Written by Aaron Fernandes Thursday, 28 January 2010 15:17
THE University of Western Australia has launched a ground breaking research institute to solve global concerns over energy resources.
The UWA Centre for Energy will undertake cutting edge research and development as well as provide consultancy to several industry partners across a range of issues confronting energy use, from carbon emissions to safe transport to energy efficiency.
Centre for Energy Foundation Director Dongke Zhang says the collaborations with industry would enable UWA to continue its already established reputation as a leading research institute.
“For example in the gas, marine and subsea research areas, we already have strong collaborations with Woodside and Chevron. We have Chevron heavily supporting a number of projects, such as LNG transportation, converting gas to liquid and synthetic diesel production. So that’s an example of what we already have established and what we would like to develop.”
The main research areas of the new centre are: Natural Gas, led by Professor Eric May; Petroleum, led by Professor Jishan Liu; Coal and Biomass, led by Prof Zhang; Geothermal, led by Hui Tong Chua; Marine subsea and energy efficiency, led by Professor Krish Thiagarajan; and Future Energy, also led by Prof Zhang.
Prof Zhang says with a new centre focusing UWA’s expertise over an array of energy fields, the Centre for Energy will be able to tackle some of the most pressing issues facing energy consumption in the future.
“Coal of course is a strong sector in Australia, and the challenge there really is the issue of carbon pollution. Our aim with the coal and biomass research is to support the coal industry to manage the challenge with bio mass as a renewable energy.
“With our research into petroleum, we cover a very broad scale, from the initial engineering and petroleum production, to the refining and production of the end product - gasoline, diesel, fuel oil and other products.
“LNG transportation is another area of interest, as it poses a huge challenge not just for safety but liability of ownership. In that regard, it’s all about how well the infrastructure and the process can operate, so that’s our focus. A major area that we are delving into is unconventional resources for the future such as tight gas, oil fuel as well as nanotechnology fuel cells.”
Prof Zhang has in the past ten years attracted more than $16 million in research funding from industry sources as well as Australian Research Council (ARC) funding.
Collaborating organisations include Chevron, Woodside Energy, BHP Billiton Iron Ore, Fuel Technology Pty Ltd, Griffin Coal Mining Company, Wesfarmers Premier Coal, ANSAC, ENN Group and Synfuels China.
