Information Content of Order Flows in the Foreign Exchange and Commodities Markets. The Australian economy depends heavily on resources and commodities markets. The Australian dollar is the sixth most actively traded currency in the world and is more volatile than all other major currencies except the Japanese yen. The proposed study seeks to improve volatility forecasts and hedging effectiveness for foreign exchange and commodity risks, which will create significant benefits for the Australian ....Information Content of Order Flows in the Foreign Exchange and Commodities Markets. The Australian economy depends heavily on resources and commodities markets. The Australian dollar is the sixth most actively traded currency in the world and is more volatile than all other major currencies except the Japanese yen. The proposed study seeks to improve volatility forecasts and hedging effectiveness for foreign exchange and commodity risks, which will create significant benefits for the Australian economy, corporations, and investors. In addition, the project will enhance investment performance and risk management practice of financial institutions, improving the overall safety of our financial system. It will also foster research culture and increase research capacity of Australian financial institutions.Read moreRead less
Novel gas-liquid columns for liquefied natural gas (LNG) production. Novel gas-liquid columns for liquefied natural gas (LNG) production. This project aims to design distillation and absorption columns, perhaps the most important unit operations in a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant, and whose optimization is integral to overall performance of any LNG plant. This project will use 3D printers to rapidly prototype concepts of columns and their internals, and test them using flow characterization ....Novel gas-liquid columns for liquefied natural gas (LNG) production. Novel gas-liquid columns for liquefied natural gas (LNG) production. This project aims to design distillation and absorption columns, perhaps the most important unit operations in a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant, and whose optimization is integral to overall performance of any LNG plant. This project will use 3D printers to rapidly prototype concepts of columns and their internals, and test them using flow characterization tools and numerical models. The final outcome of the project will be a set of designs of the columns, which should be more efficient, safer and cheaper to operate, and have smaller physical and environmental footprints, thus helping the Australian LNG industry to stay globally competitive.Read moreRead less
Powering Next Generation Wearable Electronics: Moisture Electric Generator . This project aims to develop next generation energy harvesting device which can directly generate electricity from the moisture in the air for self-powered, wearable electronics. The goal will be achieved by developing a new class of carbon based nanomaterials and large scale printing technology, through optimizing the materials defects, printing process and electrode configuration. The expected outcomes will be new el ....Powering Next Generation Wearable Electronics: Moisture Electric Generator . This project aims to develop next generation energy harvesting device which can directly generate electricity from the moisture in the air for self-powered, wearable electronics. The goal will be achieved by developing a new class of carbon based nanomaterials and large scale printing technology, through optimizing the materials defects, printing process and electrode configuration. The expected outcomes will be new electronic materials for a wide range of end uses in wearable electronics, significant advances in self-powered, environmentally friendly devices, and commercialisation of the technology to Australian industries.Read moreRead less
Hydrodynamic forces on small diameter pipelines laid on natural seabed. This project aims to improve predictions of hydrodynamic forces on small submarine cables and pipelines through comprehensive experimental modelling at 1:1 scale coupled with development of predictive numerical models. The focus will be on forces in unsteady flows. Present industry guidelines do not make allowance for potential reductions in forces for small diameter pipelines whose diameters are a similar length to the effe ....Hydrodynamic forces on small diameter pipelines laid on natural seabed. This project aims to improve predictions of hydrodynamic forces on small submarine cables and pipelines through comprehensive experimental modelling at 1:1 scale coupled with development of predictive numerical models. The focus will be on forces in unsteady flows. Present industry guidelines do not make allowance for potential reductions in forces for small diameter pipelines whose diameters are a similar length to the effective seabed boundary layer, thereby leading to overly conservative and costly stability design. Results from the experimental program and numerical model developed are expected to be used to improve the current industry design guidelines.Read moreRead less
Methane and nitrous oxide in agro-ecological systems: novel technologies and understandings to improve ecosystem management. Methane and nitrous oxide are critical greenhouse gases but globally we lack ecosystem scale analyses of the balance of emissions, including animal emissions, and soil oxidation. This project will quantify this balance for a range of agro-ecosystems, and explore and develop opportunities for improving soil-based Greenhouse Gas (GHG) mitigation measures.
Vaporization of heavier gas oil in Fluid Catalytic Cracking risers. Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) is an important refinery operation responsible for about 45 per cent of the total petrol produced. The project is aimed at improving production efficiency of Australian refineries by applying fundamental modelling to the FCC. The outcomes will enable refiners to produce cleaner fuel and decrease greenhouse gas emissions.
Enhanced productivity of coal seam gas wells by continuous gas circulation. This project aims to develop foam assisted continuous gas circulation for dewatering new and existing coal seam gas wells. The potential benefits of this new method include enhanced gas production, better well control, reduced costs and better environmental effectiveness. The proposed solution eliminates the need for mechanical pumps which are currently used for dewatering, and which fail regularly due to gas and solids ....Enhanced productivity of coal seam gas wells by continuous gas circulation. This project aims to develop foam assisted continuous gas circulation for dewatering new and existing coal seam gas wells. The potential benefits of this new method include enhanced gas production, better well control, reduced costs and better environmental effectiveness. The proposed solution eliminates the need for mechanical pumps which are currently used for dewatering, and which fail regularly due to gas and solids accumulation within the production wells. Continuous gas circulation could achieve significant savings in downtime and maintenance costs. In addition, reducing onsite maintenance will minimise access requirements for maintenance rigs which disrupt rural activities where the wells are located, thus easing local traffic and reduce the environmental impacts that are associated with well workovers.Read moreRead less
Electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide to formic acid. This project aims to develop economical and scalable carbon dioxide electrochemical technologies to convert carbon dioxide in blast furnace flue gas to formic acid as a value-added product in steel-making plants. The project expects to develop new electrochemical catalysts, to optimise the structure of electrodes and ultimately improve carbon dioxide conversion efficiency and reaction selectivity towards formic acid. The expected outco ....Electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide to formic acid. This project aims to develop economical and scalable carbon dioxide electrochemical technologies to convert carbon dioxide in blast furnace flue gas to formic acid as a value-added product in steel-making plants. The project expects to develop new electrochemical catalysts, to optimise the structure of electrodes and ultimately improve carbon dioxide conversion efficiency and reaction selectivity towards formic acid. The expected outcomes of this project will provide an efficient and economically viable electrochemical technology to convert carbon dioxide to a valuable product such as formic acid or syngas, with the potential to significantly reduce the emission of carbon dioxide from steel-making processes and coal-fired power plants.Read moreRead less
Tectonic geography of the world's oldest petroleum play, the McArthur Basin. This projects aims to develop a 4D tectonic geography framework to support the effective exploration of the McArthur Basin. This project will construct this by a) investigating the evolving tectonic setting, b) examining intra-basin correlations and trace the source to sink sediment provenance, c) unraveling the depositional geography using novel isotopic proxies, and, d) constructing the subsequent thermal history of ....Tectonic geography of the world's oldest petroleum play, the McArthur Basin. This projects aims to develop a 4D tectonic geography framework to support the effective exploration of the McArthur Basin. This project will construct this by a) investigating the evolving tectonic setting, b) examining intra-basin correlations and trace the source to sink sediment provenance, c) unraveling the depositional geography using novel isotopic proxies, and, d) constructing the subsequent thermal history of the basin. The techniques developed through this project will de-risk the exploration for petroleum in this basin, and be applicable in opening up Proterozoic petroleum elsewhere in Australia and internationally.Read moreRead less
Modelling and control of electromagnetically propelled arcs in joining processes. Magnetically impelled arc butt (MIAB) joining is a non-traditional manufacturing process for tubular steel components. Parameter selection and tuning have to date been experimentally determined via exhaustive trial-and-error techniques. Therefore the full capabilities of the process have not yet been realised. The project aims to model and optimise the complex process and thus facilitate the development of new a ....Modelling and control of electromagnetically propelled arcs in joining processes. Magnetically impelled arc butt (MIAB) joining is a non-traditional manufacturing process for tubular steel components. Parameter selection and tuning have to date been experimentally determined via exhaustive trial-and-error techniques. Therefore the full capabilities of the process have not yet been realised. The project aims to model and optimise the complex process and thus facilitate the development of new and effective control strategies. It is expected that novel power source designs will emerge as an outcome of the research proposed.Read moreRead less