Better Air-quality, Free Energy, Environmental Sustainability and Higher Animal Productivity; Four Birds with One Stone

Air pollution is the top environmental risk to human health in the UK, and the fourth greatest threat to public health after cancer, heart disease and obesity. Unlike other air pollutants, ammonia emissions in the UK have been rising since 2013, with significant implications for biodiversity, human and livestock health, and environment. Once ammonia mixes with other gases in the atmosphere, it can form particulate matter (PM) with major health concerns to the lungs and heart.

Agriculture emitted around 244900 tonnes ammonia in 2017. The government`s aim is to reduce emissions of ammonia against the 2005 baseline by 16% by 2030 and to reduce PM emissions by 46% by 2030.

This multidisciplinary bi-university project proposal aims to develop an innovative and versatile electrochemical fuel cell for ammonia electro-oxidation (AEO) that benefits eliminating ammonia as well as generating electricity. The fabricated fuel cell will be tested electrochemically, microscopically and spectroscopically and its efficiency will be improved using simulating models. The cell will be tested in a real farm for ammonia mitigation. This novel device employs state-of-the-art synthesized catalyst earth-abundant material developed in this project to produce a fuel cell that can aid in the delivery of Net Zero Agriculture in the livestock sector.

ReNU's enhanced doctoral training programme delivered by three uniquely co-located major UK universities, Northumbria (UNN), Durham (DU) and Newcastle (NU), addresses clear skills needs in small-to-medium scale renewable energy (RE) and sustainable distributed energy (DE). It was co-designed by a range of companies and is supported by a balanced portfolio of 27 industrial partners (e.g. Airbus, Siemens and Shell) of which 12 are small or medium size enterprises (SMEs) (e.g. Enocell, Equiwatt and Power Roll). A further 9 partners include Government, not-for-profit and key network organisations. Together these provide a powerful, direct and integrated pathway to a range of impacts that span whole energy systems.

Industrial partners will interact with ReNU in three main ways: (1) through the Strategic Advisory Board; (2) by providing external input to individual doctoral candidate's projects; and (3) by setting Industrial Challenge Mini-Projects. These interactions will directly benefit companies by enabling them to focus ReNU's training programme on particular needs, allowing transfer of best practice in training and state-of-the-art techniques, solution approaches to R&D challenges and generation of intellectual property. Access to ReNU for new industrial partners that may wish to benefit from ReNU is enabled by the involvement of key networks and organisations such as the North East Automotive Alliance, the Engineering Employer Federation, and Knowledge Transfer Network (Energy).

In addition to industrial partners, ReNU includes Government organisations and not for-profit-organisations. These partners provide pathways to create impact via policy and public engagement. Similarly, significant academic impact will be achieved through collaborations with project partners in Singapore, Canada and China. This impact will result in research excellence disseminated through prestigious academic journals and international conferences to the benefit of the global community working on advanced energy materials.