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Scholes is investigating the use of membrane gas-solvent contactors (pic – CO2CRC)
26/11/2012
Victoria Fellowship for IChemE member Scholes
Scholes will go to Canada to further CCS research
Helen Tunnicliffe
ICHEME member and University of Melbourne CCS researcher Colin Scholes has been awarded one of 12 A$18,000 (US$18,800) Victoria Fellowships by the Victoria state government in Australia.
The Fellowships have been awarded each year since 1998 to early-career researchers, to fund overseas study trips and bring back new skills and knowledge to Australian companies and research organisations. This year, the number of Fellowships was doubled from six to 12.
Scholes, who is a research fellow at Melbourne’s chemical and biomolecular engineering department, studies the installation of CCS equipment in the limited space available on many industrial sites. He is investigating the use of membrane gas-solvent contactors, which combine two carbon capture technologies – reversible solvent absorption and membrane gas separation.
He will travel to the globally-renowned International Test Centre for CO2 Capture in Canada, where he will learn more about the latest developments in membrane gas-solvent contactors. Scholes hopes that this will enable him to better tailor the technology for Victorian energy suppliers and heavy industry. His work will be further supported by the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (CO2CRC), a collaboration between universities, research organisations and industry supported by the Australian national government.
Victoria’s minister for innovation, services and small business, Louise Asher, presented the Fellowships at a ceremony at the State Library.
“The coalition government has invested A$1.7m in Victoria’s innovation researchers since 2011, and has committed to treble this investment over the next three years to A$4.8m,” she said at the ceremony, adding: “It is important to provide opportunities for our scientists working here in Victoria’s leading research institutions, rather than seeing them leave for overseas never to return, so they can foster the next generation of Victorian scientists.”
