Energy Engineering | Research

Research Projects

  • Thermal photo voltaic generation
  • Hydrogen from supercritical gasification of wet biomass
  • Process design for a hydrogen refuelling station
  • Making hydrogen available via the natural gas grid
  • Developing a solid oxide fuel cell for operation at 600°C
  • Modification of combustion by the addition of hydrogen
  • Emission Control from stationary engines
  • Epoxidation catalysis
  • LIFEcar
  • Energy Use in Transport
  • Solar Concentrators

Thermal photo voltaic generation of stand by electricity in a domestic gas boiler (Professor Ashok Bhattacharya)

The project aimed to generate enough electricity from the wasted heat in a domestic gas boiler to maintain operation of the pumps and sensors of the central heating system. This involved the development of a new design for the burner (British Gas), development of material of construction of the burner which could sustain high thermal gradient and also have good high temperature creep resistant property (Morgan Materials).

The role of the group was threefold. First, was to develop quantum emitters with emission closely matching the band gaps of commercial photo cells. This required considerable amount of fundamental solid state physics/chemistry research. Second, develop coating technologies to produce coatings on burners that did not degrade with repeated thermal and mechanical cycling and third to develop an undercoat that prevented parasitic quenching of emission as a result of thermally stimulated solid state diffusion from the burner material.

Hydrogen from supercritical gasification of wet biomass (EU funded SUPERHYDROGEN - Professor Ashok Bhattacharya)

Lab scale pilot plant Supercritical gasification of wet biomass gives a producer gas with up to 50% hydrogen, much higher than is achieved in conventional gasification. Supercritical operation requires very high pressures and temperatures. The project aimed to develop and demonstrate at a pilot plant scale a system for the production of 99% pure hydrogen. This involved the development of a supercritical gasifiers by BTG. The role of our group was to design a gas upgrading process to deliver 99% pure hydrogen while conserving energy and the inherent advantages of the process. This was achieved by developing a lab scale pilot plant operating at 300 bar and 600°C built around a high pressure catalytic membrane reforming/shift reactor, which processed the producer gas from the gasifiers and simultaneously separated pure hydrogen by means of a novel thin palladium membrane, itself developed by us within the project.

Process design for a hydrogen refuelling station based on natural gas from the distribution grid. (EU funded HYDROFUELLER - Professor Ashok Bhattacharya)

Intensified plated reactor This group originated and coordinated the project, aimed at overcoming some of the potential barriers to the introduction of hydrogen for automotive transport. Smaller scale distributed production of hydrogen (as is required for refuelling stations) demands new process technologies to overcome the economic penalties associated with smaller scale production. The project was built around the concept of an intensified plated reactor that coupled the steam reforming and partial oxidation of natural gas in an energy efficient manner. By doing this, the reactor footprint could be reduced to less than 1 square metre.

Making hydrogen available via the natural gas grid (EU funded NATURALHY - Professor Ashok Bhattacharya)

This project aims to catalyse the exploitation of hydrogen in Europe by overcoming the barrier presented by the lack of a hydrogen infrastructure. It does this by exploring the possibility of distributing hydrogen as an admixture with natural gas in the grid.

The group leads the end use work package. This work package is involved with studying the performance of hydrogen enriched natural gas in combustion systems, effect of such gases on control and monitoring systems. It is also involved with the development of efficient, cost-effective and small scale hydrogen separation systems for use in fuel cells and also the maintenance of gas quality around the grid after the removal of hydrogen.

Developing a solid oxide fuel cell for operation at 600°C (EU funded, SOFC 600 - Professor Ashok Bhattacharya)

To be competitive, the cost of SOFCs must be reduced dramatically and their reliability/lifetime improved. There is reason to believe that this could be achieved in an SOFC that operates efficiently at 600°C rather than the conventional 800-1000°C. The project addresses all aspects of manufacturing such a fuel cell and involves numerous partners.

Natural gas is the obvious feedstock. Our activity is to develop nano crystalline catalytic systems that have sufficient reforming activity at 500°C, that resist deactivation by minor components present in natural gas, resist carbon deposition and that can be integrated with the anode. The anode in addition to its catalytic activity should be able to perform its electro-chemical activity and be porous enough for the steam to escape. This process will take advantage of the heat and steam generated under fuel cell operating conditions.

Modification of combustion by the addition of hydrogen (Professor Ashok Bhattacharya)

  1. Application to automotive lean burn technologies (EPSRC and Industry funded).

    A cooperative project with BMW, Johnson Matthey and Brimingham University. The project demonstrated that pump losses can be reduced and consequently fuel efficiency can be improved by exhaust gas recycling, however, this leads to instabilities of the engine, which can be avoided by the introduction of hydrogen. The engine testing was done at Birmingham University.

    The role of our group was to design and develop a catalytic system capable of reforming fuel with CO2 and steam (exhaust gas). This system had very high specifications. It had to operate under very high space velocity, had to perform in a very limited space (reactor size = ½ litre), be integrated with catalytic converter for high energy efficiency and also resist deactivation by transient oxygen exposure. The group also demonstrated that the introduction of hydrogen also reduces emissions.
  2. Application to combustion in a gas turbine (with Rolls Royce)

    The project demonstrated that introduction of hydrogen reduced the temperature and hence the NOx emissions. Having demonstrated the reduction of NOx by introduction of hydrogen on an actual jet engine, the group went on to design an on board catalytic reforming system capable of introducing the right amount of hydrogen into the combustion chamber. It also showed that this could lead to simplification of the current three stage combustion system to a single stage, thus, reducing complexity and manufacturing cost.

Emission Control from stationary engines (funded by EPSRC and British Gas - Professor Ashok Bhattacharya)

The group designed and developed a Base metal catalytic system for the control of emissions from internal combustion engines. A process for coating ceramic monoliths with this catalyst was developed and these coated monoliths were coupled with stationary natural gas engines and their efficiencies and lifetime over prolonged and continuous operation were tested. It was found that their performance was similar to that of commercially available Precious metal catalysts.

Epoxidation catalysis (funded by SHELL - Professor Ashok Bhattacharya)

Catalytic epoxidation of ethylene on novel catalysts were carried out with the aim of identifying new catalytic system with improved selectivities.

LIFEcar (Dr. Malcolm McCulloch, Dr Marcus Leong)

Part-funded by the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI), LIFECar marks a step change in vehicle power technology, producing a combination of performance, range and fuel economy that will be essential to the motoring world of the future. LIFECar will be based on the Morgan Aero Eight, and is powered by a QinetiQ-made fuel cell. Regenerative braking and surplus energy charge ultra-capacitors,and their energy is discharged when the car is accelerating. This architecture will allow the car to have a much smaller fuel cell than is conventionally regarded as necessary. We have a number of other hybrid build projects including small cars, delivery vans, and taxis.

Energy Use in Transport (Dr. Malcolm McCulloch, Mr. Colin Axon)

We have just embarked on a programme of energy use in the transport sector jointly David Banister in the Transport Studies Unit. We will be studying different options and creating implementable solutions combining technology, life-cycle assessment, economics, and policy.

Solar Concentrators (Dr. Malcolm McCulloch)

Our aim is to produce an efficient device which is cheap to manufacture and easy to integrate into a wide variety of buildings (domestic and commercial). Solar concentrators are attractive because they can produce a higher yield of energy at a lower cost for both solar-thermal and solar-photovoltaic applications. All current designs have significant drawbacks, but we believe that we have an entirely new method for determining and designing solar concentrators optimised for any latitude or common weather conditions.

Last modified 26 February 2008 by WEBNOBODY.