LNG Living Lab

Putting energy R&D in the fast lane

About the project

This project supports the front-end engineering design for the development of a micro-scale LNG futures facility to be built in Western Australia. Led by The University of Western Australia, the LNG Living Lab will be a national, open-access resource — a globally unique platform to demonstrate new technologies in a live plant environment.

NERA welcomed the announcement by WA State Premier Mark McGowan to commit $10 million towards the development of the LNG Futures Facility. The funding commitment from the WA State Government through the Premier’s LNG Jobs Taskforce will help accelerate the delivery of the Facility and maximise its ability to commercialise and deliver innovation developed by Australia’s world-class LNG industry.

For innovators in the LNG space, this provides a huge opportunity to overcome the barriers that often derail or delay research projects before they're translated into real-world solutions.

Through the capitalisation and realisation of great Australian inventions, the LNG Futures Facility is estimated to offer in excess of $500 million of value to the Australian LNG industry each year.

End-to-end impact for industry

Impact

By providing a world-first platform to demonstrate new technologies in a live plant environment, this facility will enable the rapid deployment and adoption of innovative solutions by Australian LNG producers, suppliers and consumers to provide benefits across the supply and value chains.

The LNG Futures Facility will be a national, open-access resource providing direct benefits to Australian industry.

The LNG Futures Facility will create opportunities for small to medium enterprises, large scale enterprises and research institutions to further their research and development in an accessible, purpose-built and operational environment.

The facility will also allow technology innovators to bridge the gap in the technology qualifications process thereby improving the rate of technology commercialisation.

This project will have enormous benefits for Australian innovators by facilitating the capitalisation and realisation of great Australian inventions. This will benefit Australia-based resource companies and produce a technology export stream that will benefit the wider Australian economy.

These benefits combined are estimated to offer in excess of $500 million of value to the Australian LNG industry per annum through a combination of productivity, operational and new plant investment improvements.

Making room for global innovation

Project Timeframe

This project is now complete.

Project Funding

Total Project Cost: $2,210,000

NERA: $1,105,000

Industry: $1,105,000

*Funding excludes GST