In this Innovating for the Earth podcast, Heirloom CEO Shashank Samala and Leilac CEO Daniel Rennie explain how their partnership aims to accelerate the removal of legacy carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the Earth’s atmosphere and provide a pathway for the electrification of hard-to-abate industries, including cement, lime, iron, and steel.

The unsung heroes of this world, in James' opinion, are engineers. Sure, people talk about Einstein and Marco Polo and Shakespeare and Steve Jobs and Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela and Rihanna. And yes, good on them. Amazing stuff. But the fact is that none of these high achievers would have been able to do much at all without engineers. Every time you drive on a road or a bridge or through a tunnel or get on a bus or a train over a tall building, or open your laptop or tap on your phone you're only able to do it because of engineers. Maybe someone else had the idea to build the road or the laptop, although engineers have plenty of ideas. But engineers turn those ideas into things that actually work and that we can use without them. We wouldn't be able to go anywhere or do anything.

On starting with Calix in 2012, Matthew’s role was the mechanical engineer for the Calix Flash Calciner (CFC), from the conceptual process design through to the commissioning and first production runs.Following the CFC’s completion, Matthew was involved in the development of the ACTI-Mag product, spending many hours helping to develop the production process and first manufacturing plant at Calix’s main production site located in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria. Having gained experience developing the process for the ACTI-Mag product, Matthew was then put in charge of developing and delivering a high-volume output ACTI-Mag production facility in Queensland. The project was developed under budget and ahead of schedule. At the end of 2016, Matthew was seconded to the European branch of Calix to work on the LEILAC project. Matthew was placed in charge of delivering the Calix component of the FEED stage and developing the budget for the project. With the consortium approving the budget and the project moving into the detailed design and procurement stage, Matthew was placed in charge of delivering the mechanical components of the project, which will begin construction in mid-2018. On returning back to Australia, Matthew was placed in charge of Calix’s development program for an electric calciner for processing innovative battery materials. The program ran to schelude and was delivered early and under budget. In 2019 Matthew moved into the Engineer Team Leader role, managing the engineering team based in Australia to help support the development of Calix’s core technology, the European development program and local water business.

Claire joined Calix as a process engineer in January 2021. She started at Calix as the primary BATMn plant operator, working to complete trials and assist in the development of test plans. Claire was also involved with data processing and reporting of results from the BATMn plant to assist the Engineering Team with feasibility studies and design phases for various projects. Now, Claire works as the R&D Plant Coordinator, where she is responsible for working with key stakeholders to identify and facilitate program and trial requirements in the BATMn plant. She is also heavily involved in ensuring safe operating procedures are maintained and utilised and the plant, and its works, comply with all Safety, Environmental and Quality requirements. Prior to joining Calix, Claire graduated with a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from RMIT University, where she spent her final year completing numerical studies to investigate flame speeds of alternative fuels.”

Governments are spending big on electrical infrastructure upgrades and flagging that the future of industry is going to be powered exclusively with electricity with grid scale storage and export with batteries and hydrogen.

Many mineral or chemical processes haven’t had the opportunity to make use of low cost, renewable electricity because availability of proven, large scale, electric fired thermal processing hasn’t been available until now. The next 10 years is going to see significant shifts in costs and processing methods to more sustainable energy sources.

A shift to processes which are more flexible in energy source and feedstock. A seismic shift in Process Engineering, Economics and Profitability is here today. Is your business ready for the coming decade?

Calix electric calcination is the next step in thermal mineral processing. The world is shifting from the use of fossil fuels over to clean, adaptable technologies. The Calix Technology enables this transition to clean fuels, while maintaining flexibility with process integration and energy source.

Find out more: https://www.calix.global/sustainable-processing/