Plastics technology wins science’s 2010 Victoria Prize

Dr Gutowski has played a pivotal role in anticipating and developing new technologies which are transforming manufacturing industries around the world. As CSIRO’s Chief Research Scientist of the Materials Science and Engineering Division, Dr Gutowski has always been ahead of his time in solving many difficult technology problems.

One such problem faced by the car industry has been the use of 9.68 million litres of paint a year in car manufacturing - with all solvents used in the process becoming airborne and 2.5 million litres of solids going to landfill.

Determined to overcome the limitations of solvent-based paints, Dr Gutowski and his team developed a breakthrough technology which completely eliminates waste and volatile solvent emissions from painting plastic surfaces. His development of a new, ecosustainable coating technology for plastics also allows the metal body parts of cars and building components to be replaced with lighter, less expensive plastic and composite parts. This has resulted in reducing the need for solvent-based paints and is set to change the future of car, furniture and building manufacturing industries.

This zero waste technology is set to save the Australian car industry at least $100 million a year while becoming cleaner and greener. Now commercialised by Dulux, the technology is being adopted by CSA and Oz-Plaztik and has reached pre-production trial stage with other Australian and international companies including major global furniture manufacturers.

It is also being developed and explored for car and aerospace applications. The potential of this new technology for next-generation clean energy and biomedical applications is being investigated.

Earlier technologies pioneered by Dr Gutowski and his team, constituting the platform for his ‘zero-waste’ coating technology, have been in commercial use on plastic parts by General Motors since 1997 and also by Ford and Toyota.

Dr Gutowski is one of CSIRO’s most prolific inventors. He has registered 62 patents and co-authored 22 book chapters and 120 scientific papers. Over the years, the technologies he and his team have developed have benefited Victoria by over $100 million through licence fees and sales with a multimillion-dollar export market emerging. His sustained pioneering work has received international and national acclaim at the highest level from both industry and the community. In 2008 he received the Banksia Environmental Award, the Premier’s Eco-Innovation Award and the
Society of Plastic Engineers Process Innovation Award. In 2001 he received global acclaim through the Plueddeman Prize awarded by Dow Corning and Dow Chemical.

Dr Gutowski completed his studies in Mechanical Engineering and received a PhD in Materials Science from the Technical University of Szczecin, Poland. He arrived in Australia in 1981 and taught at Curtin University for two years. In mid-1983 he joined CSIRO. He is also a Principal Fellow and has been Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne since 2004.

Six winners of the Victoria Fellowships were also announced. They receive an $18,000 travel grant to undertake a short-term international study mission, to receive specialist training, or to develop commercial ideas.

The Victorian Fellowship winners are:

• Suzanne Ftouni - to test Optalert’s use in the detection and prevention of drowsy drivers;
• Dr Matthew Hill - to further research materials to store carbon dioxide safely and efficiently;
• Dr Baohua Jia - to further develop solar cells that can cheaply and efficiently convert solar energy into electricity;
• Dr Michelle Ma - to continue testing molecular compounds developed for use in detecting early stage cancer;
• Denise Miles - to continue investigating the cause of testis cancer, the incidence of which has doubled worldwide since 1982; and
• Dr Sant-Rayn Pasricha - to work with the World Health Organisation on global policy development for iron deficiency anaemia, which affects 1 billion people worldwide.