Bioenergy: research into a renewable energy resource
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Leeds
Department Name: Chemical and Process Engineering
Abstract
This project will look at bioenergy from wood, waste, agricultural residues and energy crops (including algae) is a major global renewable energy source. It can make a significant contribution to all three energy sectors: electricity, heat and transport, and can also contribute to social and economic development in developing countries, by providing access to modern energy services and creating job opportunities.
However, there are challenges concerning technical performance, cost effectiveness, ensuring that it is sustainably produced and that it does not adversely impact food security and biodiversity. These challenges will be addressed in this project.
However, there are challenges concerning technical performance, cost effectiveness, ensuring that it is sustainably produced and that it does not adversely impact food security and biodiversity. These challenges will be addressed in this project.
Planned Impact
Impacts and benefits to the Non-Academic Users of the Centre include:
- Access to high quality, interdisciplinary R&D support to increase competitiveness
- Cutting edge research with high value for money;
- Access to knowledge and expertise;
- Recruitment from a pool of talented early-career students for future employment, and input into shaping the skill development of those students (engineers and scientists with training in the wider context of sustainability, economics, policy and commercial awareness).
- Technology transfer research;
- Access to a breadth or research facilities and expertise and interdisciplinary teams;
- Consultancy,
- Networking and participating in focussed forums with other technolgogy users and policy makers - sharing experiences;
- Training or secondments of their staff for enhanced knowledge transfer;
- Partnerships in innovation in the sector;
- Access to assessments of technolgoies and innovation with the best chance of a positive impact to society;
Impacts and benefits to Academic users in the fields of [1] Feedstocks, pre-processing and safety; [2] Conversion; [3] Utilisation, emissions and impact; [4] Sustainability and Whole systems, include:
- Access to and collaboration in world-leading, transformative research, which advances knowledge concerning innovative bioenergy technologies, sustainability and social acceptability, and policy mechanisms for acheiving these;
- Development of new collaborations and leaverage of further funding to support their activities;
- Access to knowledge and expertise and networking and dissemination events;
- Research exchange opportunities for mutual benefit and cross-fertilisation of ideas and innovation
- Access to high quality, interdisciplinary R&D support to increase competitiveness
- Cutting edge research with high value for money;
- Access to knowledge and expertise;
- Recruitment from a pool of talented early-career students for future employment, and input into shaping the skill development of those students (engineers and scientists with training in the wider context of sustainability, economics, policy and commercial awareness).
- Technology transfer research;
- Access to a breadth or research facilities and expertise and interdisciplinary teams;
- Consultancy,
- Networking and participating in focussed forums with other technolgogy users and policy makers - sharing experiences;
- Training or secondments of their staff for enhanced knowledge transfer;
- Partnerships in innovation in the sector;
- Access to assessments of technolgoies and innovation with the best chance of a positive impact to society;
Impacts and benefits to Academic users in the fields of [1] Feedstocks, pre-processing and safety; [2] Conversion; [3] Utilisation, emissions and impact; [4] Sustainability and Whole systems, include:
- Access to and collaboration in world-leading, transformative research, which advances knowledge concerning innovative bioenergy technologies, sustainability and social acceptability, and policy mechanisms for acheiving these;
- Development of new collaborations and leaverage of further funding to support their activities;
- Access to knowledge and expertise and networking and dissemination events;
- Research exchange opportunities for mutual benefit and cross-fertilisation of ideas and innovation
People |
ORCID iD |
| Ali Hassanpour (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Shazeb Chishti (Student) |
| Description | Characterization experiments were undertaken to understand how a silicone based elastomer (PDMS) behaves. The first experiment undertaken was to determine how spin coating the elastomer onto a substrate at different speeds affected the thickness. Increasing the spin coating speed resulted in a thinner layer applied onto the substrate and the thicknesses varied between 5um and 120um depending on the spin speed. The second experiment undertaken was to determine how the hardness of the elastomer could be altered through curing ratio. This was examined through nanoindentation. The trend found was that increasing the curing ratio resulted in a decrease in hardness. |
| Exploitation Route | Using these results, the properties of the elastomer (in this case PDMS) can be applied for different applications where different properties are required. Some applications would be more suited towards a higher hardness of elastomer as to provide rigidity, whereas others may require a lower hardness for flexibility. |
| Sectors | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology |
| Description | ICON summer school 2018 running alongside ICON conference 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | A 3 day event where there were many talks, presentations, workshops and engagement activities to help all ICON students work together and create a network for collaborations. In this year, the focus of the event was how to convey our research to the public by the means of social media, newspapers and other channels. Creating that link between academics and the general public was the main purpose of the summer school. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.lrf-icon.com/events/workshops/icon-conference-2018/ |
| Description | ICON summer school 2019 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This Summer school had the agenda with the keyword of 'risk' attached to it, to help us understand how our projects can help reach out for a safer future. In addition to this, we were tasked to create proposals for future PhD's in which areas of risk have not currently been tackled. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://www.lrf-icon.com/events/workshops/icon-summer-school-2019/ |
| Description | Woodhouse community festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | School kids were given games to play regarding the topic of energy production. For example, one of the games was to use weights to show how the carbon emissions of certain activities. This allowed for the kids to understand the amount of carbon dioxide that is produced for certain activities and to help them understand their own carbon footprint. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |