Critical battery breakthrough at Curtin

A game-changing technology delivering greener and faster production of a critical battery material has been awarded at the 2025 Curtinnovation Awards.  

The winner of the events major prize, the Griffith Hack Overall category, was the Curtin Carbon Group for RapidGraphite which uses a new method to create synthetic graphite — a key component of lithium-ion batteries. 

The technology uses catalytic processing and renewable waste carbon such as woodchips, agricultural waste or even plastics to sustainably produce high-performance graphite without  conventional mining or energy-intensive refining. 

Curtin University deputy vice-chancellor research Professor Melinda Fitzgerald says the innovation stood out for its potential to dramatically reduce the environmental footprint of battery production at a time of surging global demand. 

“RapidGraphite addresses one of the most urgent challenges in clean energy supply chains: how to source critical minerals in a sustainable, ethical and scalable way,” Professor Fitzgerald said. 

“This breakthrough not only reflects Curtin’s commitment to research excellence but also our impact on real-world challenges such as decarbonisation and electrification.” 

This year, nine innovations were named category winners, spanning across Curtin’s Science and Engineering, Health Sciences, Business and Law and Humanities Faculties. 

“Curtinnovation Awards celebrate outstanding research-driven innovations with commercial and community impact,” Professor Fitzgerald said. 

“This year’s winners and field of finalists were incredibly impressive and I want to congratulate all of them for their outstanding work in tackling some of the world’s most difficult challenges.”