Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE120100109
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$370,000.00
Summary
A facility for non-destructive quantification of coal structures, composition and percolation fluid flows in energy and environmental applications. The facility will advance our scientific understanding of 3D micro- and nanostructures of coal under various mechanical and chemical conditions. It will help develop process innovation and breakthrough technologies for energy and environmental applications. It will also enhance the research capabilities of the collaborating institutions.
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE120100211
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$230,000.00
Summary
3D Gamma Ray Tomography for Multiphase Flow Characterisation. We will establish a new tomographic facility which will allow a greater insight on the flows in industrial multiphase equipment which have opaque containers. The facility will provide a platform for Australian researchers to conduct fundamental research on complex flows, particularly those encountered in our mineral processing industry.
Initiation of spontaneous fires. This project aims to determine the origin of the initiation reactions that set off the self-heating of wood chips, coal, milk powder and other economically-important materials, leading to spontaneous fires. This project will provide fundamental understanding of the reactions between electronically excited species of oxygen and carbonaceous fuels, with applications to improved safety in wood, mineral and food industries. The outcomes include identification of the ....Initiation of spontaneous fires. This project aims to determine the origin of the initiation reactions that set off the self-heating of wood chips, coal, milk powder and other economically-important materials, leading to spontaneous fires. This project will provide fundamental understanding of the reactions between electronically excited species of oxygen and carbonaceous fuels, with applications to improved safety in wood, mineral and food industries. The outcomes include identification of the initiation mechanisms and development of mechanistic models that include the initiation step of the self-heating process, and development of new technologies for mitigation of spontaneous fires, based on quenching of the initiation reactions.Read moreRead less
Synthetic natural gas and biochar from biomass for energy services in remote communities and soil carbon sequestration. Resources, industry and rural communities, the backbone of Australian economy, are confronted by unprecedented challenges of carbon pollution reduction, land conservation and eco-sustainability to combat global climate change. This exciting, highly integrated and multidisciplinary project will develop a scientific basis and technological options for the resources industry and r ....Synthetic natural gas and biochar from biomass for energy services in remote communities and soil carbon sequestration. Resources, industry and rural communities, the backbone of Australian economy, are confronted by unprecedented challenges of carbon pollution reduction, land conservation and eco-sustainability to combat global climate change. This exciting, highly integrated and multidisciplinary project will develop a scientific basis and technological options for the resources industry and remote communities to respond to these challenges. The outcomes of this research will enable the deployment of renewable biomass energy technology, bio-char for carbon storage, and affect the restoration of marginal lands and salinity levels in an environmentally and economically sustainable way, thus contributing to the development of an environmentally sustainable Australia.Read moreRead less
Rare Earth Metal Separation by Polymer Inclusion Membranes. The project aims to develop a novel hydrometallurgical method for the separation of the rare earth metals dysprosium and terbium from mixed rare earth metal solutions using polymer inclusion membranes with a crosslinked or non-crosslinked polymer backbone. These metals are crucial for the manufacturing of advanced technology products. The membrane-based method is expected to offer significant advantages over the currently used solvent e ....Rare Earth Metal Separation by Polymer Inclusion Membranes. The project aims to develop a novel hydrometallurgical method for the separation of the rare earth metals dysprosium and terbium from mixed rare earth metal solutions using polymer inclusion membranes with a crosslinked or non-crosslinked polymer backbone. These metals are crucial for the manufacturing of advanced technology products. The membrane-based method is expected to offer significant advantages over the currently used solvent extraction methods by eliminating the use of solvents and conducting the separation as a continuous process where the extraction and back-extraction steps take place simultaneously. These advantages are expected to make the separation process more cost-effective and drastically reduce its environmental impact.Read moreRead less
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.
Hydrodynamics of Bubble Column Reactors. This project will study the hydrodynamics of bubble columns with the aim of optimising these reactors for offshore gas-to-liquid plants. Along with experiments using the state-of-art techniques such as the particle image velocimetry, radioactive particle tracking, electrical capacitance tomography and optical probes, computational fluid dynamics simulations will be conducted to gain a deeper insight into bubble-induced turbulence and regime transitions in ....Hydrodynamics of Bubble Column Reactors. This project will study the hydrodynamics of bubble columns with the aim of optimising these reactors for offshore gas-to-liquid plants. Along with experiments using the state-of-art techniques such as the particle image velocimetry, radioactive particle tracking, electrical capacitance tomography and optical probes, computational fluid dynamics simulations will be conducted to gain a deeper insight into bubble-induced turbulence and regime transitions in these reactors. This information will then be used to devise scale-up strategies of these complex and industrially important equipment.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
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0989675
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$180,000.00
Summary
Interface-specific facility for quantifying adsorption and structures at particulate interfaces. The facility will be used by the collaborating universities to investigate adsorption and interface properties with great precision, and to develop new and improved technologies for coal and mineral processing, saline water utilisation, water desalination, energy production and environment protection. In particular, the project will investigate innovative ways of using ion-interface interactions in ....Interface-specific facility for quantifying adsorption and structures at particulate interfaces. The facility will be used by the collaborating universities to investigate adsorption and interface properties with great precision, and to develop new and improved technologies for coal and mineral processing, saline water utilisation, water desalination, energy production and environment protection. In particular, the project will investigate innovative ways of using ion-interface interactions in saline water for cleaning coal and recovering value minerals by flotation, and for improving dissolved air flotation used in water treatment and desalination to produce drinking water. The project will further investigate novel ways of capturing CO2, storing natural gases and hydrogen, and tailoring nutrient nano-crystals for foliar delivery.Read moreRead less
Homogeneous Combustion Catalysts for Efficiency Improvements and Emission Reduction in Diesel Engines. Australia currently consumes about 25 billion litres of diesel annually through the mining industry, road transportation and electricity generation for remote communities which presentins a significant cost and carbon footprint. A small reduction of say 2.5% in diesel consumption nationwide by improving engine performance and energy efficiency can result in more than $0.5 billion in savings and ....Homogeneous Combustion Catalysts for Efficiency Improvements and Emission Reduction in Diesel Engines. Australia currently consumes about 25 billion litres of diesel annually through the mining industry, road transportation and electricity generation for remote communities which presentins a significant cost and carbon footprint. A small reduction of say 2.5% in diesel consumption nationwide by improving engine performance and energy efficiency can result in more than $0.5 billion in savings and a reduction of 1.75 million tonnes in greenhouse gas emission annually. The homogeneous combustion catalysts, to be developed in this research for direct doping into diesel supply system, will help realise these objectives and contribute to the development of an environmentally sustainable Australia.Read moreRead less