The Australian Research Council (ARC) is funding a UQ research project investigating the mitigation of silica nano-particle scaling in water treatment. Under its continuous Linkage Projects scheme, the ARC promotes national and international collaboration and research partnerships between government, industry and research institutions.
$165,000 of funding will be directed to the project that will also be supported by Santos, Shell, Arrow Energy and APLNG, as well as The University of Queensland through the Centre for Coal Seam Gas (CCSG).
This ARC-funded project will develop new ways to improve the performance of the reverse osmosis (RO) treatment plants that are used to desalinate coal seam water produced as part of the coal seam gas extraction process. The project will focus on developing new ways to reduce silica scaling on the RO membranes that are an integral component of the treatment process.
The project aims to enable more productive use of assets, improved pre-treatment infrastructure to support RO operation and the environmental benefits of less chemical waste and higher water recovery.
Associate Professor Steven Pratt from UQ's School of Chemical Engineering will chair the project management committee. UQ collaborates with the University of New South Wales and Wastewater Futures on the ARC-Linkage project, which commenced in May.
Read more about the "Mitigation of silica nano-particle scaling in water treatment" project.
