Our ambition is to couple electrocatalysis, plasma catalysis and fluidic oscillation to create a highly efficient energy conversion device and a paradigm shift in the ability to store renewable energy in chemical form. The reduction in carbon emissions required for a sustainable future, and the resultant necessary decarbonisation of energy generation, inevitably lead to an increased focus on renewable energy sources. The natural intermittency of renewable electricity, such as wind and solar, mean that other technologies, such as energy storage, must play an increasingly fundamental role by smoothing the natural fluctuations in electricity production. Reversible Solid Oxide Cells (SOCs) are widely seen as a leading technology for future clean power generation, chemicals production and energy storage. Renewable electricity can be utilised directly in electrolysis mode to reduce CO2 and/or H2O which can then be further reacted to produce a myriad of hydrocarbon related products. In times of low or no renewable electricity generation, the SOC can be run in reverse, in fuel cell mode, to produce electricity. There are currently no subsidy-free, commercially viable SOC companies anywhere in the world. Whilst single SOCs are easy to operate on a small scale in the laboratory, larger systems have found it difficult to compete with alternative energy technologies on cost, performance and durability. In particular, it is necessary to develop methods for lifetime extension of SOCs, minimisation of losses such as concentration polarisation, and faster chemical activation of CO2, using energy inputs close to the thermodynamic minimum. Non-thermal plasma catalysis has shown great potential for CO2 reduction in its own right due to the promotion of strongly endothermic reactions with low activation energy, so that little or no excess energy is required from the plasma for activation and thermodynamic efficiencies are high. The challenges are to dynamically control the reaction and to achieve high conversion. Fluidic oscillation can disrupt boundary layer formation and therefore minimise, or remove completely, concentration polarisation. Fluidic oscillation has never before been coupled to an SOC. We propose a novel, hybrid, plasma and fluidic assisted electrolysis system, in which the plasma is used to radically improve the kinetics and energy efficiency of CO2 dissociation. The system would be designed to reduce concentration polarisation, a cause of lowered mass transfer, at the electrode through fluidic oscillation to disrupt the gas boundary layer and by use of the ionic wind formed in plasmas (the gas flow generated by movement of ions in the plasma). Ultimately the aim is to create a completely new design of chemical reactor for strongly endothermic reactions. A significant reduction in overall energy use and cell failure rate will be achieved as a result of this feasibility research.

The vision of this Fellowship is to establish an unprecedented new bioengineering platform for synthetic biology - the SimCell (Simple and Simulated Cell) that performs advanced bioengineering functions in an easy-to-use, safe-to-handle, and reliable-to-build manner. The aim of this fellowship is to develop SimCells as programmable 'bio-robots' and establish the foundation for standardised engineering applications of SimCells. SimCells have the potential to open up a new frontier, enabling the development of new and smart materials for bioprocessing and manufacturing, bioenergy, healthcare, agriculture and environmental monitoring and protection. Unlike a living cell, a SimCell is a chromosome-free and simplified cellular bio-robot; its 'hardware' is the optimised 'shell' of a cell which enables specific cellular properties; and its 'software' is a piece of DNA which delivers the defined functions. The optimised shell and simple DNA in SimCells enables them faithfully delivering most of their energy and resources to a specific function without interference of unwanted pathways and networks in a natural cell. A SimCell is a non-dividing, biochemically active, designable and simplified agent, which can be continuously produced by engineered parent cells, but which cannot reproduce itself, making it more acceptable to public opinion than living genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The Fellowship is truly revolutionary, transforming current synthetic biology based on living cells or cell-free system by providing an intermediate building block between them and taking advantages of both. It directly addresses three of five great challenges of synthetic biology by establishing novel SimCells as predictable, simple, safe and programmable bio-robots. The application of SimCells would lead to address one of challenges in 'the third industrial revolution' - bioenergy. To demonstrate SimCells as miniature factories with high energy transfer efficiency, a bio-transformation system will be designed to produce biofuels (such as ethanol and alkanes) from H2O and CO2, mediated by SimCells and powered by electrons and sunlight. This will be built on the established synthetic pathways developed by WH's previous research and patents. The outcomes of this Fellowship will set a bioenergy benchmark to which other long-term projects will aspire, and will also create the infrastructure for a wide range of applications.

One class of electrochemical reaction are reactions in the plasma state. The PI and his team have been pioneering plasma microreactors that feed directly into microbubbles for the last decade. With the output of the plasma reactor entering the microbubble directly, the maximum activation is retained in the bubble, which then mediates the formation of active species on the microbubble interface. Recently, this approach has been used to catalyse the esterification reaction of free fatty acids to form esters (particularly biodiesel). More than the effectiveness of the plasma activated microbubble reaction, microbubble processing is not limited by surface area of "electrode" in quite the same way. The grand aim of this proposal is to create heterogeneous catalysis capability by tuning the plasma activated species on the gas-liquid interface of microbubbles. Conventional electrochemistry has severe issues around upscaling. Plasma microreactors, particularly those that feed into liquid media as injected microbubbles, are a class of electrochemical reactors that can potentially upscale readily. Microbubbles can have hectares of gas-liquid interface per cubic metre of liquid reactant volume, so if the (plasma)electrochemical reaction can be catalysed on the gas-liquid interface, high throughput reaction rates can be achieved in large volume, continuous flow reactors. Already achieved in pilot plant studies of anaerobic digestion is a bubble surface area flux of 0.15 hectares/sec! If even a fraction of this surface area flux is effective at mediating plasma chemical transformations, the rate of transformation processes should far exceed conventional heterogeneous reactions. This project aims to optimise how the formation of plasma-activated species is coupled to the transient operation of the plasma electronics that create the excited species that eventually react at microbubble gas-liquid interfaces. Preliminary studies show that the composition of an excited air plasma, for instance, can dramatically change with the contacting time in the reactor and the electric field applied. They also suggest that how that electric field is applied in space and time dramatically affects the chemical composition of the plasma, and consequently what chemical reactions dominate the microbubble mediated gas-liquid chemistry. The purpose of this proposal is to characterise this coupling between the time-varying plasma electronics output, as implemented with tuneable electrical engineering design, and the induced chemistry of the plasma and microbubble mediated reaction. The characterisation will be captured in computer models that permit inversion; from the desired chemical outputs, the optimum plasma electronics design, control and operating mode ("the waveform") will be predicted. In the UK plasma chemistry research is vibrant but the work is mainly centred on nuclear science, capactively coupled plasmas with applications to surface treatment (i.e. EP/K018388/1) and medical applications. Globally, several research groups are investigating tailored waveform plasmas more generally but not with specific application to chemical generation on an industrial scale. The proposed closed-loop control of tailored waveform plasma microbubble reactors offers new possibilities to increase efficiency, throughput and scale-up. This, therefore, complements the contributions from these research groups (both national and international) and so will stimulate new research and commercial opportunities. By bringing together experts from the interface of chemical engineering, electrical engineering and mathematics who, together with some eight project partners providing £160k of support, can drive a blue-skies approach to targeted waveform control of plasma reactions (using novel chemical modelling and waveform generator design) while blazing a trail for industrial adaptation to a game-changing approach to chemical production.

Despite improved recycling infrastructure and public awareness, the UK still sends a staggering 17 million tonnes of municipal solid waste into landfill every year. This leads to the build up of leachate, the liquid which drains from a landfill site. Leachate contains trace chemicals, which can have strong contaminating effects on the environment, and therefore effective treatment methods are required. More to the point, however, ambitions for waste management should go beyond protection of human health and the environment, with conservation of energy and recovery of natural resources high on the agenda. This translational project aims to demonstrate an integrated process for leachate treat went and resource recovery. It involves three innovations: a novel physical pre-treatment, enhanced treatment with adaptively evolved microbial consortia and resource recovery through efficient biomass harvesting, and hence, contributing to the UK circular economy. The outcomes cut across several NERC research priority themes e.g. 'sustainable use of natural resources' and 'environment, pollution and human health.' Leachate can vary considerably in composition, depending on the age and type of waste within the landfill, containing both dissolved and suspended organic and inorganic material. Viridor Waste Management Ltd is the third largest waste management organisation in the UK, owning over 40 sites. Approximately half the sites use foul sewers to carry contaminated wastewater to a sewage works for treatment, the rest is either transported using tankers or released to surface waters. The total annual leachate production is 1,056,716 m3 and the operational costs vary between £4-£10 per m3 (e.g. disposal costs, energy or chemicals used). The previous work includes isolation of natural microbial consortia from leachate, novel harvesting method development and estimation of potential resources recovered. The main translational activities in this project are to design and build a pilot scale photobioreactor that is fitted with all the innovations from previous NERC and non-NERC funded research. This will be installed by Varicon Solutions, TUOS Research Technician and staff at Viridor at a local landfill site (Erin). Pre-processed leachate will be fed into the photobioreactor and growth and operating parameters carefully monitored. The data will be used in a techno economic assessment for Viridor but also other end-users. An easy-to-use Resource Recovery calculator will also be created. The process will be filmed in time-lapse and used to make a video for marketing, knowledge exchange and educational purposes. Both the video and photobioreactor system will be demonstrated at a relevant Trade Show in late 2017/early 2018. The ultimate aim is to demonstrate the progress of the NERC funded research up technology readiness levels with industrial, societal and environmental impact, together with economic benefits for the project partner and wider waste management community.