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
Unlocking Australia's offshore gas endowment. This project aims to develop practical new methods of predicting and detecting the formation of solids in gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) production. Australia has large offshore reserves of natural gas and has made the investments necessary to help fuel the global transition to cleaner, reliable energy sources. However, conventional engineering approaches of producing gas from deep-water reserves have reached the limits of viability because of t ....Unlocking Australia's offshore gas endowment. This project aims to develop practical new methods of predicting and detecting the formation of solids in gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) production. Australia has large offshore reserves of natural gas and has made the investments necessary to help fuel the global transition to cleaner, reliable energy sources. However, conventional engineering approaches of producing gas from deep-water reserves have reached the limits of viability because of the costs required to prevent solids forming in subsea pipelines or cryogenic LNG plants. The project’s expected outcome include sophisticated tools in open-access software based on these new predictive methods, and a step-change in Australia’s ability to access its offshore gas.Read moreRead less
High pressure thermophysical property data to advance natural gas processing and liquefied natural gas production. The natural gas industry needs to advance its understanding of fundamental fluid properties at extreme conditions of pressure and temperature to develop more efficient processing technologies. This project will develop the measurement technologies needed to probe key fluid properties at extreme conditions to enable more efficient process design.
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.
Novel membranes and membrane structures using electrospinning. This project aims to develop novel membrane support materials and novel membrane structures to enhance chemical separation processes. These materials can be used in desalination and water treatment, reducing the resistance to water flows. In turn, this will reduce the energy required to produce fresh drinking water for Australians, as well as the cost. The approach will also be applied to carbon dioxide capture from flue gas streams, ....Novel membranes and membrane structures using electrospinning. This project aims to develop novel membrane support materials and novel membrane structures to enhance chemical separation processes. These materials can be used in desalination and water treatment, reducing the resistance to water flows. In turn, this will reduce the energy required to produce fresh drinking water for Australians, as well as the cost. The approach will also be applied to carbon dioxide capture from flue gas streams, increasing the energy efficiency of these processes, so that they can become economically viable. The project has the potential to develop localised manufacturing operations to produce these materials, adding value to Australian manufactured products.Read moreRead less
Avoiding cryogenic solids formation in liquefied natural gas production. This project will determine how and under what conditions cryogenic hydrocarbon solids form during liquefied natural gas (LNG) production, which often cause expensive unplanned plant shutdowns. New sensors will be developed to understand and monitor the conditions which cause these blockages and will be deployed into LNG plants to avoid the critical conditions.
Gold transport in aqueous versus organic fluids: Experimental data for describing ore-forming systems. In many hydrothermal ore-forming systems, the ore is associated with inclusions of both aqueous brine and organic liquid (petroleum). The conventional theory is that the metals are dissolved and transported to the deposit by the brine, but some researchers suggest that petroleum may fill this role. This project proposes to conduct an experimental and field-based study on the chemical behaviour ....Gold transport in aqueous versus organic fluids: Experimental data for describing ore-forming systems. In many hydrothermal ore-forming systems, the ore is associated with inclusions of both aqueous brine and organic liquid (petroleum). The conventional theory is that the metals are dissolved and transported to the deposit by the brine, but some researchers suggest that petroleum may fill this role. This project proposes to conduct an experimental and field-based study on the chemical behaviour of gold in aqueous-organic and organic fluid systems, to determine which type of liquid is more important for gold mobilisation in a competitive situation. This study will provide much-needed data for more accurate modelling of ore systems, furthering our understanding and facilitating mineral exploration. Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140100569
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$372,952.00
Summary
Recovering helium from Australia’s natural gas: A case study for advanced adsorption processes to concentrate dilute gases. This project will deliver breakthroughs in gas separation technologies for the production of helium from natural gas. Global demand for helium in critical medical, scientific and industrial applications is projected to grow at around five per cent per annum. To overcome the forecast short falls in helium production, new low cost and energy efficient technologies to recover ....Recovering helium from Australia’s natural gas: A case study for advanced adsorption processes to concentrate dilute gases. This project will deliver breakthroughs in gas separation technologies for the production of helium from natural gas. Global demand for helium in critical medical, scientific and industrial applications is projected to grow at around five per cent per annum. To overcome the forecast short falls in helium production, new low cost and energy efficient technologies to recover helium from natural gas fields must be developed. This project will contribute novel microporous adsorbents, a better understanding of helium sorption kinetics and general methodologies for design of pressure swing adsorption processes to concentrate dilute mixtures.Read moreRead less
Next generation gas separations via innovative adsorption technologies. This project aims to develop new gas separation technologies that combine novel materials and pressure swing adsorption cycles to deliver inexpensive industrial processes capable of both high recovery and high purity products. The project will advance our ability to manipulate the phenomenon of regulated guest admission into microporous materials, and integrate such materials within new types of dual-reflux adsorption cycles ....Next generation gas separations via innovative adsorption technologies. This project aims to develop new gas separation technologies that combine novel materials and pressure swing adsorption cycles to deliver inexpensive industrial processes capable of both high recovery and high purity products. The project will advance our ability to manipulate the phenomenon of regulated guest admission into microporous materials, and integrate such materials within new types of dual-reflux adsorption cycles that deliver multiple refined gas products. Successful implementation of these industrial developments will increase Australia's access to cheap supplies of natural gas, encourage the broader use of biomass, lower the carbon emissions of industrial processes, and efficiently recover high-value compounds only present at trace concentrations.Read moreRead less
Oxidation product generation during heating and storage of bio-fuels and alternative fuels assessed by multidimensional gas chromatography. Renewable bio-fuels offer much promise as a replacement for fossil fuels. However, they have a tendency to oxidise when prepared and used, potentially forming gums and solid deposits in engines. The objective of this project is the identification of these deposits and subsequent prevention during engine operation.