Energy Technologies Research Institute towards a sustainable future ERDF Project: Accelerating a Low Carbon Economy Colin Snape.

Energy Technologies Research Institutetowards a sustainable future

ERDF Project:

Accelerating a Low Carbon EconomyColin Snape


EU

Industry

UK Government

UK RC

Other

ALCE builds upon the University of Nottingham’s

Energy Technologies Research Institute (ETRI)• Major international centre for energy

RD&D across a range of themes• £50M current portfolio• > tripled in 3 years

University of Nottingham Innovation Park


Energy Technologies Research Institute (ETRI)

• 60 researchers as PIs or Co-Is on current grants

• 3 Faculties, over 13 disciplines

Engineering: electrical, mechanical, chemical, civil, buildings

Science: chemistry, biosciences, physics, maths, computing

Social science: geography, economics, business

David Wilson Millennium Eco-House


ETRI R&D Themes

1. Cleaner fossil energy2. Renewable energy generation

and storage 3. Flexible electrical systems4. Bio-fuels5. Hydrogen storage 6. Low energy buildings7. Environment and social

management

ASGARD facility: underground CO2 release


Midlands Energy Consortium (MEC) Partnership

• Nottingham, Birmingham, Loughborough, • Wide collaboration on energy research and teaching

• Unrivalled concentration of energy related RD&D within the UK

• Hosts Energy Technologies Institute (ETI)• Midlands Energy Graduate School (MEGS)

– training next generation of highly skilled personnel for energy industry and academia

MEC - Aachen University MoU signing


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Silica-PEI

Templated MF resin

Sugar-carbazole carbon

UF resin carbon

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Novel Adsorbents for CO2 Capture

Pre and post-combustion capture application. One of best performing materials in independent worldwide study ADA-

ES (US-DOE DE-NT0005649) Novel regeneration techniques and mechanisms published Leading large R&D activity to develop and scale-up technology

(i) Drage T.C. Blackman J.M. Pevida C. and Snape C.E. 2009. Energy & Fuels, 23, 2790–2796. (ii) Drage T.C., Arenillas A., Smith K.M. And Snape C.E. Micropor. & Mesopor. Mats. 2008, 116, 504-512. (iii) Drage T.C., Pevida C. and Snape C.E. Carbon, 2008, 46, 1464-1474. (iv) Drage T.C., Arenillas A., Smith K.M., Pevida C., Piippo S. and Snape C.E., 2007. Fuel 86, 22-31. (v) Arenillas A., Drage T.C., Smith K. and Snape C.E., 2005. J. Anal. and Appl. Pyrolysis, 74, 298-306.


Cleaner fossil energy and CO2 capture

• Programme encompasses whole spectrum of cleaner coal and CO2 capture technologies, oil, biomass conversion and pollutant control and involves 10 academics.

• EPSRC - E.ON awards covering adsorbents, oxyfuel combustion and CO2 transport (Snape and Drage, £2M).

• China links – EPSRC collaborative projects and ICUK commercialisation award on adsorbents (£1.7M)

• Maroto-Valer - £1M EPSRC Challenging Engineering Award.

• Engineering Doctoral Centre (£9M), EPSRC - over 10 industrial partners producing 60 PhDs.


Integrated Compressed Air Renewable Energy Systems

• Ultra-large direct-compression wind turbines have much lower costs per kW(e) output than conventional direct-gen. machines

• Energy can then be stored directly at very low costs (<£10K/MWh)

• Marginal energy loss of energy through storage <15%.

Garvey, S.D. ‘Structural Capacity and the 20MW Wind Turbine’. IMechE Part A: Journal of Power and Energy, Dec 2009. Accepted subject to modifications. (Preprint http://www.box.net/shared/48817911dh) Pimm, A.J. and Garvey, S.D.. ‘Analysis of Flexible Structures for Large-Scale Subsea Compressed Air Energy Storage’. 7th Int. Conf. on Modern Practice in Stress and Vibration Analysis. (IoP). Cambridge Sept 7-9 2009. http://www.iop.org/EJ/article/1742-6596/181/1/012049/jpconf9_181_012049.pdf?request-id=ef0dfb98-a730-43ae-afe3-924573568998

8 Patents filed and several other papers


Highlight: UNIFLEX

• Major EU project led by Nottingham to research a cellular electrical power flow controller

• Paradigm shift in network control– Instantaneous power control– Asynchronous networks– Flexible protection– Reconfigurable

• Prototype (built at Nottingham) will be the control hub of the 0.5 MW Smart Grid research laboratory

8 journal papers from Nottingham are included in the Issue 4 Dec 2009 Journal of EPE “Special Issue on Power Electronics for the Future Energy Networks”


Bioenergy: Lignocellulosic Conversion To Ethanol• Aim: Sustainable conversion of waste lignocellulosic

biomass into ethanol

• Collaborations: – Industrial - Bioethanol Ltd, Briggs, BP British Sugar, Coors Ltd,

DSM, HGCA, Lallemand, Pusuit Dynamics, SABMiller, SWRI– International: EBI (USA), JBEI (USA), Embrapa (Brazil), Tsinghua

(China), VTT (Finland)

Patents and Publications:T.imasalena, S. Nicholls and K.A. Smart. (2009) Patent PCT/GB2009/050928, Yeast Strain Discrimination. 9 publications since 2007 covering gene transcription, petite mutants and oxidative stresses of yeast including:(i) B.R. Gibson, C.A. Boulton, W.G. Box, N.S. Graham, S.J. Lawrence, R.S.T. Linforth and K.A. Smart. Differential yeast gene transcription during brewery propagation. J. of the American Society of Brewing Chemists, 2010, doi:10.1094 /ASBCJ-2009-1123-01; (ii) B.R. Gibson, C.A. Boulton, W.G. Box, N.S. Graham, S.J. Lawrence, R.S.T. Linforth and K.A. Smart. Amino acid uptake and yeast gene transcription during industrial brewery fermentation. J. of the American Society of Brewing Chemists, 2009, 67(3), 157-165; (iii) C.L. Jenkins, S.J. Lawrence, A.I. Kennedy, P. Thurston, J.A. Hodgson and K.A. Smart. Incidence and formation of petite mutants in lager brewing yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae (syn S. pastorianus) populations. J. of the American Society of Brewing Chemists, 2009, 67(2), 72-80.

Digestion Screen

Fermentation

Life Cycle Analysis (Bath, Nottingham)

Social and Ethical Dimensions Nottingham)

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Chemical/Physical Disruption

Fungal Enzyme

Discovery

Novel Yeast Strains


Nanoporous Hydrogen Storage MaterialsSchroder, Chem; Walker, Eng.

• Design and synthesis of MOFs and nanoporous carbons with controlled pore architecture.

• High surface areas >3000 m2g-1.• High hydrogen capacities (10 wt.% @

20 bar, 77K).• Fast kinetics and excellent cyclability.

• Neutron expts to probe H2 interactions.

• Collaborations: GM, EU, USA.• £3 M research funding.

X Lin, I Telepeni, A J Blake, et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 131 (2009) 2159.X Lin, J Jia, X Zhao, et al., Angewandte Chem. International Edition, 45 (2006) 7358. Y Xia, G S Walker, D M Grant, R Mokaya, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 131 (2009) 16493).

Nanoporous carbons(Walker, Eng; Mokaya, Chem)

MOF cage architecture (Schroder, Chem)

H2 sorption sites (Walker, Eng.)


Ventilation/Air Quality

• BIRNIE, M., GILLOTT, M. and RIFFAT.S., 2006. The immobilization of titanium dioxide on organic polymers, for a cost effective and energy efficient means of improving indoor air quality. International Journal of Green Energy, 3(1), 101-114.• PATENT: A Photocatalytic Mop Fan for Air Cleaning, PCT/GB03/003599 & Euro Patent 00969685.7

• Mop Fan Technology• A flexible mop fan for removing

particles and gases pollutants• A photocatalyst, titanium dioxide, is

immobilised on the fibres (polymers/optics)

• The mop is bathed in ultraviolet light by a UV lamp


Environment and society

• Alleviating energy poverty, CHP stove• Rural India – participation in renewable

energy approaches• India networks – addressing both

technology and societal issues.

SCORE stove generating heat and electricity


Dedicated Buildings (> £20M investment)

• Energy RD&D, labs, knowledge exchange space

• Low carbon exemplar: BREEAM Outstanding

• 2100m2 on award winning Jubilee Campus Innovation Park

• c. £10M investment:– £5M UoN– £2.8M ERDF– £1M Wolfson Design for Energy Technologies Building

(completion summer 2011)

Energy Technologies Building


Bioenergy Centre,Sutton BoningtonCompletion 2011

• Laboratory Scale Conversion Plant

• Liquid and Solid State Fermentation Suites

• Analytical Laboratories• Molecular and

Microbiology Laboratories

Housing:

BBSRC Sustainable Bioenergy Centre Programme LACE

Food and Biofuel Innovation Centre

Brewing Research Facility

Dedicated BuildingsBioenergy Centre


China• Centre for Sustainable

Energy Technologies (Ningbo Campus)

• Collaborations: – Chinese Academy of

Sciences– Tsinghua University – Southeast University – Shanghai Research

Institute for Building Science

– Sichuan University– Zhejiang University– Chongqing University … CSET building, Ningbo campus, China


ALCE: What will it do?

• Accelerate the low carbon economy in the region

• Showcase emerging low carbon technologies through unique R&D and demonstration facilities.

• Providing focused postgraduate training to improve the regional knowledge and skills base

• This will catalyze increased regional business innovation

Pellets capturing CO2 using amine polymer


Workpackage A: Outreach

• Information and networking events

• Annual conference• Topic workshops • Demonstration• Coordinating with

others’ events• Referrals

Light pipe in university’s Eco House


B: New energy building

• BREEAM Outstanding

• Energy technologies e.g.: hydrogen refuelling station, electric vehicle charging, energy storage, H fuel cell, biomass CHP, pv…

• 700 m2 Labs, 600 m2 prototyping hall, 500 m2 offices (60 staff, 60 PGRs) and 300 m2 amenities

Creative Energy Homes, University Park


C: Enhancing energy RD&D capacity

• New RD&D facilities, e.g. super-capacitor and bio-refining

• UoN and business use• Graduate placements (KTP,

dissertations, sponsored PhDs, vacation)

• Graduate Placement Fund (salary and travel)

• 5 new PhDs

Prototype supercapacitor


D: smart energy community

• Smart networks RD&D• Initially energy building +

creative energy homes• Expand after 2-3 years• Industry: test devices in

operating conditions• Government: showcase

capability First virtual energy community?

UNIFLEX Controller


Timescales

months from April 2010:1-4: appointments4+ : smart grid RD&D6 : Launch event7+ : events, placements8-21: energy building (Jan,

2012)24+: energy community

expansionMOF polymer for world-record H storage


Contact

Melanie WattsProject [email protected]

Energy Technologies Research Institute towards a sustainable future ERDF Project: Accelerating a Low Carbon Economy Colin Snape.

Documents

energy research

energy fuels

energy poverty

energy industry

machines energy

low energy buildings

renewable energy generation

investment energy rdd