PhD Research in Gas Processing

Now Available: PhD Scholarships in Gas Processing at UWA

Receive up to $44,000 p.a. tax free at the Centre for Energy

In this century humanity will rely increasingly on natural gas to satisfy growing energy
demands with reduced environmental impact. WA is uniquely positioned to provide the
gas needed by billions of people. Your role in this global transformation starts with a PhD
at UWA's new Centre for Energy

UWA has partnered with Chevron to train future leaders & technical experts for the
global Gas & LNG industry

Physics, Chemistry & Engineering Honours Graduates Encouraged to Apply

 Energy research is multi-disciplinary

 Centre for Energy PhD program builds upon fundamental skills to train industry
leaders
 Science Honours students have record of success in gas processing research
 PhD students will meet & work with gas industry executives & researchers
 Travel opportunities include spending several months working in US laboratories

Research Projects Available: (Key words: gas, energy, hydrates, adsorption, CO2
capture storage, processing, materials, calixarenes, ionic liquids)

1. Gas Processing & LNG Production

a. Novel materials & processes for upgrading contaminated gas.

We will investigate new methods of removing and capturing nitrogen and

carbon dioxide from natural gas streams to improve the efficiency and
decrease the cost of LNG production. We will develop and test novel
adsorbent materials at cryogenic conditions in high-pressure adsorption
experiments on a scale that reflects industrial practice. The results of these
experiments will improve thermodynamic and kinetic models of sorption
processes at conditions for which little data exists. The research outcomes
will be used to improve the design of LNG production trains and to treat
contaminated gas reserves.

b. Measurements & modelling to optimise cryogenic separations.

We will investigate new methods of removing and capturing nitrogen and

carbon dioxide from natural gas streams to improve the efficiency and
decrease the cost of LNG production. We will develop and test novel
adsorbent materials at cryogenic conditions in high-pressure adsorption
experiments on a scale that reflects industrial practice. The results of these
experiments will improve thermodynamic and kinetic models of sorption
processes at conditions for which little data exists. The research outcomes
will be used to improve the design of LNG production trains and to treat
contaminated gas reserves.
PhDs in Gas Process Engineering 

2. Gas Hydrates & Flow Assurance

a. Safe hydrate plug removal by direct electrical heating.

The goal of this project is to assess the potential for over-pressurization of a

pipeline during hydrate plug remediation by direct electrical heating (DEH) for
hydrate plugs containing liquid and gaseous hydrocarbon phases. The two
most relevant questions that the data generated will address are: 1) under
what conditions is it safe to heat electrically an oil-filled gas hydrate plug, and
2) is electrically heating an oil-filled hydrate plug an effective means of
remediating the hydrate blockage. The primary objective of this research is to
measure, as a function of applied electrical power, the pipeline pressures and
temperatures resulting from laboratory scale hydrate blockages remediated
using DEH. Importantly, much of the void space in these hydrate plugs will be
filled with a liquid phase to simulate the most likely scenario that could lead to
a pipeline rupture in the field.

b. Understanding hydrate formation in gas-dominant pipelines.

The prevention of natural gas hydrate (ice-like solid) blockages in pipelines is

of great importance to the oil and gas industry. A hydrate blockage will result
in severe financial penalties as well as significant personnel and facility risk
during removal, thus considerable effort is made to prevent their occurrence.
This project would examine new frontiers for the prevention of hydrate
blockage formation with particular emphasis on conditions corresponding to
those found in Western Australian fields. In particular the flow of
hydrocarbons from WA fields is often gas dominant with little oil or
condensate phase present; however most of what is known about hydrate
blockages relates to oil-dominated systems. The project will involve the
development of a key apparatus for studying the formation and behaviour of
natural gas hydrates, a high pressure - low temperature autoclave cell named
the high pressure hydrate agglomeration dynamometer. The project will use
this unique apparatus to study the agglomeration of hydrate in gas-
dominant, under-inhibited systems (dosage of the industrial hydrate inhibitor
mono-ethylene glycol is below the required level for hydrate prevention).
These conditions would reflect one of the more likely scenarios for hydrate
blockages to occur in Western Australian oil and gas pipelines.

3. CO2 Capture & Sequestration

a. Enhanced gas recovery with super-critical CO2 injection & storage.

Western Australia has several major offshore gas assets containing

significant quantities of carbon dioxide. Scenario's for dealing with this CO2
must be developed before these gas fields can be developed. One scenario
involves the re-injection of carbon dioxide produced from one reservoir into
the extremities of a different ‘tight gas' reservoir for the purpose of both CO2
disposal and enhanced gas recovery. However, such a strategy is only viable
if the probability of breakthrough by the re-injected CO2 to the producing wells
is small. Estimating this breakthrough probability requires an improvement in
our fundamental understanding of the thermophysical and hydrodynamic
behaviour of supercritical CO2 in gas and water-saturated reservoir rock.

The aim of this project is to establish whether the CO2 displacement of the
gas occurs by miscible plug-flow and, if so, to quantify the diffusivity of
supercritical CO2 into CH4 when confined in a saturated porous media.
Experiments in which supercritical CO2 is pumped through a core sample will

 
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PhDs in Gas Process Engineering 

be conducted and the measured breakthrough curves will be conducted and

the results modelled at the core scale. The implications of scaling the results
for use in reservoir simulators will also be examined.

b. New adsorbents & solvents for improved CO2 capture.

This project will determine the suitability of using calixarene based

adsorbents or ionic liquid solvents to replace traditional amine stripping
columns in LNG plants. Both the capacity and selectivity of these adsorbents
and solvents will be measured under typical LNG plant conditions of high
pressure and/or low temperature. Dynamic breakthrough experiments will be
conducted to simulate the real process cycles likely to be used in an industrial
implementation. The research outcomes will be used to improve the design of
LNG trains and to treat contaminated gas reserves.

Applications due by 15 October 2010 For more information please contact Professor
Eric May, Chevron Chair in Gas Process Engineering

Eric.May@uwa.edu.au

Further detail at http://school.mech.uwa.edu.au/~emay/PhDs/

Location: University of Western Australia, Faculty of Engineering, Computing and

Mathematics
Disciplines:

 Chemical Sciences > Chemical Engineering

 Chemical Sciences > Materials Science
 Chemical Sciences > Physical Chemistry
 Engineering > Chemical Engineering
 Engineering > Energy
 Engineering > Materials Science
 Physical Sciences > Applied Physics
 Physical Sciences > Fluid Dynamics
 Physical Sciences > Materials Science

 
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