Advanced Automotive Propulsion Systems

The context of this research is the urgent global climate challenge of preventing a global mean surface temperature increase of more than 1.5 C compared to the pre-industrial average, defined as 1850-1900. The IPCC (2021) has warned of serious consequences to human health and societies of such a rise in global temperature. We are already 80% of the way to this threshold: the global mean surface temperature for 2016-2020 the was about 1.2 C about the pre-industrial average (Morice et al 2021, Met Office 2021).

In the UK, road transport has reduced its carbon footprint less than other sectors since 1990, and larger vehicles are particularly problematic to decarbonise due to the huge infrastructure requirements for electrification, and the limited range of battery traction. Hydrogen fuel cells are a possible solution to power larger road vehicles cleanly, as outlined in the Hydrogen Strategy of the UK Government (2021). However, about 95% of hydrogen is currently produced by steam methane reforming, which has significant carbon emissions even when carbon capture is implemented (Howarth and Jacobson 2021). Most research on the environmental impacts of hydrogen production, storage and delivery has focused on a narrow subset of hydrogen technology or a narrow range of environmental indicators (often just global warming potential and acidification) - need for a comprehensive comparison. There is also a need to consider the intersections between decisions made for road transport and competing uses of hydrogen for ammonia production and industrial processes, and domestic heating and cooking.

My planned research is intended to fill gaps highlighted by recent studies (Cluzel et al. 2021, Howarth and Jacobson 2021, Ren and Toniolo 2018, Campos-Guzmán et al. 2019, Ji and Wang 2021). In summary, identifying a sustainable decarbonisation pathway will require:

* consideration and inclusion of a broad range of new hydrogen technologies as they mature;

* inclusion of a wide range of environmental indicators;

* real-world performance data rather than simulated or modelled data where possible, with analysis of purification requirements and minimising fugitive greenhouse gas emissions;

* consequential LCA with an integrated tool to assist decision makers, such as multi-criteria decision making (MCDM), which considers competing uses of hydrogen in its analysis.

My research project will produce as its outputs: a review of recent Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) of hydrogen; a review of the most promising hydrogen technologies; a detailed consequential LCA of hydrogen production, storage and delivery (cradle to station); and an online, user-friendly decision support tool that shows costs and benefits (financial and environmental) for a range of hydrogen pathways under user-selected economic and technological scenarios.

Researchers, government officials and other interested parties will have access to a decision support tool that they can customise for their country or organisation to find a pathway that provides hydrogen for transport with a minimised carbon footprint and other environmental impacts. Researchers will have full access to all the underlying data, research and methodologies, to further their research. It will also be possible for researchers to update the support tool with the latest data and calculations for a specific component of the LCA inventory, or a specific locale.

Impact Summary

This proposal has been developed from the ground up to guarantee the highest level of impact. The two principal routes towards impact are via the graduates that we train and by the embedding of the research that is undertaken into commercial activity. The impact will have a significant commercial value through addressing skills requirements and providing technical solutions for the automotive industry - a key sector for the UK economy.

The graduates that emerge from our CDT (at least 84 people) will be transformative in two distinct ways. The first is a technical route and the second is cultural.

In a technical role, their deep subject matter expertise across all of the key topics needed as the industry transitions to a more sustainable future. This expertise is made much more accessible and applicable by their broad understanding of the engineering and commercial context in which they work. They will have all of the right competencies to ensure that they can achieve a very significant contribution to technologies and processes within the sector from the start of their careers, an impact that will grow over time. Importantly, this CDT is producing graduates in a highly skilled sector of the economy, leading to jobs that are £50,000 more productive per employee than average (i.e. more GVA). These graduates are in demand, as there are a lack of highly skilled engineers to undertake specialist automotive propulsion research and fill the estimated 5,000 job vacancies in the UK due to these skills shortages. Ultimately, the CDT will create a highly specialised and productive talent pipeline for the UK economy.

The route to impact through cultural change is perhaps of even more significance in the long term. Our cohort will be highly diverse, an outcome driven by our wide catchment in terms of academic background, giving them a 'diversity edge'. The cultural change that is enabled by this powerful cohort will have a profound impact, facilitating a move away from 'business as usual'.

The research outputs of the CDT will have impact in two important fields - the products produced and processes used within the indsutry. The academic team leading and operating this CDT have a long track record of generating impact through the application of their research outputs to industrially relevant problems. This understanding is embodied in the design of our CDT and has already begun in the definition of the training programmes and research themes that will meet the future needs of our industry and international partners. Exchange of people is the surest way to achieve lasting and deep exchange of expertise and ideas. The students will undertake placements at the collaborating companies and will lead to employment of the graduates in partner companies.

The CDT is an integral part of the IAAPS initiative. The IAAPS Business Case highlights the need to develop and train suitably skilled and qualified engineers in order to achieve, over the first five years of IAAPS' operations, an additional £70 million research and innovation expenditure, creating an additional turnover of £800 million for the automotive sector, £221 million in GVA and 1,900 new highly productive jobs.

The CDT is designed to deliver transformational impact for our industrial partners and the automotive sector in general. The impact is wider than this, since the products and services that our partners produce have a fundamental part to play in the way we organise our lives in a modern society. The impact on the developing world is even more profound. The rush to mobility across the developing world, the increasing spending power of a growing global middle class, the move to more urban living and the increasingly urgent threat of climate change combine to make the impact of the work we do directly relevant to more people than ever before. This CDT can help change the world by effecting the change that needs to happen in our industry.