Mint Innovation has won the Innovation Australia Energy and Renewables award for its world-leading efforts to recycle gold and other precious metals from old tech devices.In world-first process it uses natural biomass and smart chemistry - in its Sydney factory. Old devices such as computers, smartphones, gaming consoles and washing machines are put on a conveyor belt, where a hammer mill breaks them down to the size of a sand granule. The chemical process then separates the metals and bakes them into a commercially valuable gold-laden ash - for use in new electronics and jewelry.https://www.innovationaus.com/urban-miner-mint-innovation-collects-energy-award/?

Sultan Al Jaber is the United Arab Emirates’ choice to head up the climate talks, COP28 in November and is CEO of the national oil company, Adnoc.Highly intelligent and capable, Al Jaber ran the UAE’s response to Covid-19 and co-founded its Masdar renewable energy company, now operating across the world. He has a deep understanding of climate science, and of engineering and technology that could solve our emissions crisis. As Al Jaber sees it, he has more chance of being listened to by the oil and gas industry than any previous holders of this role.We hope sorolehttps://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/oct/07/meet-the-oil-man-tasked-with-saving-the-planet-cop28

Victoria's RayGen is a finalist in the InnovationAus 2023 Awards for Excellence for its thermal energy & storage innovation. It involves a field of mirrors, used to focus sunlight onto a receiver tower with solar modules that generate electricity. Water is also pumped up and down the tower, capturing the heat in a pit of hot water nearby. This water is then used to drive a turbine and generate electricity. RayGen, based in Melbourne, has projects in regional Victoria, SA and NSW.It's backed by Equinor Ventures, SLB, Chevron Tech Ventures, Photon Energy Group, AGL Energy & Australian Gov. https://www.innovationaus.com/the-solar-thermal-storage-pioneer-capturing-energy-after-dark/

Participants in the World-wide food chain—including farmers, agribusinesses, processors, and distributors—have made great strides in increasing overall 'caloric availability'. However, they have not yet overcome environmental challenges associated with food and agriculture. In 2019 the world’s agri-food systems accounted for about 30 percent of human-caused global greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions, making them a critical focus for meeting increasingly bold climate targets.Five major shifts are needed to support the goals of 21st-century food and agriculture: building land value, fueling the biorevolution, eating sustainably, ESG accountability, and taking out the waste.This McKinsey article articulates these shifts: 

Adelaide-based Sparc is prototype testing its photocatalytic reactor technology to split water into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen molecules at CSIRO’s Energy Centre in Newcastle, New South WalesThe photocatalytic water splitting technology is expected to deliver cost and flexibility advantages over green hydrogen projects that use electrolysers or solar farms, given the lower infrastructure and energy requirements.Sparc executive chair Stephen Hunt said this is “a world leading demonstration of photocatalytic water splitting in a concentrated solar field"https://www.innovationaus.com/adelaide-uni-fortsecue-hydrogen-venture-starts-testing-prototype/

American Airlines have recently demonstrated what could be the world's cheapest way to fight global warming. Working with Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Group they have shown that avoiding “ice supersaturated regions” of the atmosphere where long-lasting airline contrails can form, they can significantly reduce their warming impact.Marc Shapiro, the head of contrails at Breakthrough Energy, said this is the “highest-leverage climate opportunity that we know of,” the equivalent of removing carbon from the atmosphere at a cost of 10 dollars per ton or less. And it will be standard practice in the very near future.https://qz.com/american-airlines-contrail-technology-global-warming-1850792287