Pioneering Tomorrow Through Innovation

Commercialising TAS – Tianqi Aluminosilicate

Aluminosilicate has pozzolanic properties which means it has potential as a binder in cement products. For several years now, we have been working with researchers and industry on various uses for aluminosilicate – and our TAS in particular – as a partial replacement for cement.

As a domestically available pozzolan, using TAS as a partial replacement for cement would avoid carbon miles, and further reduce embodied CO2 and Scope 3 emissions. Each tonne of TAS used instead of cement will save almost one tonne of carbon emissions, and approximately 100kg when used to replace fly ash.

We have collaborated with other lithium refineries, cement manufacturers and other industry representatives, to form the Australasian Pozzolan Association (APozA) and developed a new Australian Standard AS3582.4:2022 Supplementary cementitious materials, Part 4: Pozzolans — Manufactured.

This standard recognises TAS as a manufactured pozzolan and sets requirements of its use as an additive/supplementary cementitious material in concrete, mortar and related applications.
APozA is leading the initiative to update ordinate and subordinate standards which references manufactured pozzolans, to include TAS/DBS in its scope as a new supplementary cementitious material.

Geopolymer

Geopolymer is a greener form of concrete. We have partnered with Murdoch University to develop a design mix that will use TAS as a geopolymer precursor, either by itself or in mixture with fly ash in collaboration with the Colliecrete project.  This research promotes use of sustainable materials, reducing the need to use cement-based concrete in support to the country’s decarbonisation goals in construction.

Li adsorbent

TLEA is partnering with the University of Western Australia (UWA) and world-leading chemical engineering researchers, to drive a greener, more sustainable future for Australian lithium products. The three-way collaboration, led by UWA’s Professor of Chemical Engineering, Hongqi Sun, is focussed on exploring ways to maximise the use of Australia’s finite lithium resources, which accounted for more than 55 per cent of the annual global lithium supply in 2021.

Professor Hongqi Sun’s work on lithium and renewable energy is recognised globally, he is a delegate for Australia to the USA on Hydrogen Research Partnerships and is listed in the top one per cent of researchers cited around the world.

Gyplime as a soil ameliorate

Gyplime has neutralising value which can be used to treat acidic soils and promote nutrient uptake in crops. We have on-going research collaboration with UWA for a glasshouse trial on use of Gyplime as a soil ameliorant in growing wheat.  We also partnered with local farmers to supplement this research work in actual farm trials. This research promotes sustainability in farming by using alternative lime sources to reduce the mining and use of virgin lime sources.

Gyplime also contains beneficial elements that aid in plant growth. For example, its sulphur content can provide beneficial effects to canola for enhanced nitrogen metabolism and protein synthesis. WA exports canola mainly to Europe for its use in biofuel.

Our R&D team has been undertaking trials in WA’s Great Southern region to test our Gyplime as a soil conditioner for agricultural crops, including canola and wheat.

If these trials prove successful, it could open the door for Gyplime to be widely adopted in commercial agriculture,

Battery research

Our focus is to promote high nickel battery chemistries as an enabler of long-range EV mobility.  Nickel cobalt manganese oxide cathodes (NMC) are at the top of this application; however, its high energy density and capacity features suffers a drawback on stability leading to relatively shorter cycle life.

Single crystals NMCs provides a promising solution to improving NMC structure stability. At TLEA, we embarked on research for synthesizing single crystal NMC’s combined with element doping for enhanced stability.