From Waste to Watts: The hidden ingredient of Tomorrow’s batteries

Talks on Tuesdays: Real lectures in your favourite venues. 45-mins + Q&A with Associate Professor Nolene Byrne Talks on Tuesdays is a live event series bringing big ideas, real experts, and curious minds together - at your favourite local venues. Think thought-provoking lectures, audience questions, and post-talk mingling over drinks and dinner. This isn’t a uni lecture. It’s a social, intelligent night out.Come alone or with friends, leave with something to talk about. Event Schedule: 6.30pm Arrival & Doors Open 7pm Lecuture Starts 7.45pm Q&A 8pm Talk Concludes 8.30pm Event Closes. *Please arrive close to 6.30pm A La Carte menu and full bar available throughout the night - pay as you go. Your Topic: From Waste to Watts: The hidden ingredient of Tomorrow’s batteries What if the next generation of batteries starts not in a mine, but in your rubbish bin? From agricultural residues to discarded cotton T-shirts, materials we throw away could hold the key to sustainable energy storage. This talk explores how waste can be transformed into carbon materials for sodium-ion batteries, offering an alternative to conventional battery resources. Discover how everyday materials can unlock new possibilities for storing renewable energy, rethink our relationship with waste, and reshape battery manufacturing. Because the future of energy storage may depend not only on what we extract, but on what we already have. Your Speaker: Associate Professor Nolene Byrne Associate Professor Nolene Byrne is a researcher at Deakin University’s Institute for Frontier Materials, where she is helping shape the future of energy storage. Her research explores how sustainable materials, including waste, can be transformed into advanced battery components for next-generation sodium-ion and lithium-ion batteries. By investigating materials, electrolytes and their interfaces, she seeks to improve battery performance, safety and lifetime. Her work aims to reduce reliance on conventional raw materials and create new opportunities for waste valorisation, connecting materials innovation with the growing demand for more sustainable energy storage.