Efficient LNG Value Chains

Shinghon (Shane) Wong

PhD Title: Utilisation of cold energy and recovery of higher hydrocarbons during LNG regasification: process synthesis, analysis and optimisation

Shinghon’s PhD research focusses on the utilisation of cold energy and recovery of higher hydrocarbons such as ethane and propane in liquified natural gas (LNG) during LNG regasification. While LNG is one of the most convenient ways to export Australia’s natural gas, the enormous cold energy is often wasted during regasification at the receiving ports. In this research, Shane aims to configure and evaluate suitable thermodynamic cycles for power generation and simultaneous recovery of higher hydrocarbons to enhance the productivity and value of exported LNG.

Shinghon commenced his PhD at the UWA Centre for Energy after graduating with a Master of Professional Engineering degree from The University of Newcastle, NSW.

Paria Sadeghi

PhD Title: Application of Trapdoor Zeolites for Separation of Hydrogen and Helium from Gas Streams via Temperature-Regulated Guest Admission Process

Paria’s research focuses on helium and hydrogen recovery from gas mixtures with the novel trapdoor zeolites through an encapsulation mechanism. Cryogenic distillation and adsorption-based processes as conventional methods for helium refinement from natural gas methods are costly and energy-intensive because of sub-zero temperature requirements and the low adsorption affinity of helium on common adsorbents. These novel zeolites via the encapsulation method can explore an extreme selectivity for helium molecules over the larger gas molecules such as N₂ and CH₄. With the same concept, the developed technology can be applied to purify natural hydrogen (H₂) due to its similar size to helium.

Paria graduated with a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Curtin University.

Mark Barwood

PhD Title: Solid formation kinetics in energy production and cryogenic liquefaction processes

Mark works on a range of nucleation projects to characterise formation likelihood for a variety of solids relevant to the LNG industry. Alongside continuing these projects, the goal of his research is to extend these innovative approaches to quantify impurity freeze-out likelihood for hydrogen liquefaction to reduce the cost of safe liquefaction plant design and operation.

Mark graduated from the University of Western Australia in 2021 with a Master of Professional Engineering (Chemical Engineering) with Distinction.

David Zhu

PhD Title: Advanced Modelling for Solid Phase Equilibria in Complex Hydrocarbon Systems for Industrial Applications

David’s work focussed on improving phase equilibrium models for hydrates and heavy hydrocarbons/waxes by enhancing the physical basis of the models, reducing associated uncertainty, and/or decreasing the number of required adjustable parameters. David’s work applies to predicting the freezeout of cryogenic solids, a critical consideration in LNG production.

His research aimed to develop tools that enable more accurate prediction of solid freezeout for various fluid compositions and conditions. These tools will be implemented in the UWA-developed software ThermoFAST to improve existing models for heavy hydrocarbon freezeout in industrial applications across the entire LNG supply chain.

David graduated from the University of Western Australia in 2019 with a Master of Professional Engineering (Chemical Engineering) with Distinction. He also completed a Bachelor of Philosophy (Honours) in 2018 with First Class Honours.

Catherine Sampson

PhD Title: High-resolution Optical Detection of Cryosolids

Catherine’s project focus was understanding the kinetic and thermodynamic behaviour of solids in liquefied natural gas processing. To this end, Catherine commissioned a new visual microscopy-based cryogenic apparatus for the observation of solid formation from mixtures containing trace quantities of impurities commonly found in natural gas.

Catherine joined the group in 2019 after graduating from Texas A&M University with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering.

Libin Liu

PhD Title: Development of Zeolite-based Adsorbents & Processes for Natural Gas Separation

Libin Liu’s research focussed on developing novel adsorbents for natural gas separation and designing adsorption based separation processes. In this project, he worked to evaluate the performance of different adsorbents for helium recovery from natural gas.

Libin as a PhD candidate within the Fluid Science and Resources (FRS) division at The University of Western Australia (UWA) after graduating with a Master of Chemical Engineering degree from Xiangtan University, China.

Vincent Jusko

PhD Title: Understanding and predicting boil-off from cryogenic liquids

Vince’s research focussed on the prediction of boil-off from cryogenic liquids. Boil-off occurs when liquid hydrogen or natural gas stored at extreme low temperatures evaporates, causing both economic loss and potential safety risks. Current methods of boil-off prediction rely on either empirical correlations or prohibitively resource-intensive computational fluid dynamics. Vince’s work aimed to develop a robust boil-off model and implement it in a freely-available software package available to industrial end-users.

Vince is a graduate of The University of Western Australia with an MPE (Chemical Engineering).

Liam Tenardi

PhD Title: Advancing Vapour Liquid Equilibrium Measurement with Microwave Resonators

Liam Tenardi is a graduate from The University of Western Australia with a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. His research focuses on expanding the applicability of microwave resonator technology to vapour-liquid equilibrium characterisation of hydrocarbon mixtures. Novel microwave sensors are being developed to enable in-situ and non-invasive measurements of fluid mixture density, composition and phase behaviour, which will be used to monitor processes in real time and generate data for the development of accurate predictive models for industrially important fluid mixtures. These sensors and models will ultimately enable industry to significantly improve process design, optimise efficiency, and reduce environmental impacts

Roman Weh

PhD Title: Recovery of Dilute Helium from Natural Gas Sources

Roman’s work focussed on the separation of helium from natural gas by dual reflux pressure swing adsorption. Helium is an important but scarce commodity, and the developed process allows for its recovery from unconventional sources at low-cost.

Roman is a Graduate from the Mannheim University of Applied Sciences, Germany, with a master’s degree in chemical engineering. He joined the University of Western Australia in 2018 and has finalised his Ph.D. project.

Wanying Wu

PhD Title: Solid-Fluid Equilibrium and Solid Formation Kinetics in Cryogenic Processes

Wanying’s started working on this project as a PhD student at the University of Western Australia in 2023. She has studied in the solid-fluid equilibrium for the benzene-methane-nitrogen ternary mixture and will extend this work to other impurities commonly present in natural gas or hydrogen. The goal of her work is to develop thermodynamic and kinetic models which can help liquefaction plant operators better characterise the process conditions.

Wanying completed a Master of Chemical Engineering with Distinction from the University of Melbourne.

Dr Luke McElroy

Engineering Study Manager

Dr. Luke McElroy is Engineering Study Manager at Future Energy Exports CRC.

Luke is an experienced process engineer, project lead, and industry-focused researcher, having worked for more than ten years in a range of roles in the Energy industry.

Luke is skilled in process engineering for offshore and onshore oil & gas assets such as LNG plants, having worked for Woodside Energy for four years—including two years of site support at Karratha Gas Plant.

In addition to oil & gas operations experience, Luke has had detailed involvement in front-end project development for LNG and H₂ capital projects through his work with the Australian Centre for LNG Futures and Future Energy Exports CRC.

Past roles with DuPont and Arup have deepened Luke’s experience in delivering engineering services to a range of clients in industry and government.

Luke obtained his PhD from the University of New South Wales in 2010 and has collaborated with industry partners on decarbonization research projects, including carbon capture and sequestration, liquid CO₂ transport, and fugitive emissions management, building his expertise in these emerging areas of interest to the Energy industry.

This broad range of work was conducted in small groups, large multidisciplinary teams, and industry consortiums, adapting and expanding Luke’s knowledge and skills in many areas.

Luke’s passion is to develop and implement strong technical and regulatory solutions to decarbonize the Energy industry.

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Saif Al Ghafri

FEnEx CRC Foundation Fellow, The University of Western Australia

Dr Saif Al Ghafri’ s expertise lies in thermophysical properties and fluid science studies, with a record of experimental and modelling excellence, postdoctoral candidate supervision and on-time delivery of large scale industrial projects.

Saif has worked on multiple research projects funded by global industry partners such as Shell Development Australia, Chevron Energy Technology Company, the Gas Processors Associations, Schlumberger, Qatar Petroleum, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Samsung Heavy Industry.

His current research activities include hydrogen economy and liquid hydrogen, Boil-Off-Gas studies for LNG and LH2 storage and transportation, and measurement and modelling of fluid and thermophysical properties of mixtures relevant to oil and gas production, liquefied natural gas (LNG) processing, carbon dioxide sequestration, space industry, enhanced oil recovery, new generation refrigerants, natural gas hydrates and biodiesel production.

While employed at UWA, he has maintained on-going collaborations with other top fluid science groups in the world including Imperial College London, NASA, Ruhr-University Bochum and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, USA). He is an Honorary Research Fellow at Imperial College London and he has worked as a Process Engineer in Petroleum Development Oman and as a Research Associate at Imperial College London. He also leads a research group focused on “Propellant and Cryogenic Fluids” in the recently established UWA International Space Centre.

He has been awarded a few prestigious awards including The Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference (ADIPEC) Award for the best PhD dissertation of the year, Dudley Newitt Prize for Experimental Excellence due to exceptional merit demonstrated by experimental excellence, and Qatar Petroleum Medal for Research Excellence in Clean Fossil Fuels due to outstanding achievements in CFF research. Saif has a PhD and MSC from Imperial College London, and BEng (Hons) from Nottingham University.

Bruce Norris

FEnEx CRC Strategic Research Fellow, The University of Western Australia

Bruce is a Research Fellow with the Department of Chemical Engineering at UWA. His research focuses on quantifying fugitive methane emissions associated with LNG production, and managing the risks associated with gas hydrates in subsea energy developments. The goal throughout this research is to assist industry in optimising their operational and design philosophies with a view of lowering cost, improving safety, and reducing the carbon intensity of energy production.