No abstract

The Northern Territory (NT) is among the regions in Australia and the world with the highest solar radiation intensities. The NT has many mine sites which consume significant amount of fossil fuel with consequent greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The environmental concern related to the fossil fuel consumption and availability of immense solar energy resource in the NT open the possibilities for considering the provision of power to the mining sites using proven solar technologies. Concentrating solar power (CSP) systems are deemed as the potential alternatives to current fossil fuel based generating systems in mining industry in the NT. The finding is based on consideration of the major factors in determining the feasibility of CSP system installation, with particular reference to the NT mine sites. These are plant design requirements, climatic, environmental, and other requirements, and capital and operating costs. Based on these factors, four mine sites have been identified as having the potential for CSP plants installation. These are McArthur River Mine, Ranger Mine, Northern Territory Gold Mines, and Tanami Operations. Each site could be served by one CSP plant to cater for the needs of mining operation and the local communities.

No abstract

This chapter discusses how the issue of microbial corrosion can be incorporated in the Materials Engineering curriculum. Research in this field contributes to knowledge building in microstructural effect of corrosion, and development of advanced corrosion protection techniques, which aligns with the essence of Materials Science and Engineering. This chapter suggests an instructional approach where students undertake a project in which they produce a database summarizing the relationship between corrosion rate and factors as types of bacteria, functional genes, types of alloys, and welding procedures. The benefit of such approach is two-fold. First, discussion of this topic in the curriculum provides an opportunity to introduce approaches for efficient management of the current issues encountered in industry. Second, there is currently no comprehensive database on the microbial corrosion conditions. Additionally, this chapter provides some insights into the best instructional strategies for the efficient management of an online engineering course in higher education.