Our Venture to Create a Sustainable Future from Waste
The culmination of painstaking research efforts result in some of the most significant advances toward a bio-based, negative-emission circular economy to date.
Our Story
Founded in 2012, Renergi is a private company established by a team of academic researchers in Curtin University led by then John Curtin Distinguished Professor Chun-Zhu Li to develop and commercialise renewable energy technologies and green carbon solutions. Renergi has developed a suite of environmentally friendly renewable technologies under 9 families of patents designed to be widely deployed with pace and scale to fast-track our contribution to tackling our globe’s excesses of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.
Renergi’s renewable energy and green carbon technologies centre on the simple premise of revaluating wastes as useful and valuable resources. Rather than municipal solid wastes (including plastics) being landfilled and agricultural wastes such as forestry and crop residues releasing GhG emissions through incineration or decomposition, Renergi’s technologies instead create an array of useful and sustainable products such as biochar, wood vinegar, bio-oil and other chemicals and materials all with an impressive range of applications.
With the assistance of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and the WA State Government’s Collie Futures Industry Development Fund, Renergi has just completed the construction of its first commercial-scale pyrolysis plant in Collie, Western Australia. The plant integrates our patented drying and grinding pyrolysis technologies to produce biochar, wood vinegar, and bio-oil available to the WA and wider Australian markets.
Our Leadership
Renergi is the culmination of decades of globally leading cutting-edge R&D activities combined with some of the best commercial expertise in pursuit of creating a bio-based circular economy producing renewable fuels, chemicals, and materials. All while safely removing CO2 from the atmosphere and permanently storing in soils and other carbon sinks for additional economic and environmental benefits.
Chun-Zhu Li
Founder, Director, and CEO
Dr Li obtained his PhD in Chemical Engineering in 1993 from Imperial College London. After completing his postdoctoral research at Imperial College London and CSIRO, he joined Monash University in 1996 where he served as a Lecturer, a Senior Lecturer, a Reader and then a Professor. Dr Li joined Curtin University in January 2009 and was the founding director of a major university research establishment, Fuels and Energy Technology Institute. During this period, he became a John Curtin Distinguished Professor. Bioenergy Science and Engineering, including waste utilisation, has long been a focus of Dr Li’s research and development efforts. Dr Li’s research has covered many topics such as biomass pyrolysis, biomass gasification, biomass drying, biorefinery and biocarbon materials. Dr Li has been a key inventor of all Renergi technologies and has led all projects carried out by Renergi.
Antony Piccinini
Director
Antony was appointed as Director in April 2024. He is an experienced senior executive and engineer with almost 30 years in the renewable energy industry. Antony has previously worked with various companies including Western Power, Horizon Power, WorleyParsons and FRV, as well as in the capacity of CEO for Renergi in 2017. Antony’s most recent role is with Collgar Renewables, as Head of Business Development. He has also held a position on the Board of the Sustainable Energy Association of Australia. Antony has extensive experience working with various conventional and renewable energy technologies and developments, both within hybrid power systems and on-grid.
Janet Allen
Company Secretary
Janet has been Renergi’s Company Secretary since February 2022. She has over 40 years of experience in business and finance; previously working for several WA organisations, including incubator/start-up businesses across several different technologies. Since 2005 she has been self-employed, providing administrative and business support to a wide range clients.
Richard Gunawan
Senior Engineer
Richard Gunawan is a trained Chemical Engineer and was a lecturer in Indonesia. He completed his PhD in 2007 from Curtin University and started working there as a research scientist in 2008. His fundamental research interest has been in aiming to commercialise bioenergy science and engineering technologies, particularly developing renewable energy from biomass. Richard has authored/co-authored 40+ publications in international journals and conference proceedings and is a co-inventor of novel technologies with four internationally approved patents and one patent pending. During his time at Curtin University, Richard developed and scaled-up technologies from bench (batch) scale to pilot and demonstration plants operated continuously, including the pyrolysis and gasification of biomass to produce crude bio-oil, biochar, biogas and synthetic gases (for electrical power generation), and the refinery (hydrotreatment) of bio-oil into transportation fuels. In 2020, Richard left Curtin University to become Senior Process Engineer at Renergi, designing, building, and commissioning their first commercial plant.
Deejay Parker
Business Development Manager
Deejay's background is varied with notable experience across the Renewable Energy and Food & Beverage Manufacturing sectors, specialising in business strategy and innovation to develop commercial competitive advantage. Deejay's preeminent academic disciplines are in Sustainable Development and Global Politics and Policy, while he has also completed an Executive Business Master's in Leadership, Strategy, and Innovation. Deejay is a passionate advocate for the need to urgently address our climate challenges and is a firm believer in the immense potential of Renergi's technology, particularly when at scale, to play a powerful role to address climate change and also contribute positively socially and more broadly environmentally.
