The approval is an important show of support for key role of gas as a primary energy source in Australia’s carbon-constrained future.
The announcement by Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Kim Carr has been welcomed by the country’s peak gas transmission body, the Australian Pipeline Industry Association (APIA), which described it as a great vote of confidence in the essential role that gas pipelines play in the Australian economy and a “˜vital’ first step towards a new era of low emission power generation.
“This is a key step towards a new era of energy efficiency and responsibility – both in supporting the shift towards natural gas in the medium term, and in the longer term development of a globally significant carbon capture and storage industry,” APIA chief executive Cheryl Cartwright (pictured) said.
The Energy Pipelines Co-operative Research Centre is one of ten new centres to be allocated funding in the latest round of the Government’s Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) Program, which is targeting new technologies and innovation in support of energy security, climate change mitigation, indigenous health, and deep minerals exploration, among others.
The $A17.5 million research centre will initially focus on four areas of pipeline development, covering construction and maintenance, corrosion control, and public safety, through four distinct projects:
“¢ More efficient use of materials for energy pipelines;
“¢ Extension of the safe operating life of new and existing energy pipelines;
“¢ Advanced design and construction of energy pipelines; and,
“¢ Public safety and the security of supply of energy pipelines.
As well as researchers from APIA’s Research and Standards Committee, the Centre will include academics and researchers from the Australian National University, Monash University, the University of Adelaide, and the University of Wollongong.
Ms Cartwright said Commonwealth support of a growing pipeline infrastructure is seen as a critical part of the country’s battle to bring down carbon emissions – not only by increasing the use and security of supply of natural gas, which has greenhouse gas emissions over 50 per cent less than coal, but by supporting the development of world-class carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies.
“Safe and reliable transportation of carbon dioxide has emerged as one area in which Australia can lend global leadership to the greenhouse gas mitigation effort,” Ms Cartwright said.
“With most of the sites of major carbon dioxide generation being significant distances from identified storage sites, efficient and secure transportation will clearly be critical to the success of this emerging technology,” she said.
With many of Australia’s older pipelines nearing the end of their initial “˜design life’, the use of advanced materials technologies and innovative corrosion control techniques to permit safe and cost effective life extension for these pipelines will also be a key challenge of the Energy Pipelines Cooperative Research Centre.
Chairman of APIA’s Research and Standards Committee Leigh Fletcher said “An important objective will be to advance corrosion prevention of pipelines to such a level that their design life will increase from around 40 years to 100 or more years – for existing as well as new energy pipelines.
“The new centre will ensure that the required infrastructure needs can be met by providing technical solutions to critical issues, including fracture control of carbon dioxide pipelines and the prevention of hydrogen embrittlement,” said Mr Fletcher.
“Advanced sociological research will also be undertaken with the goal of ensuring the continued safeguarding of the Australian public from any risk of pipeline failure, with the related public safety and loss of supply issues,” he said.