Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

If the carbon dioxide produced when coal is burnt to make electricity can be collected in a concentrated form then it can be compressed into a dense liquid and squeezed into the pores between rock grains a kilometre or more underground. By putting the carbon dioxide (CO2 ) in places where the porous rocks are sealed by layer of non-porous rocks we can be very confident that most of it will stay there for tens of thousands of years, so it won't increase the risk of dangerous climate change. But current coal power stations don't release the CO2 in a concentrated form; it is mixed with about five times its volume of nitrogen and oxygen, from the air used to burn the coal. One way to avoid this is to burn the coal in pure oxygen instead of air. We know this can theoretically be made to work, but if pure oxygen - or really a 'synthetic air' made up of oxygen and recycled combustion products instead of nitrogen - is used to burn coal then many things would be different from using air. This project will develop the scientific understanding that power plant builders and operators need to predict and cope with these differences.To help develop a better scientific understanding of oxyfuel combustion we will undertake experiments in a 150 kW laboratory burner. This is small (1% of the size!) compared to real power plant burners, but it will use the same oxygen/flue gas mixture. Computer models will be developed to analyse how the coal burns in the laboratory scale burner. These models can then be applied to full scale burners. Using the power available from modern computer systems it is now possible to track the behaviour of all of the swirling gases and particles in a flame ands see how they move and react over very small intervals of time. It's possible - but we are still learning how to do it properly. To help us do this we are taking high speed (1000 frames per second) video recordings of our laboratory oxyfuel flames to see how they really flow and flicker and using the bright and precise beams from laser to help track how particles move and to tell us what sort of gas mixtures are present.We are also reproducing just some of the things that happen in flame in special test equipment so that we have simpler things to measure. These measurements then go into the computer models. How coal particles first catch alight and then how they char and burn are particularly important. We are also interested how the ash in the coal will behave. It can cause problems coating the walls of air-fired power plants, but after a lot of experience we know how to avoid that. Some of those lessons are probably going to have to be re-learned for oxyfuel combustion and the experts who help to sort out air combustion are now starting to do that on our project. We are also looking at how oxyfuel combustion products might attack the steels used in boilers; new materials might be needed, especially in hot or dusty locations.Finally, we need to have trained scientists and engineers to help design and build these new types of power plants. Our project will help to train a number of these, and also build up the experience in the academic community that can be used to advise industry when they come to build and operate new oxyfuel plants. We will also have developed some of the new measurement techniques that can be used to help tune the first plants to give the best possible performance.But no project can do it all. So we are working closely with other groups in the UK and overseas - the IEA Greenhouse Gas Programme coordinates an excellent network that we belong too. And as we learn more we also expect to come up with more questions that need to be answered plus some good ideas for ways to do that.

The Chinese 11th Five-Year Plan considers Sustainable Energy Supply and Sustainable Built Environment as crucial for achieving sustainable development. Recognising the potential benefits, the UK government has actively encouraged international collaborations with China. Two Engineering Schools at Queen's University Belfast (QUB), with internationally recognised research excellence in the Built Environment and in Electric Power & Control, have taken used these opportunities to collaborate with a number of, geographically distributed, leading Chinese universities, research institutions and industries. This effort has been supported by the EPSRC, the Royal Society & the Royal Academy of Engineering, and includes a 1M EPSRC grant for a UK-China joint consortium on sustainable electric power supply and a 220K EPSRC project to run UK-China Network of Clean Energy Research to promote SUPERGEN (Sustainable Power Generation and Supply) in China. Some QUB technologies have also been tested in major construction projects, such as the Beijing National Olympic Stadium (Bird's Nest) and the Hangzhou Bay Sea-Crossing Bridge (longest such bridge in the world). The applicants aim to enhance their science innovation and technology transfer activities in both China and the UK helped by their 7 university partners (principally Tsinghua University, # 1 in China & Zhejiang University, #3 in China, the others being Chongqing, Shanghai Jiaotong, Southeast, Shanghai and Hunan), 3 Chinese research institutions (Central Research Institute of Building & Construction CRIBC, the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Electrical Engineering, and the Research Institute of Highways). The China State Railway Corp. (largest under Ministry of Railways), the China State Construction Corporation (largest under Ministry of Construction), Bao Steel Corporation (largest in China, #6 in world sales) and Shanghai Electric Group (largest in China) are the main 4 Chinese industrial partners. Complementary UK support includes Amphora NDT Ltd, Macrete and SUPERGEN.

This proposal is focused at the main unresolved technological safety issues for hydrogen-powered vehicles, i.e. the fire resistance of onboard hydrogen storage. There are about 15,500 accidental car fires in Great Britain annually (Fire statistics. Great Britain, 2010-2011). The most widespread for car use Type 4 tanks are made of carbon-fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) and can stand in fire up to 6.5 minutes before catastrophic failure. To "prevent" catastrophic failure of tank in a fire it is equipped by temperature-activated pressure relief device (TPRD) with currently typical orifice diameter of about 5 mm. A release from 70 MPa storage tank from such TPRD produces a flame of up to 15 m long and separation distance to "no harm" criteria of 70 C of about 50 m. Moreover, due to so-called pressure-peaking effect a typical garage will be destroyed by such a release (about 300-400 g/s) in 1-2 seconds. Use of such onboard storage excludes evacuation of people from the car or safeguarding of people from the car by first responders. To reduce mass flow rate through TPRD and reduce flame jet length would require increased level of fire resistance of Type 4 tanks from today's 1-7 minutes to about or more than 30 minutes. The project aims to develop novel safety strategies and engineering solutions for onboard storage of hydrogen. This aim will be achieved through realisation of the following objectives (work packages, leading partner is indicated): - Hazard identification study and risk assessment (Kingston University (KU)) - Critical analysis of current safety strategies and engineering solutions (University of Ulster (UU)) - Numerical parametric study of potential fire attacks from adjacent vehicles (including gasoline vehicles) on road or in car parks (KU). - Numerical parametric study of conjugate heat transfer from fire to storage tanks of different design and extent of fire protection by CFD technique, including IP of the University of Ulster in the field (UU) - Parametric finite element analysis to simulate response of tanks of different design to external fire (KU) - Experimental study of prototype designs to increase fire resistance of onboard storage without and with PRD (UU) - Numerical simulations to evaluate the reduction in mass flow rate achievable with the proposed increase of cylinder fire resistance (KU). - Novel storage and safety solutions, including materials for a liner (University of Bath) - Development of engineering criteria of tank failure to formulate requirements to testing protocol (UU) - Effect of safety strategies and novel engineering solutions on socio-economical aspects of hydrogen economy (UU). The research will start with hazard identification study to assess the potential risks involved. Numerical simulations (fire dynamics CFD and structural analysis FEM) will be conducted on the basis of the proposed enhancement of cylinder fire resistance to evaluate the achievable reduction in mass flow rate. Experimental testing will be undertaken for validation of numerical simulations. Based on numerical and experimental studies the testing protocol for fire resistance of onboard storage tanks will be developed. The research will also include the use of materials efficient for hydrogen storage as a tank liner. Socio-economical study will crown the project outputs, translating the engineering safety strategies and solutions, such as higher fire resistance, lower mass flow rate through TPRD, shorter separation distance, provisions of life safety and property protection, into economical equivalents, e.g. cost of land use, insurance cost, etc. The output of this multi-disciplinary project will aim to inform wider public to underpin acceptance of HFC technologies. The project is complimentary to the EPSRC SUPERGEN Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Hub. Collaborators on this project include leading in the field experts and organisations from all over the globe: UK, USA, France, China, Korea.