College of Engineering - Swansea University

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] College of Engineering ] SPECIFIC – Buildings as Power Stations “The Government’s £10million backing of the SPECIFIC project shows what can be achieved when world class university research comes together with the private sector. The Sustainable Product Engineering Centre for Innovative Functional Industrial Coatings – or SPECIFIC – is an academic and industrial consortium led by Swansea University with Tata Steel as the main industrial partner. The £20 million, five-year project is led for Swansea University by Professor Dave Worsley, Head of the College’s Materials Research Centre and Principal Investigator at SPECIFIC. The project is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Technology Strategy Board, the Welsh Government, and the main partners, and its vision is to develop functional coated steel and glass products for roofs and walls, which generate, store and release renewable energy. Establishing these products will effectively transform buildings into power stations, delivering significant environmental and economic benefits. Located at the Baglan Bay Innovation and Knowledge Centre, the project involves a robust partnership between leading university groups from Imperial College London, Bath, Bangor, Cardiff, Glyndwr and Sheffield, as well as multi-national industry organisations such as BASF, Akzo Nobel, Beckers, and Pilkington. The key thematic areas of research for the SPECIFIC project are photovoltaics, battery technology, and energy release coatings. Photovoltaics More energy falls on the Earth’s surface every day than we currently use in 27 years, indicating the phenomenal power of solar energy. Photovoltaics involves converting solar energy into electricity, which is an attractive addition to the renewable energy mix. Dye sensitised solar cells are a third generation device with exciting potential in lower light climates. Made from earth abundant materials, they are suitable to scale across very large areas. For photovoltaics to succeed they must move quickly from the laboratory bench to the factory gate. SPECIFIC is dedicated to developing technologies that enable the manufacturing and scaling processes for thin film photovoltaics. Removing process bottlenecks is critical to successfully realising a photovoltaics product and it’s for this reason that novel heating technologies have been developed to turn long and static batch manufacturing steps into fast and fluent stages. SPECIFIC is also involved in the understanding of stability and lifetime of these devices, from characterisation of degradation mechanisms to solutions for improving longevity. Battery technology Traditionally energy storage has meant the storage of fuels: coal, oil or gas is burned because the energy produced is needed. But as society moves to renewable sources of electricity, energy storage needs change. Most sources of renewable energy are intermittent in their nature and sunlight or wind cannot be stored. This demands attention on how the energy-generated product is stored, in particular diurnal storage of electricity and inter-seasonal storage of heat. Most current research on electrochemical storage of electricity examines increasing energy densities for applications in mobile electronics, medical implants and electric vehicles. SPECIFIC understands that this research cannot directly translate into static utility scale energy storage. In this environment energy density plays a secondary role to safety, longevity, low maintenance and cost. Heating Coatings Using grid-supplied electricity to produce heat is not a sustainable option in Britain. This is due to the significant efficiency losses associated with converting heat energy into electrical energy in a power station, only to reconvert it to heat in a remote building. But when combined with locally generated renewable electricity, this technology provides a viable option for heating applications. One of the technologies SPECIFIC is researching is the use of painted coatings, which would allow the incorporation of unobtrusive heating elements into the fabric of the building. This centre will speed up the commercialisation of innovative industrial coatings, creating a whole new manufacturing sector and new business opportunities, not to mention long-term environmental benefits, including turning buildings into sources of power. We are committed to investing in high value, high tech sectors where the UK can gain a competitive advantage and promote economic growth. ” Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills “SPECIFIC is an invaluable asset to Wales and helps to cement our reputation as a country with high skills and the ability to make clean, green high value products of a global standard. The facilities, expertise and the science demonstrated here is amongst the best. The Welsh Government will continue to work closely with our Universities and industry to create the research, capacity and jobs to prepare our economy for the future. ” Carwyn Jones, First Minister of Wales 66 67
] College of Engineering ] Transparent Barriers and Conductors It’s not difficult to imagine that a number of devices will be incorporated into building structures to collect and store renewable energy. But there are important common requirements including protection from the environment and, in many cases, a transparent conducting layer – especially vital in the area of building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV). A desirable material would be a cost effective, transparent flexible film with strong conductivity, good moisture and gas barrier properties – as well as a rugged consistency which doesn’t degrade under UV radiation. Such a material is viewed as an enabling technology for many different flexible electronic applications, such as organic First-class facilities To enable its work, SPECIFIC has installed state-of-the-art laboratories at the Baglan Bay Innovation Centre, allowing researchers to quickly test new ideas and collect robust scientific data. This supports the development and understanding of new products and processes. The laboratories’ wealth of facilities include scanning electron microscopes (with EDS capability), atomic force microscopy with a Kelvin Probe attachment, NIR lamps and electrochemical equipment. SPECIFIC has also developed, designed and delivered a class 10,000 (ISO7) cleanroom facility to house its two pilot production lines. The pilot production lines enable the demonstration and full scale manufacture of 1.2m 2 sheet steel, glass and polymer substrate based technologies, and other potential flexible and non-flexible materials. This includes 350mm wide coil materials such as steel and polymers. Alongside the cleanroom installation, SPECIFIC is expanding its laboratories and offices for world-class investigations into solving manufacturing challenges associated with delivering functional coatings to the marketplace. Over a short space of time the results of this pioneering research will come to fruition, giving strong foundations for the powerefficient buildings of tomorrow and renewable energy as a whole. www.specific.eu.com Engineering at Swansea Engineering has been a key subject for Swansea University since its formation, and its teaching and research has evolved and adapted with time and technology throughout the 20th Century and right up to the present day. In 2001, the former Departments of Chemical, Civil, Electrical, Materials and Mechanical Engineering were combined to form a single integrated College. This integrated College has proved extremely successful from both teaching and research perspectives, helping to address future challenges within engineering where a multidisciplinary approach is crucial. A broad portfolio of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes reflects research strengths which are enriched by industry collaboration, while a number of programmes are accredited by the Engineering Council. The College of Engineering is a cutting-edge learning and research environment with state-of-the-art facilities. Pioneering technological progress in both traditional and emerging disciplines have led to partnerships with major industrial companies. All activities are driven and underpinned by world leading research, as recognised by the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) in 2008, when a combined College of Engineering score ranked 8th in the UK and the best in Wales. Swansea University has been recognised for its outstanding teaching by an international award, the QS Stars global university rankings system, which awarded the University five stars for its teaching quality. The leading research centres and projects within the College are profiled in these pages. light-emitting diode (OLED) devices and organic photovoltaic (PV) cells. 68 69
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College of Engineering - Swansea University

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