Nice reply from Professor Andrew GarnettThankyou Mike Our advice...

Nice reply from Professor Andrew Garnett

Thankyou Mike


Our advice to Qld government was to keep an active watch for new technology. It is great to see new companies coming forward in this space. I have copied my colleague A/Prof. Phil Hayes on this as he manages our research in these areas. The issue, of course, isn’t only technological, but also commercial and especially market demand. No point in making ‘pure salt’ if nobody’s going to buy it! This was a key challenge for SSR. But, if there is a large-enough market demand to satisfy, and if there is an end-to-end solution (brine to products, transport to initial industrial customer, process/modify/change for end use and then ultimate disposal…) then, alternative salt solutions should be judged on a full life cycle comparative assessment basis (e.g. cost, energy penalty, emissions and so on) … not only whether a new technology can separate salts better than the old technology. I’m ‘preaching to the choir’, but I really appreciate the challenge you have (assuming you work for Parkway) in stitching all this together. I hope the pilot scale trails work, that QGC/Shell allow it to be made public and that there is a market for the products. I appreciate the need for technical trials, but I’d start by signing up a foundation industrial customer (chemicals user) for a firm annual volume and price for the industrial products and then scaling up a plant with a CSG operator. Best regards and best of luck,

Professor Andrew Garnett Director UQ Centre for Natural GasThe University of QueenslandBrisbane Qld 4072