Morse Engineering won funding to assist the development of its spray unit, which uses recycled water to suppress coal dust over a stockpile.

Morse project engineer Matthew Kane told ILN the mechanical side of the prototype was complete but estimated it would take another 12 months to perfect how all the units worked together in the overall system.

He said it technically should work underground but would need to be redeveloped to be made explosion proof.

The seals used in the system have been especially designed for recycled water and to not wear out easily.

ZZ Resistivity Imaging won a COMET grant to help market and develop a more advanced model of its geophysical exploration instrument, the FlashRES64 automatic resistivity data acquisition and processing system.

The device uses electrical resistance to measure subsurface geologies by the placement of electrodes on the surface or inserted into boreholes.

ZZ Resistivity Imaging director Jingping Zhe told ILN the system collected the data from surface surveys and borehole surveys easily and with great speed.

He said the system had 64 electrodes and could collect data from 61 channels (data points), while competitor machines were only capable of 10 channels.

Zhe said the instrument was targeted to the underground coal industry and a few units had already been sold into China.

The company plans to market FlashRES64 to the Australian coal industry in roughly three months.

The more advanced model the company is working on will allow a laptop to control the unit.

Another COMET grant winner, Geoteknic, has already developed and tested a new coal seam methane testing system, although the company has still not yet coined a name for the product.

Geoteknic managing director Barry Nicholson told ILN the product was a new type of testing system, introducing electronics downhole, whereas testing systems in the oil industry relied on hydraulics.

He said the system measured the permeability and skin from CSM drilling to determine how strongly a well would flow.

The product makes testing safer as it prevents any flow from the hydrocarbon formation reaching the surface.

The system can control the flow downhole. The tool is attached downhole near the end of the drill pipe and can be communicated to via a little wire unit on the surface, eliminating the need for a lot of compressors or generators.

Nicholson, who has over 25 years experience in the oil and gas industry overseas, said the system was suited for CSM drilling, which has the right temperature range for electronics at up to 100C, as opposed to oil and gas drilling, which has higher temperature conditions.

He is planning an open day to showcase the system, which he said was developed after he noticed there was a lack of fit-for-purpose equipment designed for CSM exploration.

Owen Custom Products also won COMET funding to assist with marketing its new swing pedal control system, which can be used in shipping cranes, drag lines and electric face shovels.

The system is designed to eliminate the need for complex gear drives and parts.

Federal Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Kim Carr announced the $A2.4 million COMET grants on Monday, with 38 innovations each winning $64,000 of funding.