RISE May-June 2009 - University of Salford

RISE! Research Innovation and Internationalisation News
THE ENERGY THEME
Professor Keith Ross, Centre Director, Institute for Materials Research, and Professor Steve Curwell, Sustainable Urban Development,
Institute of Built Environment.
The significance of energy to the future of mankind cannot be
exaggerated. The population of the Earth has reached a level that it could
nowhere near be fed without the extensive use of energy in
agriculture and we have become used to the lavish use of energy in the
support of our lifestyle. However, whether we consider the
anthropomorphic rise of CO 2 levels in the atmosphere, giving rise to Global
Warming, or alternatively consider the imminence of “Peak Oil” and the
consequences to humanity of an inexorable rise in fossil fuel costs and the
associated transfer of financial wealth to the Middle East and Russia, it is
clear that we have to face very significant changes in the way we use
energy. These necessary changes create a major challenge to the research
community, internationally and nationally. Training will also be essential to
produce the number of specialists in the new areas.
Governments are meeting this challenge by allocating considerable
resources to research in the area. It is therefore natural that energy should
become one of the themes of the University.
The University of Salford already plays a considerable role in energy
research, in the development of new technologies, the observation of
global changes resulting from climate change, the development of
energy savings technologies in the Built Environment and the
observation of social attitudes to these necessary changes. In the
development of new technologies, we are active in wind power and
related meteorological and acoustic phenomenon, in hydrogen energy and
associated developments in hydrogen/fuel cell and battery cars and in
materials problems related to nuclear energy.
All this work on advanced materials is supported by a considerable effort
in ab initio modelling. We also have various important existing facilities
such as the radio chemistry laboratories in Cockcroft. Global changes
related to climate change are inferred from satellite data. Research in the
Built Environment relates to the adoption of improved thermal insulation,
smart devices for energy saving and architectural design features that
minimise the need for additional space heating and cooling. Retrofitting of
insulation to the existing housing stock is also important. We also have
major research efforts into the analysis of social attitudes, for instance into
the popular response to the introduction of hydrogen energy on a broad
scale. Our current research portfolio (grants awarded since 2000) amounts
to £7 million, which is spread over the research areas referred to above.
When it comes to considering how the University might develop its
research within the energy theme, the proposed philosophy is to invest in
new research activities in areas adjacent to our existing research strengths,
thus avoiding overlap but gaining from existing reputations and facilities.
The specific suggestions are:
(1) investment in nuclear energy, both fission and fusion, and both at the
teaching and research levels. This would build on existing research
strengths and develop related teaching programmes to meet the
urgent need for new nuclear engineers;
(2) a senior appointment in the area of new low carbon
energy technologies (batteries, hydrogen, wind power etc.);
(3) further development in the area of energy technology in the built
environment;
(4) a senior appointment in the socio-economic aspects of new energy
technologies.
... we have to face
very significant
changes in the way
we use energy ...
In each of the above areas, a business plan would be developed,
implying an investment of the order of several millions, to encompass the
parallel development of research and teaching, with the objective of
covering its additional costs in a period of around five years.
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