelligent Water Networks, Saunders International, Hart Bioenergy, Water Corporation, EPA Victoria, and Barwon Water.
Shah said the hub will leverage RMIT’s extensive research expertise in chemical and environment engineering to drive impactful outcomes.
“RENEW builds on more than a decade of successful university-industry collaboration, patented technologies and demonstrated research translation, creating a national platform to accelerate the commercialisation of innovative waste-to-resource technologies,” he said.
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“RENEW represents the next major step in building on the foundations set by RMIT researchers to scale our research, innovation and industry impact nationally, enabling safe, sustainable and economically viable resource recovery from diverse organic waste streams.”
The RENEW Organics Hub is due to launch in 2027.
