The maritime and logistics industries underpin global trade. Today, more than 90% of Australian trade is carried by sea and over 85% of Australians live within 50km of the coast. International shipping is essential to Australia’s socio-economic development and even more so to the Tasmanian economy that is reliant on our ports, transport and logistics to ensure trade flows interstate and globally.
The businesses embedded within the maritime and logistics industries in Australia and internationally face significant challenges as they work toward meeting the target of net zero emissions by 2050 and securing renewable energies to become sustainable and environmentally friendly. Our research in this area addresses the engineering, logistical and people-focused challenges of developing renewable energies and sustainable approaches for the operation of maritime vehicles and offshore/coastal installations in environments ranging from protected in-land waterways, to the often extreme seas across our region and to the depths of the world’s oceans.
In collaboration with industry and Government, we are developing adaptation strategies for maritime transport to reduce the impact on climate change and determining pathways and supply chains for the adoption of renewable energies.
As the quest for renewable energies looks beyond the shoreline, our research is also designing and testing new devices for extracting renewal energy from tidal and wave energy, trialling the use of hydrogen as a potential vessel energy source, optimising power management of electric ships, quantifying the safety and risk associated with marine and offshore operations and the new control systems required for the required marine vessels and installations, and assessing the impact of marine operations on the surrounding environment.
As the country with the third largest Exclusive Economic Zone, Australia has a great interest in a decarbonised future due to its positive impact on the marine environment. Through our close partnership with the Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre we are focused on the development of Australia’s economy through the delivery of world-class, industry-focused research into integrated seafood and marine renewable energy production systems.
This is achieved by the development of incremental “proof of concept” projects across a range of disciplines, including science, engineering, social science and humanities, that strategically progresses our knowledge and understanding and builds on our strengths in offshore and marine engineering, marine renewable energies and aquaculture infrastructure evaluation and design.
There are several crucial areas related to the design, operation and survivability of sustainable renewable energy offshore installations that need research and development. These include: structural loads under normal and extreme operating conditions; material selection where corrosion, fatigue and biofouling may be present; the construction, launch, trawling and moorings associated with the platform installation; self-efficiency such as renewable energy and off-the-grid electricity generation; autonomous technologies for monitoring and maintenance; platform station keeping; maritime vessel operations; logistics and supply chain management including for the development of an Australian offshore wind industry, and safety, risk and reliability. AMC’s suite of specialist hydrodynamic facilities such as the towing tank, model test basin and ship simulator, and other capabilities in numerical modelling, are heavily utilised to undertake this research.
As part of the Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre we work closely with a large number and wide range of Australian and international companies and organisations such as CSIRO, ocean engineering consultancies, aquaculture companies, marine renewable energy developers and Government regulatory authorities to solve the challenges of offshore food and energy production.