News & events

Special Journal Issue reports on UK-India collaboration

Members of the Sustainable Environment Research Group have contributed 6 articles to a Special Journal Issue reporting on more than 3 years of collaborative research between UK and Indian universities. Entitled Water Management & Biomass Production for Rural Energy Systems, the Special Issue covers topics including Rain Fed and Wastewater Irrigation, Treatment and Use of Brackish Water, and Biomass Energy Conversion. Further contributors include IIT Delhi, GP Pant University, Haryana Agricultural University, Rajasthan Agricultural University and the universities of Bristol, Coventry Leeds, and Warwick. Published in the Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research, the Special Issue is freely available to download at link. (August 2011).

Solar-powered fans cool tomato crop in Australian desert

Biomass should be hybridised with solar

Presenting at the World Renewable Energy Congress (WREC XI) at the Armed Forces Officers Club Hotel in Abu Dhabi, Jonathan Nixon proposed a hybrid solar-biomass power plant for use in India. Compared to biomass, solar energy uses much less land but is more expensive. According to Nixon, who is in the second year of PhD studies with the Sustainable Environment Research Group, ‘an appropriate trade-off between the land usage and cost was found to result in 31% of biomass, or 27% of land saved at an additional cost to the thermal energy generated of 1.07 p/kWh. For a country such as India where solar energy is abundant and reliable supply of biomass can be a problem, hybridization of solar and biomass is very suitable for efficient decentralised bio-energy systems’. (September 2010)

British Science Festival

George Lichnos and Leigh Purnell have demonstrated how solar energy and seawater can be used to provide cool air in hot regions of the world. The two Aston students designed and presented a hands-on exhibition at the British Science Festival in Birmingham. They raised awareness of the threat to food production posed by global warming, and showed a solution using little more than seawater concentrated with the help of powerful light bulbs equivalent to sunlight. The exhibition resulted from the research that Lichnos has successfully completed for his PhD thesis. It suggests an environmentally-friendly way of providing air conditioning on a scale large enough to cool large greenhouses where crops can be grown despite the high outside temperatures. (September 2010).

Solar-powered desalination could be improved 200 times

Speaking at Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford, Tianyu Qiu explained why it is theoretically possible to improve the technology of solar-powered desalination to give 40-200 times as much water. During her first year of research for a PhD with the Sustainable Environment Research Group, Qiu has looked carefully at solar-powered desalination units installed over the last 10 years to see where improvements are possible. She presented her conclusions to a group of international experts gathered for the 3rd Oxford Water and Membranes Research Event. 'Desalination is needed to provide fresh water in places where only salty water is available,' said Qiu, 'and solar energy is the only source that is sufficiently abundant to power the desalination machines of the future. The potential to increase the energy efficiency of desalination is very large, especially where it is used to treat brackish groundwater drawn from wells'. (September 2010).

Dissemination Seminar identifies key challenges

Philip Davies of the Sustainble Environment Research Group helped organise a seminar at the India Institute of Technology in Delhi on the topics of bio-energy, wastewater re-use and groundwater salinity. The seminar attracted Indian researchers as well as representatives from NGOs, government agencies and industry. Seven researchers travelled from the UK, representing three British universities. At the end of the 3-day meeting, a brainstorming session was held to identify key challenges. The delegates agreed that for new water and energy and technologies to succeed, reliability in the field remains paramount especially for rural areas of India. The proceedings of the seminar will be published next year in the open access publication 'Journal or Scientific and Industrial Research'. (September 2010).

Eastern delicacies cooked using engine waste heat

Aston students Preeya Mistry and Adam Thompson cooked lunch for 10 people using the heat of the exhaust gas from an internal combustion engine.

The finalists of Mechanical Engineering, both of whom are undertaking research projects with the Sustainable Environment Research Group, designed and installed bespoke cooking appliances before serving up samosas, dhoklas, idli and sambar to guests from UK and Indian universities.

The culinary challenge required the students to devise from scratch ways of steaming, boiling and frying.  Their designs were fabricated by local metalworkers duRose Ltd.

The lunch provided an important demonstration of cogeneration, whereby an engine can provide not only electricity for lighting and computers, but also heat for cooking and processing of food. This kind of technology can help Indian villagers who do not benefit from reliable mains electricity to save fuel while generating their own. Moreover, the engine, instead of burning standard diesel fuel, was modifed to burn oil from Jatropha, a hardy shrub well adapted to growing on barren soils.

‘This illustrates one of the many uses of the heat which is a by-product from electricity generation’, commented Professor Pradeep Sen of the Indian Institute of Technology, ‘provided we can avoid any problems with exhaust leaking out, these cooking appliances have great potential in India.’ (December 2009).

Technology Strategy Board supports Low Carbon Vehicle research

Brian Price of the Sustainable Environment Research Group has received a £100,000 grant from the Technology Strategy Board to analyse the use of Low Carbon Vehicles as part of a major collaborative project to be jointly carried out by vehicle manufacturers, energy companies and regional government in the Birmingham and Coventry areas. A major barrier to the introduction of low carbon vehicles is extending the potential range of operation, which can be done either through improved vehicle energy storage or greater coverage by a recharging / refuelling network.

The Low Carbon Vehicle research will analyse data gathered from 110 electric and hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles over a 24 month period to establish real-world usage patterns. In the first major study of its kind, the TSB trial will evaluate both vehicle and network systems together, as part of a complete transport system optimization.

Data loggers fitted to the vehicles will track typical journeys and the efficiency of the vehicle operation, to provide information that will assist manufacturers in configuring the most energy efficient architectures for new cars. The study will also install about 230 charging points across the region to provide a network of recharging sites for the vehicles in the trial. Usage of these charging points will be analysed to determine optimal public infrastructure location mapping for future networks to ensure extended range operation for electric vehicles. This will allow the Aston team to make recommendations that provide the best overall configuration low carbon vehicles and the energy network to support their operation.

Partners in the trial include academic institutions Coventry University and Birmingham University; vehicle manufacturers Smart, TATA, Mitsubishi, LTi and Land-Rover; energy provider E-on; Birmingham and Coventry City Councils; and data recording by RDM Automotive. (July 2009). Read more>>

Unclogging the future of wastewater treatment

Science Bridge Project Awarded