Perth’s Resources Technology Showcase 2019 Public Exhibition: University of Western Australia shows off levitation and burning snowballs

It may sound like something from a Harry Potter novel, but the levitation and burning snowballs you’ll see at the Resources Technology Showcase exhibition next week have a crucial role to play in offshore oil and gas production.

The University of Western Australia will unite the three scientific marvels at the showcase to demonstrate the unique phenomena that occurs in long subsea tiebacks — the connection point between offshore fields and onshore production facilities.

UWA spokeswoman LeeAnn Foster said the technology in this space was key to the economic viability required to unlock new assets and fields.

Members of the public will be able to take part in an acoustic levitation demonstration, where they will be able to manipulate high-intensity sound waves to suspend objects “mid-air”.

RTS2019: Everything to see and do at the free Resources Technology Showcase exhibition

Ms Foster said acoustic levitation allowed researchers to replicate the unique conditions experienced in subsea tiebacks by studying liquids or solids that were suspended through a high-intensity acoustic wave.

“This allows us to study how droplets behave in high-pressure gas pipelines,” she said.

Ms Foster said the free two-day showcase exhibition was a great opportunity to interact with UWA research scholars and experience cutting-edge subsea energy and sustainable LNG technology.

Other demonstrations at the UWA display will include showing how thermoelectric elements can use a temperature gradient to produce a small voltage in a safe manner — the same principle used in reverse to heat deep-water pipelines to prevent fouling.

And a burning ice demonstration will illustrate how molecular cages of water can trap natural gas species, another common fouling mechanism in pipelines.

The UWA technology was used in Woodside’s Greater Enfield Project and the 31km subsea tieback to the Ngujima-Yin floating production storage and offloading facility located over the Vincent field, 50km off Exmouth.

The free Resources Technology Showcase exhibition displays will be open to the public between 9am-6pm on November 27-28 at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Visit rtsperth.com for more details or go to the exhibition’s Facebook events page.