ERDF Project:
Accelerating a
Low
Carbon
Economy
Colin Snape
Energy Technologies Research Institute
towards a sustainable future
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
Other EU
Industry
UK RC
UK
Government
Energy Technologies Research Institute
towards a sustainable future
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
Energy Technologies Research Institute
towards a sustainable future
ETRI R&D Themes
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Cleaner fossil energy
Renewable energy generation
and storage
Flexible electrical systems
Bio-fuels
Hydrogen storage
Low energy buildings
Environment and social
management
ASGARD facility: underground CO2 release
Energy Technologies Research Institute
towards a sustainable future
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
Energy Technologies Research Institute
towards a sustainable future
MEC - Aachen University MoU signing
Novel Adsorbents for CO2 Capture
2.5
CO2 uptake (mmol g-1)
2
1.5
Silica-PEI
1
(ii)
Templated MF resin (iii)
Sugar-carbazole carbon (v)
0.5
UF resin carbon
(iv)
0
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Temperature oC
 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.
Energy Technologies Research Institute
towards a sustainable future
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.
Energy Technologies Research Institute
towards a sustainable future
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
Energy Technologies Research Institute
towards a sustainable future
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”
Energy Technologies Research Institute
towards a sustainable future
Bioenergy: Lignocellulosic
Conversion To Ethanol
• Aim: Sustainable conversion of waste lignocellulosic
biomass into ethanol
Farm Adapt (Nottingham)
• Collaborations:
Life Cycle Analysis (Bath, Nottingham)
Digestion
Screen
Chemical/Physical
Disruption
Fungal
Enzyme
Discovery
Novel Yeast
Strains
Fermentation
Social and Ethical Dimensions Nottingham)
– 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.
Energy Technologies Research Institute
towards a sustainable future
Nanoporous Hydrogen
Storage Materials
Schroder, 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.
MOF cage architecture
(Schroder, Chem)
H2 sorption sites
(Walker, Eng.)
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).
Energy Technologies Research Institute
towards a sustainable future
Nanoporous carbons
(Walker, Eng; Mokaya, Chem)
Ventilation/Air Quality
• 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
• 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
Energy Technologies Research Institute
towards a sustainable future
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
Energy Technologies Research Institute
towards a sustainable future
Dedicated Buildings
(> £20M investment)
Energy Technologies Building
•
•
•
•
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
Energy Technologies Research Institute
towards a sustainable future
Design for Energy Technologies Building
(completion summer 2011)
Dedicated Buildings
Bioenergy Centre
• 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
Energy Technologies Research Institute
towards a sustainable future
Bioenergy Centre,Sutton Bonington
Completion 2011
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
Energy Technologies Research Institute
towards a sustainable future
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
Energy Technologies Research Institute
towards a sustainable future
Workpackage A: Outreach
• Information and
networking events
• Annual conference
• Topic workshops
• Demonstration
• Coordinating with others’
events
• Referrals
Light pipe in university’s Eco House
Energy Technologies Research Institute
towards a sustainable future
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
Energy Technologies Research Institute
towards a sustainable future
C: Enhancing energy RD&D capacity
• New RD&D facilities, e.g. supercapacitor and bio-refining
• UoN and business use
• Graduate placements (KTP,
dissertations, sponsored PhDs,
vacation)
• Graduate Placement Fund (salary
and travel)
• 5 new PhDs
Energy Technologies Research Institute
towards a sustainable future
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
Energy Technologies Research Institute
towards a sustainable future
Timescales
months from April 2010:
1-4: appointments
4+ : smart grid RD&D
6 : Launch event
7+ : events, placements
8-21: energy building (Jan, 2012)
24+: energy community expansion
MOF polymer for world-record H storage
Energy Technologies Research Institute
towards a sustainable future
Contact
Melanie Watts
Project Manager
ALCE@nottingham.ac.uk
Energy Technologies Research Institute
towards a sustainable future