DR COLIN SCHOLES

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2009 Fulbright Victoria Scholarship

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“New technology that allows the capture and storage of carbon dioxide which would offer dramatically cheaper ways to help to mitigate climate change.”

Dr Colin Scholes, a Research Fellow at the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (CO2CRC) at the University of Melbourne, is one of two winners of the inaugural Fulbright Victoria Scholarship. The Fulbright Victoria Scholarship was established in 2008 by the Victorian State government and Victorian based universities to support research of benefit to the state.

Colin will spend four months at University of Texas at Austin, Department of Chemical Engineering, working on a technique that will lead to cheaper ways to mitigate carbon emissions from large stationary sources of carbon dioxide, such as coal-fired power plants.

“Membranes offer an easy way to remove carbon dioxide from waste gas emissions from power stations, through a technique called carbon capture, part of carbon capture and storage (CCS). However the success of CCS depends on the development of a cheap membrane material that will both remove carbon dioxide and be robust enough to exist in a gas flue,” Colin said.

“The purpose of my proposed investigation is to develop a new membrane process that would act like a filter and could be used on chimneys to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere,” Colin said.

“If successful, the technique could be adopted both by existing power stations and incorporated into the design of new ones.”

The membrane research group at the University of Texas at Austin, supervised by Dr. Benny Freeman, is a world leader in membrane technology and has developed a novel membrane procedure that allows high performing carbon dioxide separation membranes to be easily manufactured.

“While renewable energy sources provide an alternative to carbon based fuels, the scale of the energy sector they need to replace means the infrastructure required will take significant time to develop. While Australia’s energy needs will depend on its coal reserves for decades to come, CCS offers an opportunity to mitigate the resulting carbon emissions,” Colin said.

Colin is a graduate of the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Engineering, a Bachelor of Science and a PhD in Science. He also established the Australian chapter of Scientists without Borders, a group that connects scientists worldwide, and coordinated both the first Australian and International projects for the group.