Controlling hydrate slurry flow to enable deepwater oil and gas production. This project aims to investigate the plugging of hydrate slurries in pipelines to determine under what conditions they will flow satisfactorily without forming a blockage. Hydrate blockages are expensive and hazardous occurrences in oil and gas operations, so current prevention systems aim to avoid hydrate formation altogether through over-design. These over-designed hydrate prevention systems are extremely expensive to ....Controlling hydrate slurry flow to enable deepwater oil and gas production. This project aims to investigate the plugging of hydrate slurries in pipelines to determine under what conditions they will flow satisfactorily without forming a blockage. Hydrate blockages are expensive and hazardous occurrences in oil and gas operations, so current prevention systems aim to avoid hydrate formation altogether through over-design. These over-designed hydrate prevention systems are extremely expensive to build and costly to run during the operations phase. The project intends to examine the behaviour of hydrate slurry flow as a function of the oil's properties, amount of water and degree of turbulence. Outcomes are intended to be a sophisticated approach to avoiding hydrate blockages that is safe but more efficient and less costly.Read moreRead less
Novel carbon dioxide tolerant ceramic membranes for oxygen separation to improve the viability of clean energy technology. Conventional cryogenic air separation is a major economic impediment to the deployment of these low emission technologies like Callide oxyfuel combustion. This project will lead to the discovery of a new class of oxygen selective membranes for air separation with significantly reduced cost to improve the viability of these clean energy technologies.
Syngas Production Using Catalytic Carbon Dioxide Dry Reforming. This project intends to pave the way for turning remote low-value Australian resources and greenhouse gases into valuable products. Most of Australian natural gas reserves are located in the remote north-west shelf, and many are small scale and thus cannot be economically harnessed using conventional methods such as pipeline transportation or gas liquefaction. In this project, a dry reforming reactor with novel catalysts will be des ....Syngas Production Using Catalytic Carbon Dioxide Dry Reforming. This project intends to pave the way for turning remote low-value Australian resources and greenhouse gases into valuable products. Most of Australian natural gas reserves are located in the remote north-west shelf, and many are small scale and thus cannot be economically harnessed using conventional methods such as pipeline transportation or gas liquefaction. In this project, a dry reforming reactor with novel catalysts will be designed for converting natural gas and carbon dioxide to syngas, which is an intermediate step of gas-to-liquid plant. By innovatively integrating advanced catalysis and heating technologies, reactor weight and operational costs will be minimised.Read moreRead less
Use of Gas Expanded Liquids to Facilitate Process Intensification. The aim of this research is the utilisation of gas expanded liquids (GXLs) in technology platforms based on the principles of process intensification (PI). In order to facilitate the attainment of project objectives a comprehensive investigation of the fundamental properties of GXLs, and their interactions is proposed. A significant component of the programme is expected to be to use the knowledge obtained to facilitate the devel ....Use of Gas Expanded Liquids to Facilitate Process Intensification. The aim of this research is the utilisation of gas expanded liquids (GXLs) in technology platforms based on the principles of process intensification (PI). In order to facilitate the attainment of project objectives a comprehensive investigation of the fundamental properties of GXLs, and their interactions is proposed. A significant component of the programme is expected to be to use the knowledge obtained to facilitate the development of scale-up protocol for PI based methodologies, with particular emphasis on the production of biomaterials. GXLs technology is frontier technology with regard to the biomaterials sector.Read moreRead less
Fundamentals and applications of continuous-flow microprocessing systems based on supercritical fluids and gas expanded liquids. Microchemical systems have considerable potential in the area of chemical discovery and development. Practical application of these systems requires fundamental understanding and strategies for conversion to appropriate scale. The aim of this project is to overcome such challenges in the development of microstructured continuous-flow technology.
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE170100174
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$193,000.00
Summary
Acoustic levitation facility for high pressure multiphase systems research. This project aims to create a specialised acoustic levitation facility that delivers precise control of a suspended particle/droplet/bubble within a high pressure continuous phase, and simultaneous measurement of multiple bulk and interfacial properties. Acoustic levitation enables container-less experiments, offering opportunities for applied engineering and fundamental science. This acoustic levitation system will be i ....Acoustic levitation facility for high pressure multiphase systems research. This project aims to create a specialised acoustic levitation facility that delivers precise control of a suspended particle/droplet/bubble within a high pressure continuous phase, and simultaneous measurement of multiple bulk and interfacial properties. Acoustic levitation enables container-less experiments, offering opportunities for applied engineering and fundamental science. This acoustic levitation system will be integrated with a specialised Raman imaging microscope to study crystallisation, mass transfer and molecular exchange, in application areas including energy transport, carbon capture and storage, and protein nucleation. This project is expected to open new avenues in engineering, chemistry and physics.Read moreRead less
Supercritical-microfluidics technology for targeted delivery to the colon. This research will develop nanosystems to target delivery of drugs to the colon. Our nanosystems will permit the combination of clinically used chemotherapy drugs within a single dosage form. This will improve the efficiency of delivery to the colon while reducing unwanted side-effects. A novel supercritical microfluidics system will be developed to produce therapeutic nano-carriers in a continuous mode with lower labour ....Supercritical-microfluidics technology for targeted delivery to the colon. This research will develop nanosystems to target delivery of drugs to the colon. Our nanosystems will permit the combination of clinically used chemotherapy drugs within a single dosage form. This will improve the efficiency of delivery to the colon while reducing unwanted side-effects. A novel supercritical microfluidics system will be developed to produce therapeutic nano-carriers in a continuous mode with lower labour requirement, higher production rate and better quality control than conventional production methods. The new process will combine benefits from both supercritical fluid technology (green process) and microfluidics (high mass & heat transfer).Read moreRead less
Investigation of contaminant distribution, deposition and poisoning of cathodes of solid oxide fuel cells. The purpose of the project is to fundamentally study the poisoning process of contaminants on the performance degradation and activity of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) cathode and to develop contaminant-tolerant cathodes, so as to ensure the product life over five years of the BlueGen SOFC systems being developed by Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd. in Melbourne.
Model studies of Australian lump ore applied to blast furnace ironmaking. Ore lump use in ironmaking blast furnaces (BFs) requires no preprocessing and has a lower carbon footprint. However, it suffers various technical problems. This project aims to understand and optimize the conditions for such operations. This will be achieved by means of a combined theoretical and experimental program, involving the use of state-of-the-art multiscale computer modelling and simulation techniques. The researc ....Model studies of Australian lump ore applied to blast furnace ironmaking. Ore lump use in ironmaking blast furnaces (BFs) requires no preprocessing and has a lower carbon footprint. However, it suffers various technical problems. This project aims to understand and optimize the conditions for such operations. This will be achieved by means of a combined theoretical and experimental program, involving the use of state-of-the-art multiscale computer modelling and simulation techniques. The research outcomes will be tested in the design and control of lump charging operations in practice through collaboration with the industrial partner. This will ultimately increase Australian ore lump usage in BFs, leading to significant financial and environmental benefits to Australia and the entire steel industry worldwide.Read moreRead less
Low emission iron and steelmaking using hydrogen to pre-reduce lump ore. This project aims to develop and apply a new route of lump iron ore pre-reduction with hydrogen or H2-enriched gases for ironmaking to minimise CO2 emission from steel production. The route will be built up on the base of H2 reduction kinetics of iron ore and with novel technologies such as CO2 recycle and H2-heating using hot blast, underpinning the hydrogen economy by addressing the environmental concerns in mineral and s ....Low emission iron and steelmaking using hydrogen to pre-reduce lump ore. This project aims to develop and apply a new route of lump iron ore pre-reduction with hydrogen or H2-enriched gases for ironmaking to minimise CO2 emission from steel production. The route will be built up on the base of H2 reduction kinetics of iron ore and with novel technologies such as CO2 recycle and H2-heating using hot blast, underpinning the hydrogen economy by addressing the environmental concerns in mineral and steel industries. It is not only significant for low-carbon steel production, but also for better fundamental understanding to develop the future zero-emission iron and steelmaking with hydrogen. The project will be very beneficent because it increases the use of lump iron ore and expends Australian export of iron ores.Read moreRead less