Career start from banana trunks

Engineering

Chemical Engineering Masters student Radika Rupasinghe is achieving the perfect balance of academic study and industry experience to help realise her ambition of becoming a process engineer.

Radika is doing a 12-month project with upcoming company Papyrus Australia Ltd which is developing the technology to turn banana trunks into paper and will soon launch a demonstration processing plant in Queensland.

Born and raised in Sri Lanka, Radika completed a double Bachelor degree in Chemistry and Engineering at Hope College at Holland in Michigan, United States.

She came to the University of Adelaide to study because of its excellent academic reputation, its diversity, affordability and the opportunity to gain quality work experience while studying.

Her Papyrus-sponsored project comes under the University's Graduate Industry Linked Entrepreneurial Scheme (GILES), run by the Office of Industry Liaison at the University's Thebarton Campus.

Radika's role with Papyrus involves working out how to control and optimise operating variables in the process of turning banana trunks into a paper-like veneer.

"This requires a high degree of application of scientific principles," Radika said. "It's the perfect, first experience in process engineering. I'm involved in developing a new manufacturing process, helping bridge the gap between a laboratory process and a commercial outcome."

The University of Adelaide's Manager Industry Linked Education, Des Masters, said the GILES program allowed students to gain valuable experience through applying the technical and theoretical skills they learnt during their studies to industry. They act as a consultant on a particular project.

Papyrus is a tenant at the University's Research Park at Thebarton and already had strong links with the University. Its Managing Director, Ramy Azer, is a graduate of the University of Adelaide with a Master of Engineering Science, a Masters in Business & Technology Commercialisation and a Graduate Diploma in Business Enterprise. He set up Papyrus under the University's Graduate Entrepreneurial Program in 1996.

The Papyrus process using banana trunks is an energy and water-efficient alternative to paper manufactured from wood pulp.

Papyrus will establish a demonstration plant in Tully, Queensland this year, with hopes to be selling the technology to banana growing areas around the world soon after that.

Story by Robyn Mills