Following the South Australian Government’s proposal to remove the 10-year moratorium on fracking in the state’s south-east, a Monash expert is available to discuss emerging alternatives to conventional hydraulic fracturing, future gas supply challenges, and the development of low water, lower impact rock-breaking technologies for gas and critical mineral extraction.
Professor Ranjith Pathegama Gamage, Director of Deep Earth Energy Research Lab, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Contact: +61 3 9903 4840 or [email protected]
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Expertise spans sustainable resource extraction and clean energy solutions, including natural hydrogen, geothermal energy, and critical mineral recovery.
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Specialises in eco-friendly innovations like waterless rock-breaking, carbon capture and storage, large-scale underground hydrogen storage, well decommissioning, and repurposing mining waste into sustainable construction materials.
Comments attributable to Professor Ranjith:
“Australia cannot solve tomorrow’s gas challenges with yesterday’s technology. Conventional fracking uses enormous volumes of water while recovering only a fraction of the resource underground.
“The debate in South Australia is stuck in the wrong decade. The question is not whether to frack, it is whether we keep using a technology from the 1940s when much better alternatives already exist.
“Governments should be investing in next-generation methods, not just relitigating permits for old ones. New fracturing technologies can deliver gas and critical minerals with a fraction of the environmental footprint.
“Community concerns about contamination are understandable. Our world-first, non-explosive rock-breaking technology reaches the resource more efficiently than conventional methods, and without water injection.”
About the Monash Deep Earth Energy Lab
Monash’s Deep Earth Energy Lab is the first of its kind with advanced facilities enabling unprecedented research on coal-seam gas, shale gas, oil, and deep geothermal recovery testing under complex and extreme geological conditions. Through the lab, Monash has drawn international attention as a powerhouse for large-scale testing applied to deep-earth explorations. The Monash-developed technology represents a significant advancement in the field, offering a method to reduce the energy consumption and environmental impact of traditional mining practices.
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For any other topics on which you may be seeking expert comment, contact the Monash University Media Unit on +61 3 9903 4840 or [email protected]
