Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The distance between unconventional natural gas reserves and markets creates major challenges for transporting the gas to consumption centers economically and safely. Natural gas continues to gain great importance in supplying energy to the industrialized world. A large portion of natural gas resources in the world are considered to be stranded. It is proposed that research be conducted towards the development of novel, advanced, and efficient technologies to exploit natural gas from offshore/remote areas. The technologies should be capable of processing and preparing natural gas to be transported either in a liquid form using conventional and less costly means of transportation or other transportation methods in a gaseous form but in a very cost effective manner. The compactness of process equipment is of crucial significance in design of offshore and floating facilities as the footprint area is at a premium. The main objective of this research program is to develop advanced technologies for natural gas production and processing especially for deep water, subsea, and ship-based systems. It is proposed that the process equipment must allow efficient removal of impurities in natural gas under maritime and preferably subsea conditions and provide a low cost and compact means for efficient production and processing from remote locations. The ultimate objective in the long term will be to create a development program for optimal exploitation and utilization of unconventional natural gas reserves. The technology and know how developed in this program can be exported to the world's rich gas regions long after the gas reserves in Canada's offshore are depleted.The research is important to oil and gas companies and governments who seek to benefit from deep water, offshore oil and gas deposits in a safe and efficient manner.