As part of the Australian government’s commit- ment to enhance the country’s energy security, it has collaborated on the establishment of the A$5-million Synfuel and Catalysis Research Facility (SynCat).

SynCat, which is Australia’s first fully automated synthetic fuels (synfuels) facility, is a public–private partnership (PPP) between the Australian government and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (Csiro), and is housed at the Australian Resources Research Centre, in Western Australia.

“We have a growing trade deficit in crude oil and refined products. Simultaneously, we are seeking new ways to reduce our greenhouse-gas emissions,” Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson said at the launch of the facility in September.

He added that synfuels and research into new gas-to-liquids technologies have the potential to lessen the country’s dependence on fuel imports and provide a cleaner burning transport fuel alternative.

“Testing and research at this facility could help us maximise the potential from our abundant gas resources, including the conversion of both onshore and offshore resources that were previously considered uneconomical,” he stated.

The SynCat facility is part of Csiro’s Gas Processing and Conversion research programme, which is investigating ways to produce synfuels from nonoil or nonconventional feedstocks.

It will produce synfuels from a range of feedstocks including natural gas, coal, hydrogen and biomass. The 24-hour-a-day facility is able to perform long-term testing of chemical processing conditions of natural gas and a range of other feedstocks.

The facility’s automated test rigs are able to run continuously and unmanned for 24 hours a day for months at a time and at temperatures of up to 450 °C, with pressures of up to 50 bar and catalyst volumes of up to 5 g on test rig one and 40 g on other rigs.

The facility has two fixed-bed reactor rigs, one with a 1.5 ℓ/min gas input capacity and the other with a 20 ℓ/min gas input capacity. The plant also has two refiner gas analysers for thorough gas analysis of permanent gas, hydro- gen and light hydrocarbons, as well as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry equipment for hydrocarbons and oxygenates analysis.

Further, it features a wet laboratory for catalyst synthesis and sample preparation. The rigs allow for the investigation of reaction conditions, reactor design and catalyst design.

Meanwhile, Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Minister senator Kim Carr said that the research done at the new facility would result in economic benefits for industry.

He noted that the benefits included making new products more commercially viable by reducing investment costs.

He believes that SynCat is a good example of government working with industry to turn research into tangible outcomes. “PPPs such as this one are vital and such partnerships are one of the drivers of the Australian government’s broader agenda to raise productivity.”

The Australian government has provided Csiro with A$3-billion over four years in its 2011/12 Budget to support new research and development.

SynCat will build on existing partnerships with major industry partners and create a research environment to further develop and advance renewable-energy technologies.

The government’s action to price carbon will create greater market opportunities for lower emission fuels and the work undertaken at the facility is expected to deliver the technological solution needed to capitalise on this potential.

Csiro’s research, including the work to be undertaken at SynCat, fits with the government’s broader strategy to examine barriers to the development of synfuels and the uptake of alternative transport fuels in partnership with industry as it develops an alternative transport fuels strategy.

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