Celebrating Matariki values in our research

The MacDiarmid Institute’s commitment to sustainability and collaboration closely reflects the values of Matariki. Dr Harris points to several examples of our research in into capturing carbon as well as cleaning up nitrates and other pollutants from the environment. Here we share some of examples of our work.

Partnering with Kia Whitingia

Last year, Dr Harris partnered with Kia Whitingia. Led by Te Reureu Kotahitanga Limited and members of the community, Kia Whitingia is a Māori Energy collective that has installed solar energy systems on five marae and a number of homes in and around Te Reureu Valley. Along with a community battery and a peer-to-peer trading system run by OurEnergy, Kia Whitingia want to provide cheaper energy to homes in their community, addressing issues such as energy hardship, healthy homes and energy literacy.

“It’s really important for Māori to be engaged in the energy sector, creating and owning their own energy, and developing systems that work for them. Kia Whitingia is leading the way in this,” Dr Harris says.

During Matariki we acknowledge the leader of this initiative Graeme Everton (Tūwharetoa and Ngāti Raukawa) who passed away in February last year. Graeme was an innovator, an advocate for Māori rights and interests, and an entrepreneur.

You can see an article on Kia Whitingia published on Stuff.

Developing a harakeke membrane for drinking water purification

PhD student Jaye Barclay (they/them, he/him), from Ngāti Apa and Ngāti Hauiti, is developing a harakeke membrane for drinking water purification.

A polymeric membrane is a thin tissue made from long repeating chains of molecules. Polymeric membranes are widely used for water purification both in Aotearoa and globally. However, these membranes are not biodegradable. The process of manufacturing them is also chemically and energetically intensive, producing significant environmental impacts. 

Harakeke (Phormium tenax, New Zealand flax) grows prolifically throughout Aotearoa and is a taonga of great cultural significance to Māori, used for everyday necessities such as clothing, netting, and flooring. Recent examination of the structural properties of the harakeke leaf has revealed that they possess similar qualities to the polymeric membranes widely used for water purification. Jaye, along with Dr Nancy Garrity, Manaaki Whenua, MacDiarmid Institute Investigators Dr Ben Yin, Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) and Professor David Barker, Waipapa Taumata Rau - University of Auckland, and also with Dr Fiona Stevens McFadden (VUW), is working to develop a membrane for water filtration from the blade of harakeke leaves. This technology would provide an eco-friendly alternative to currently used water filtration membranes, allowing us to purify our water without the added cost to the environment.

This research project provides a unique and exciting opportunity to conduct research that is grounded in Mātauranga Māori. The transdisciplinary approach to developing this new technology also draws expertise from a diverse range of disciplines within STEM fields and exists at the interface between Eurocentric systems of science and Mātauranga Māori. 

This project is part of our Sustainable Resource Use - Pūtaiao Māori Research Programme and relates also to our Towards Zero Waste - Reconfigurable Systems Research Programme. You can read more about Jaye's research in our latest annual report feature on their work

Affiliated start-up companies relating to environmental remediation and climate change

Over the past couple of years, our Investigators have spunout several new affiliated start-up companies that relate to environmental remediation and climate change:

Bspkl, pronounced (bɪˈspɛkəl) was established in 2023 by our former Investigator from GNS Science, Dr Jérôme Leveneur, as co-founder. Bspkl activates sustainability through innovative manufacturing, with their first product being an ultra-low iridium catalyst coated membrane to easy supply chain bottlenecks for the green hydrogen industry.

Captivate Technology is a new (2022) start-up set up by Principal Investigator Professor Shane Telfer, to develop metal-organic-frameworks for carbon dioxide capture to support industries achieve Carbon Zero.

Liquium was set up by Principal Investigator Associate Professor Franck Natali in 2022 to develop new catalyst materials for a greener, cheaper and scalable ammonia production.

Spherelose is an innovative start-up, established in 2024 by Principal Investigator Dr Jack Chen, dedicated to developing cellulose-based surfactants that eliminate the need for traditional petrochemical feedstocks. These surfactants have broad applications in industries such as cosmetics, food production, and agriculture. By leveraging cellulose, Spherelose aims to enhance sustainability and significantly reduce the carbon footprint associated with these products.

Helping to restore a Rotorua water catchment

The MacDiarmid Institute is working with Whakarewarewa Village to support their ambition to restore the Puarenga catchment, alongside local Councils and a number of other contributors.

The catchment feeds the Puarenga Stream that flows through the Village, under the famous penny-diving bridge, and into Lake Rotorua.

Principal Investigator Professor Geoff Willmott, says in recent times a number of agricultural and industrial pollution sources within the catchment have degraded the quality of the stream.

“The mātauranga held by our collaborators describes activities such as swimming and collection of kai which are no longer possible, as well as records of the appearance of flora and fauna.”  

He says the Institute is assisting Whakarewarewa Village through support for proposals that would fund:  

• remediation; 
• interpretation and planning based on the available information; 
• connections to relevant experts inside and outside of the Institute; and 
• planning for collaborative research projects using new ideas.

He says examples of that research could include new monitoring strategies to ‘fingerprint’ the water quality (with MacDiarmid Institute researcher Professor Mark Waterland), and deployment of innovative remediation strategies (MacDiarmid Institute researchers Associate Professor Robin Fulton and Professor David Barker).

Capturing carbon dioxide

One key area of research in our Catalytic Architectures Research Programme studies new materials that can capture carbon dioxide. A new class of porous materials, called metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), is able to sieve out carbon dioxide from gas streams. The carbon dioxide can then be easily desorbed (or released) from the material, and the MOF materials recycled for another round of carbon capture.

Professor Shane Telfer, former leader of the Institute's Zero Carbon Research Programme, says that the Institute’s research is focusing both on the capture of carbon and using it as a feedstock for valuable products such as fuels and polymers and other things we use every day.

“The idea is to turn this carbon capture process into a cyclic system – like a circular economy. There is the potential to combine carbon dioxide with green hydrogen to make methanol or to use electrochemistry to convert it to other compounds.”

He acknowledges that there is a big challenge to scale up production of the new materials, and that new engineering systems will need to be deployed so the materials can be effective on a large scale.

“But in the meantime, carbon capture is one part of the whole equation and one of many pillars (along with tree planting, geochemical storage and changing our agricultural processes) that we need to simultaneously deploy to meet the challenge of climate change.”

(You can hear Professor Telfer speak further about this on TodayFM)

Using computational modelling to help solve New Zealand’s nitrate problem

Associate Professor Anna Garden, a researcher in our Zero Carbon Programme, is designing new catalysts that could selectively convert the nitrate pollutants in water into harmless nitrogen gas.

A theoretical chemist, Dr Garden uses modelling to ‘try out’ different elements and shapes for the catalysts, working to reduce the toxicity of potential additives.

“We don’t want to put more hazardous material into the environment in order to ‘clean it up’”, she says. “So experimenting theoretically can help us rule out toxic ones and helps lab researchers to focus on those that will be both most effective and least polluting.”

Dr Garden experiments theoretically with nanoparticle sized catalysts, which she says are important because they use far less material than bulk catalysts, and they also come in many different shapes, which, she says, can lead to really interesting reactivity.

“The edges and corners on nanoparticle catalysts are often highly reactive. These different sites can drive reactions in different ways, either towards desired products, such as nitrogen gas, or undesired by-products.”

Modelling these on a computer can reveal what types of nanoparticles lead to the desired products while minimising harmful products. This would take months or years of an experimental-lab scientist’s time.

“The computational approach gives a level of control over conditions that would be really hard to get experimentally. So you can investigate precise shapes and compositions of likely catalysts, and carefully understand all the variables, which can be challenging in the lab.”

You can read more about Dr Garden’s work here.

Cleaning up ‘forever chemicals’

Reconfigurable Systems Research Programme member, Dr Jack Chen, is investigating the removal of perfluoroalkylated substances (PFAS) from contaminated water.

Perfluoroalkylated substances (PFAS) are synthetic chemicals made by joining carbon and fluorine atoms together. They possess unique properties such as the ability to repel both oil and water. Common products where PFAS are found include household furnishings, electronics, Gore-Tex jackets and the Teflon on non-stick fry pans.

The World Health Organisation defines PFAS as ‘highly resistant persistent compounds used for repelling oil, grease and water and protecting the surfaces of carpets and clothing; they are also found in fire-fighting foams.’ It says PFAS ‘have negative consequences for human health, although these are not fully established.’ Specific members of the PFAS family of compounds have been shown to be hazardous to human health, but since the PFAS family of compounds consists of thousands of compounds, progress on determining the risks of each compound has been slow.

PFAS are known as ‘forever chemicals’ as they don’t break down in the environment. They have also been found to bioaccumulate in wildlife. 

Dr Chen says it’s hard to say how much is in New Zealand because there hasn’t been enough research done.

 “We don’t produce any PFAS in New Zealand, but we do import them and use them in several industries. Another issue is that the current ‘disposal’ methods for PFAS involves either burying in landfill or shipping overseas for high-temperature incineration.”

Dr Chen is helping Amaea, a Hamilton company, develop technology to remove PFAS from water.

“We are working with Amaea to develop polymers that can selectively absorb PFAS and remove them out of contaminated water. The technology would be used to treat wastewater effluent from a company that might use PFAS. Once removed from water, we will explore non-incineration methods to breakdown PFAS into non-toxic products.”

Tags: Towards Zero Waste - Reconfigurable Systems, Towards Zero Carbon - Catalytic Architectures, Towards Low Energy Tech - Hardware for Future Computing, Pūtaiao Māori Research Programme