Future Fuels CRC CEO David Norman discusses the path ahead.
This year marks the final year of Future Fuels CRC’s seven-year research program on renewable gas. Through this research collaboration, Australia’s energy industry has made some world-leading steps forward with hydrogen and biomethane. As we deliver our final 41 research projects this year, we will handover Australia’s pipeline research effort to a new industry organisation that will be launched later this year. But before that, there are so many achievements and new research outputs to share.
Educating a future workforce
Future Fuels CRC has supported 52 PhD and Masters students to work on our research projects while preparing themselves for careers in the new industry. Among them, 24 students have already completed and moved on to jobs in renewable gas, the energy industry and government. The final cohort of 28 students are now finalising their research and will complete this year. Led by Professor Shaun Coffey, the education and training portion of Future Fuels CRC has taken a very engaged, hands-on approach to developing these students and held our final residential school this February in Geelong. These schools have been an opportunity for our students build their networks, develop their career planning and learn more about the energy industry.
Industry site visits have always been a big part of these schools and this year the students joined our board directors to visit the Viva new energy hub in Geelong. This project is Australia’s first commercially scaled and publicly accessible hydrogen refuelling station. Importantly it has the capability to produce and dispense renewable hydrogen in commercial quantities and refuel a fleet of heavy hydrogen-powered trucks and buses.
Beyond our PhD and Masters program we have also engaged hundreds of engineering and management students through our hackathon and management school programs. These programs allow undergraduate students to apply their skills to renewable gas projects as part of their studies.
New fracture
propagation mode
Although highly effective, the cost and challenges of full-scale burst tests make their widespread use in pipeline projects impractical. However, sometimes burst tests are the only means to validate designs outside the envelope of applicability of the Battelle-Two Curve Method.
Our latest research from the University of Wollongong seeks to build upon the insights from the earlier CO2Safe-Arrest JIP project by applying failure locus-based fracture models to predict running ductile fractures in gas pipelines.
The researchers evaluated five fracture models. The models were calibrated using three types of lab-scale tests: flat bar tensile tests, pure shear tests, and punch tests. A novel calibration approach using digital image correlation measurement was developed to eliminate the need for finite element analysis simulations.
Householder energy usage
Understanding how and why people use electricity and gas at home is essential for developing policies and technologies that align with real consumer needs. We need to understand what influences their energy practices and how conditions such as home efficiency, affordability, household size, and cultural or linguistic diversity shape energy consumption patterns. The RMIT University team’s latest research explores the energy consumption and outcomes of 48 owner-occupier households. The study uncovers key insights into household energy use practices, vulnerabilities, and the transition to decarbonised energy by integrating real-time energy and indoor temperature monitoring, householder interviews, and field observations.
The findings include social energy practices that shaped indoor temperatures and four household archetypes that represent people’s approaches to the low carbon home transition.
Identifying investable biomethane project sites
As part of our work to enable biomethane production and injection into Australian gas networks, the University of Adelaide’s researchers have delivered their latest report and online tool to identifying the most investable biomethane project sites in Australia. Delivered as part of our project RP1.2-06, this report and tool is a must for anyone developing the biomethane industry.
The report contains a spatial analysis of the techno-economic viability of biomethane grid injection projects in Australia. This is built on prior work in Future Fuels CRC projects RP1.2-04 and RP1.2-06 where a prototype spatial analysis tool was developed. Additional research was undertaken to expand the analysis in two major areas: updated costing estimates, and adding carbon emissions and reduction estimates to the spatial assessment so that Australian carbon credit units can be explored as part of the wider business case.
With these additions, the Levelised Cost of Energy for a biomethane project could be estimated at each point across Australia. The Australian industry and government now have additional data and analysis capability they need to focus project developments into the most economic areas.
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