ProfessorMatt Watson

My overarching goal is to improve the sustainability of mankind by finding economic ways to eliminate fossil fuels from heavy industry, optimise energy usage, and develop better processes for the circular economy.

My research interests are in high-temperature electrolytic reduction of metals, domestic production of maple syrup, additive manufacturing of structured catalyst and adsorbent supports, mineral extraction from domestic resources, catalysis, and reactor modelling.

I am investigating optimized structured catalyst and adsorbent supports for use in large-scale industrial reactions such as ammonia synthesis, steam methane reforming, and methanol synthesis. The benefit is to increase reaction conversion by enhancing heat and mass transfer while minimizing pressure drop throughout the reactor. Additive manufacturing is exploited as a means to build and experimentally confirm the structure-property relationships. Small scale tests have successfully demonstrated the advantage of this approach for hydrogen peroxide decomposition for use in aerospace applications.

I am developing low carbon processes to extract oxides and hydroxides of magnesium, iron, and silicon from olivine. All of these products have potential applications in the construction industry. The iron product can be used in steel making, the magnesium and silicon products can be used as a partial substitute in Portland cement. Furthermore, the oxides and hydroxides of magnesium can be reacted with the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, to form the solid mineral magnesium carbonate to permanently sequester carbon dioxide.

I am studying the feasibility of using high-temperature electrolysis to produce high value metals such as titanium, neodymium, and tantalum using molten oxide electrolysis. Moreover, through my collaboration with the Robinson Research Institute, I am investigating the technical and economic feasibility of using hydrogen to produce direct reduced iron (DRI) from New Zealand’s abundant ironsand resources.

I am researching the economic potential, and best locations in New Zealand for maple tree plantations in order to commercially produce maple sap, and investigating alternative processes to vastly improve the energy cost associated with sap concentration to syrup. The research scope will expand to birch and other native tree syrups.