Energy Systems

Energy use and the resultant environmental and climate effects are the biggest issues (along with their driver, population growth) we will face in the Twenty-First Century. This has brought the energy area at the forefront of public and political awareness. Energy is also a very wide area, encompassing many engineering and scientific disciplines. It is therefore important to strategically target energy research activities in order to be effective. At Queen Mary we have a long tradition and established areas of international research reputation and excellence in key aspects of the energy theme (heat transfer, combustion and fuels, alternative and sustainable fuel use and generation, novel powerplants, materials for solar cells, sustainability and wind turbines). Stemming from these areas we intend to continue being world leaders in targeted research activities in the broader energy theme.

Currently about 15 per cent of total energy demand is for long-distance transportation (requiring powerplants of power density that cannot be effectively met with renewable sources); and the remaining 85 per cent is for electricity generation, industrial and agricultural processes, heating and cooling (which can be met with lower-power-density powerplants with energy provided from renewable and sustainable sources). Therefore our strategic vision is governed by concerns of renewable and sustainable energy sources, while ensuring we also meet long-distance transportation needs despite the sustainability threat of fossil-fuel reserves. On the 85 per cent of the demand we need to secure future energy supply by the appropriate mix of renewable and sustainable sources of energy; and on the 15 per cent of the demand we need to minimize the effects of use of fossil fuels, and use the renewable sources to generate surrogate power-dense long-distance-travel liquid-fuels for the future. These needs of humanity fit very well with our established areas of research excellence. Our strategic vision in energy points to applications of engineering and scientific disciplines in wind turbines, solar and geothermal energy, generation and use of alternative future fuels, and novel powerplants and thermodynamic cycles.

Research in heat transfer is pertinent to all forms of energy conversion and use. Established directions of heat transfer research continue, and have expanded in the areas of nanofluids, and interaction with materials for solar panels. Research in aerodynamics, turbomachines and novel powerplants is ongoing, and we are expanding into wind turbine applications and combined solar powerplants, with planned future interactions on blade materials and distributed power control. Research on engine-fuel performance and emissions with alternative and sustainable fuels continues, and we have recently expanded in the areas of alternative and surrogate fuel generation (biofuels, hydrogen from artificial photosynthesis, and surrogate fuels). Emissions predictions with novel computational techniques is an ongoing theme. Interactions on theoretical, numerical and experimental techniques within the School in the other research themes, across Queen Mary, within the UK and internationally are established and are being expanded.

Research in sustainability is funded through a number of collaborative and industrial research programmes and embraces areas such as environmentally friendly processing, renewable materials, life-cycle engineering and waste remediation. There are significant activities in recycling of polymers and rubbers and clean processing methods using supercritical CO2 fluids. The group has a strong international reputation in ‘green’ composites that are biobased, compostable or recyclable. Fully biobased and biodegradable composite materials are being developed based on bioplastics in combination with natural fibres such as flax, hemp or nano-sized cellulose whiskers. Particularly noteworthy is the groups work on fully recyclable self-reinforced polypropylene (SR-PP) or 'all-polypropylene' composites that has been a major innovation in the area of engineering plastics and is now commercialised under the name PURE® by Pure-Composites in The Netherlands and its license Tegris® by Milliken in the US. Work on all-polymer composites has recently been extended to a variety of other polymer systems including polyethylene (PE) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET), aramid and cellulose.