Imperial's Department of Chemical Engineering

All Russia Science Festival

2011-11-02T14:42:00.002Z

Professor Sergei Kazarian’s research group have recentlyreturned from presenting their exhibit entitled ‘Chemical Photography: Seeingin a Different Light’ at the 2011 Science Festival in Moscow. The Festival ranfrom the 7th to 9th of October 2011 and attracted over 350 thousandvisitors. The festival was spread across80 locations in Moscow with the main exhibition at the Expocentre where theteam had their exhibit.

The group was invited by the British Embassy in Moscowfollowing the success of their exhibit at the Royal Society summer science exhibition 2010. The team (consisting of Andrew Chan, Stefanie Glassford,Patrick Wray and Sergei Kazarian) presented their work about the applicationsof FTIR imaging to investigate fingerprints, counterfeit products, biomedicalmaterials, and pharmaceuticals.

They took part in two Innovation Roundtables hosted by theBritish Embassy. These were attended by prominent Russian scientists and themedia. The group is pictured below next to the statue of Sherlock Holmes andWatson outside the British Embassy building in Moscow.

L-R: Andrew Chan, Stefanie Glassford, John Watson, PatrickWray, Sherlock Holmes & Sergei Kazarian

More information can be found at the group's websiteand the BritishEmbassy’s website.

Goodbye MSc students!

2011-09-30T13:59:00.001+01:00

So it is farewell to the 2010-11 cohort of MSc students.

“Thishas been another excellent year”, said Professor Macchietto, the MSc courseCoordinator for the last 5 years. “During this time we doubled the number ofapplications, doubled the number of students in the course and increased theintake quality, with both at the highest ever in the year just finished. At thesame time the student satisfaction feedback on their experience also increasedfrom already high levels.”

The MSc Class 2010-11

Rayner Simpson, the energetic Course Administrator,runs every year an extensive exit survey at the end of the course, with an impressive100% response. Latest returns show that 75% the MSc students rated their yearin the Department as a “good/exceptional experience”, and only 4%“marginal/bad” (with 23% “satisfactory”). Many of the students (75% of whichare overseas) will return to their home country, and about 25% will continuetheir postgraduate studies on a PhD.

So farewell and good luck to these new Imperial ambassadors outthere in the real world! And welcome to the 2011-12 cohort.

September News

2011-09-22T13:48:00.000+01:00

As the summer draws to an end and we prepare for the start of another academic year, it's time for a quick round up of Departmental news.

Firstly, Soft Matter, a journal published by the RSC, featured a paper authored by Dr. Erich Müller and Dr. Andrew Crane in their August edition - even putting an image from the article on the front cover. You can access the article on-line here.


Soft Matter Cover

Secondly, Dr Paul Fennell’s group has become part of the firstdemonstration of a novel and highly exciting CO₂ capture process atthe 1.7 MWth (i.e. large pilot plant) scale. The technology, Carbonate Looping, has already been demonstrated at bench and small laboratory scale, butthe EU Caoling project represents the first demonstration at this largescale. An EU project review has recently been completed – extracts arebelow from a Spanish Newspaper covering the demonstration:

Hunosa and Endesa already has clearance from EuropeanUnion to begin to validate the CO₂ capture plant built in the thermal plant atLa Pereda. A team of experts assigned to the Seventh European FrameworkProgramme yesterday visited the prototype developed by the National Instituteof Coal (Incar) in order to analyze the current status of the project, bothtechnically and economically. The eight partners [including Dr Fennell’s Groupat Imperial College] representing five countries participating in the initiativesubmitted their reports and the EU delegation was "satisfied" withthe balance of the meeting. Hunosa sources explained that within two weeks,they would expect a written report giving the green light to the next phase ofthe program, but believe that there are no problems.

The meeting with European Commission representatives, lasted all day yesterday.The main event was the visit to the CO₂ capture plant. The project explained tothe commission that they were to begin performance testing, a procedure thatwill be addressed immediately. The goal is to within a year be in a position todecide if this CO₂ capture program becomes an industrial scale project.

The report issued by representatives of the European Commission following theirvisit to La Pereda, is already known to be positive, and is crucial for theproject to run its course. It is, as acknowledged by the leadership of Hunosa,the "first great test of supervision" which is submitted by theproject. "An adverse report would have led to paralysis of theproject." Hunosa, Endesa and other partners [including Imperial College]now have a clear path to file an initial report in February on the validationtests of the pilot plant built in Mieres.

Imperial College, through Imperial Innovations, has alreadyfiled one patent since the commencement of this project 18 months ago, a methodwhereby the reactivity of materials for carbonate looping can be increased by afactor of 200 – 300 %. For more information, contact Dr Fennell or visit www.caoling.eu .

Our final story brings news of an exciting $10m international research partnership, with an aim of reducing heat loss in oil refinement (a big problem) by up to 15%. Imperial's partners in this project will be the Boreskov Institute of Catalysis and the Skolkovo Foundation, and you can read much more about the project on the College's website and also in this TCE Article. The project was made possible through the efforts of Prof. Sandro Macchietto, and involves input from Prof. Geoff Hewitt, Prof. Sergei Kazarian, Prof. Omar Matar, Prof. George Jackson, Dr. Christos Markides and Dr. Marcos Millan-Agorio.

Some summer news

2011-08-08T15:17:00.000+01:00

August is traditionally a quiet time for University departments, as staff take the opportunity for a well-earned break before the new academic year. Nevertheless there have been a few interesting developments in recent weeks.

Prof. Claire Adjiman (L) and Prof. Amparo Galindo (R)

First up, many congratulations to our two newest Professors, Claire Adjiman and Amparo Galindo, both of whom have been respected members of the Department (and the Centre for Process Systems Engineering) for many years. Claire has been associated with the Department since beginning her first degree here in 1989, and Amparo started as a postdoctoral researcher in 1999. Both work closely together in the field of Molecular Systems Engineering where they are internationally renowned researchers. Congratulations are also due to Dr. Paul Fennell and Dr. Jerry Heng, who have both been promoted to Senior Lecturer.

And finally, Dr. Erich Müller has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the advancement of the chemical sciences.

Chemical Engineering and Beyond

2011-06-22T14:53:00.000+01:00

On 20th May, our newest Professor gave his fascinating inaugural lecture 'Chemical Engineering and Beyond'. Prof. Serafim Kalliadasis, who has been with the Department since 2004, is a Professor Engineering Science and Applied Mathematics who specialises in a variety of research from complex systems modelling, micro-scale fluid mechanics and chaotic systems to nonlinear waves in thin-film flows.

In his lecture, which is now available on-line, Prof Kalliadasis outlines the history of his academic life, focusing particularly on the field of wetting hydrodynamics, before giving us a hint in to the future of these complicated but captivating topics.

Please click the video below to watch here, or if you prefer, view it on YouTube.

Mixing Cement with Power Plants to Reduce Emissions

2011-05-06T16:51:00.000+01:00

Some research news from the College's Centre for Carbon Capture and Storage. As reported by the Royal Society of Chemistry, Departmental members Dr. Paul Fennell, Prof. Denis Dugwell and PhD student Charles Dean have demonstrated that by combining two major industrial processes - fossil fuel power generation and cement manufacturing - it should be possible to both save energy and greatly reduce CO₂ emissions associated with these processes.

If you want to learn more about how exactly the proposed sytem could work, the article is available on the Journal of Energy and Environment Science's website here.

Dr. Fennell was also recently quoted in another RSC article on European Commission funding for Carbon Capture and Storage technologies which you can read here.

Research News - Chemical Movies of Segmented Flows in Microfluidics

2011-04-06T14:33:00.001+01:00

In a paper published on the 5th April in Analytical Chemistry, Dr. Andrew Chan and Professor Sergei Kazarian, in collaboration with Prof. Andrew deMello (Chemistry), have combined FT-IR spectroscopic imaging with a microfluidic system to image fast-segmented flows and have demonstrated, for the first time, that FT-IR imaging can be used to chemically image in real time aqueous droplets of protein solution moving within a continuous oil flow. This detection methodology makes it a valuable new tool for analysis of segmented flows in microfluidic devices since it does not require the use of fluorescent or absorbing labels and yields large amounts of chemical information.

Their previous studies, published in Lab on a Chip (see references below) have demonstrated application of FT-IR imaging to continuous laminar flows where longer measurement times were required to obtain chemical images of sections of a microfluidic channel. In the new paper Prof. Kazarian and co-workers have applied an approach in which acquisition imaging times are reduced to 50 ms to obtain 'chemical movies' in real time, similar to visible video but including a wealth of chemical information. These chemical movies can be used for analysis of a variety of fast processes in microfluidics ranging from reactions to separations.

1.) Chan K. L. A., GulatiS., EdelJ. B., de Mello,A. J., Kazarian^,S. G. “Chemical imaging of microfluidic flows using ATR-FTIR spectroscopy” Lab on a Chip 9(2009) 2909-2913.

2.) Chan, K. L. A. Niu X., de Mello A. J., Kazarian S. G. “Rapid prototyping of microfluidic devices for integrating with FT-IR spectroscopic imaging” Lab on a Chip 10 (2010) 2170-2174.

Focus on Research - Green Algal Hydrogen Production

2011-01-10T17:13:00.000Z

In the first of what will hopefully become an occasional series, Chemical Engineering PhD student Bojan Tamburic speaks about his exciting research in to the production of hydrogen from green algae.

Bojan is working on the solar hydrogen project, part of one of 3 'grand challenge' research programmes taking place at Imperial's Energy Futures Lab, which has many close links with Chemical Engineering.

Prof. Maitland speaks about BP - Imperial Podcast

2010-12-17T12:24:00.000Z

Prof. Geoff Maitland, who has featured regularly on our Blog over the last 6 months due to his frequent media appearances commenting on the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, has been at it again - this time on Imperial's own podcast. Click here to listen to Geoff's interview with Gareth Mitchell, Imperial lecturer and presenter of Digital Planet on the BBC world service.

The full podcast, and an archive of previous editions is available here.

Innovative Research Featured in Time Magazine!

2010-11-30T11:28:00.000Z

Not one, but two of this month's Time magazine's 50 Best Inventions of 2010 feature inventions involving researchers from our Department. Alongside such noteable innovations as the Apple iPad and a dot-matrix printer for human organs sit BioCouture and Fabrican Spray-on Fabric, both of which have been developed here in Chemical Engineering.

Fabrican in action (iamge: Jody Kingzett)

Both inventions have been featured on this very blog in recent weeks. Prof. Alexander Bismarck and his research group developed BioCouture in collaboration with the designer Suzanna Lee, and were recently invited to a special exhibition at London's Science Museum. Fabrican, an Imperial College spin-out company, gained plenty of media exposure back in September when Dr. Manel Torres and Prof. Paul Luckham held their Science in Style fashion show to demonstrate their cutting edge technique for spray-on clothing.

Congratulations to all involved for such well-deserved recognition.

Two of our Professors Honoured!

2010-11-16T15:40:00.001Z

Two pieces of great news to report regarding two of our Professors.

At the annual IChemE awards for innovation and excellence, held this year on 4th November in Manchester, Prof. Geoff Maitland was named winner of the 2010 Chem Eng envoy of the year, for his excellent representation of the profession to the public during the BP Gulf of Mexico incident. To see him in action, please take a look at this previous post, or indeed this one.

Prof. Maitland (second from left) and his award, which was presented by hosts of BBC's Match of the Day

Furthermore, at the BioEnvironmental Polymer Society's annual meeting in October, Prof. Alexander Bismarck was named BEPS Outstanding Young Scientist for 2010.

Many congratulations to both for your well-deserved awards!

Finding a Nano-Needle in a Mixture

2010-11-11T10:55:00.002Z

A paper by Professor Sergei Kazarian and Dr Andrew Chan, Chemical Engineering, et al. ‘Finding a needle in a chemical haystack: tip-enhanced Raman scattering for studying carbon nanotubes mixtures” published in Nanotechnology recently has been featured on nanotechweb.org.

This paper resulted from the application of tip-enhanced Raman scattering, which was sponsored by the Research Excellence Award 2007 and by the ERC Physical Science and Engineering Advanced Grant on Microchemical Imaging.

The approach combines the high resolution of AFM and the chemical information of Raman spectroscopy, thus breaking the diffraction limit associated with conventional confocal Raman microscopy. The researchers apply this to study carbon nanotubes and other nanostructured materials.

Organic Solvent Nanofiltration Conference a Success

2010-10-13T12:57:00.000+01:00

Last month, the Department hosted a very successful 3 day conference on Organic Solvent Nanofiltration, funded by 3 European Commission Marie Curie Action funded projects.

Prof. Livingston

Chaired by Professor Andrew Livingston, Head of Department, the conference attracted an audience of more than 130 participants from over 20 countries. Experts shared their latest research and case-studies from the young but rapidly growing field of OSN. The conference topics included membrane synthesis and characterisation, modelling of transport mechanisms and applications in the food, pharmaceutical, fine chemical and petro-chemical industries.

As well as enjoying an excellent range of technical presentations and more than 30 poster presentations, the participants were provided with highly enjoyable networking events, including an informal reception at Eastside and an exclusive dinner reception cruise on the Thames.

PhD student Maria Jimenez Solomon presents her poster

The conference took place in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Imperial College (due to the major refurbishment works currently taking place within the Department of Chemical Engineering).

Fabric of the Future?

2010-09-24T16:08:00.001+01:00

Clothes that you can spray directly on to your skin might sound like something out of a science fiction story, but Dr. Manel Torres, an academic visitor at the Department, along with Prof. Paul Luckham, have spent 10 years turning fantasy in to reality with the development of a seamless material called Fabrican Spray-on Fabric.

Dr. Torres (image: Layton Thompson)

Fabrican has been getting a lot of press attention recently, with articles appearing on the Daily Mail website, the Guardian website and the BBC website amongst others.

On Monday 20th September, Dr. Torres held his Science in Style fashion show at Imperial showcasing his 2011 Spring/Summer collection, attended by more than 300 key figures from industry, academia, fashion and the media. You can read more about the show here, and an in-depth article about Dr. Torres and Fabrican here.

One of Dr. Torres's Amazing Creaions (Image: Jody Kingzett)

Fundraising for the Multiple Sclerosis Society

2010-09-16T12:00:00.000+01:00

On the 12th September, a team from the Department entered the London Duathlon in order to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Professors Omar Matar, Martin Trusler and our Departmental Operations Manager Anusha Sri-Pathmanathan took on this gruelling event in Richmond Park. Anusha started off with a 10,000 metre run, followed by Martin's 22,000 metre cycle and finishing with Omar's 5,000 metre home stretch.

At the time of writing, the team have smashed their target of raising £500 for the charity, but it is not too late to donate! To do so, please visit their Justgiving site and lend your support to this worthy cause.

(L-R) Martin, Anusha and Omar celebrate finishing

Prof. Maitland talks to the BBC's Tim Cox

2010-09-09T12:25:00.000+01:00

PaCE Group at the Science Museum

2010-08-11T10:43:00.001+01:00

Last week, from the 4th-6th August, Prof. Alexander Bismarck and his Polymers and Composites Engineering (PaCE) group where invited by the Science Museum to run a daily, hands-on exhibition at their Antenna Gallery, a new gallery (and website) that explores the latest news in science, technology, medicine, the environment and innovation.

The PaCE group were at the Science Museum to demonstrate their groundbreaking techniques in developing renewable nanocomposite materials based on bacterial cellulose.

"We were part of the exhibition called Trash Fashion, which showcased a piece of clothing made by designer Suzanna Lee (Biocouture)", says Prof. Bismarck. "We are trying to help her to maker her dream of growing a piece of cloth by bacteria a reality. The problem is to develop a nanocellulose material which does not swell [when damp] turning into a sugary goo when worn."

Professor Bismarck can be seen explaining some of his group's techniques on the first item of this video, recently filmed for the New Scientist website, and you can read more about this research here. There is also a piece on the College's website here.

Prof. Bismarck explaining his research at the exhibition

Royal Society Exhibition Underway!

2010-06-25T10:32:00.002+01:00

Prof. Sergei Kazarian's research group are exhibiting at the prestigious Royal Society's 350th anniversary festival of arts and science, See Further.

The exhibition, Chemical Photography: Seeing in a Different Light, will be open to the general public from 6pm on 25th June until 4th July in the Royal Festival Hall at the South Bank Centre

The group are pictured below at a Convocation of the Fellowship of the Royal Society to mark the 350th Anniversary in the presence of Her Majesty The Queen. You can find out more about the group's work here.

L-R: Andrew Chan, Feng Tay, James Kimber, Stefanie Glassford, Sergei Kazarian & Patrick Wray

Recent Media Appearances

2010-06-23T12:20:00.000+01:00

Many news agencies have recently been in touch with the Department seeking insight into the ongoing Deepwater Horizon Oil spill. Here is a brief clip of Prof. Geoff Maitland, expert on oilfield processes, discussing the issue on Sky News last month:

Prof. Maitland was also interviewed by Jeff Randal for the Sky News channel, and you can see the video on this webpage.

Finally, the Guardian newspaper asked Prof. Maitland for his comments on suggestions for dealing with the Deepwater disaster. You can read the article here.

Our New Undergraduate Courses Brochure

2010-06-17T14:00:00.000+01:00

Just a quick post - the Department have just produced a new Undergraduate courses brochure, packed full of informationg about the structure of our degree programmes, destinations of graduates, how to apply and much more. If you are thinking of applying to study Chemical Engineering at Imperial this is an excellent way to discover more.

Please click here for a PDF version of the brochure

If you have any questions about our Undergraduate programmes, you can email the Department on Ce-admissions@imperial.ac.uk

Some Research News!

2010-05-25T11:27:00.001+01:00

A quick follow up on a couple of stories previously posted below...

At the recent Postgraduate Award Ceremony (5th May), held at the Royal Albert Hall, the Department's Molecular Systems Engineering (MSE) group were presented with their Research Excellence Award by the College Rector Sir Keith O'Nions. The awards, worth £150,000, are presented annually to teams that have demonstrated recent high academic achievement and have significant future research potential.

The MSE Group (L-R):Prof. George Jackson, Prof. Stratos Pistikopoulos, Dr. Erich Müller, Dr. Amparo Galindo, Prof. Costas Pantelides, Dr. Claire Adjiman

Dr. (soon to be Professor!) Serafim Kalliadasis, recent winner of an Advanced research grant from the European Research Council, has been interviewed by Colin Smith of Research Communications. An article about Serafim's work and audio of the interview can be found here.

Our £9m Pilot Plant Project

2010-03-31T10:37:00.004+01:00

In April of this year work will start on our exciting new £9m project to redevelop the Pilot Plant space, the largest investment of its kind in the Department for 30 years. The project, headed by Dr. Daryl Williams, is due to be completed by October 2011. The development will result in creation of a new world class pilot plant facility and new undergraduate laboratories for teaching, as well as major new experimental laboratories. In addition modern offices, student seating space and revitalised entrance concourse will be provided for.

A schedule of the works can be found on the Departmental website, along with a gallery of images.

The quicktime video below shows a fly through from the new entrance up two stories through the plant space (click to stop/start):

New Composite Material Could Mean Cars of the Future are Powered by their Bodywork

2010-02-09T14:19:00.011Z

A team of researchers from Imperial, comprising several Chemical Engineers including Prof. Alexander Bismarck, are developing a prototype material which can store and discharge electrical energy and which is also strong and lightweight enough to be used for car parts.

In addition to making hybrid vehicles lighter and more energy efficient, the researchers believe the material, which has been patented by Imperial, could potentially be used for the casings of many everyday objects such as mobile phones and computers, so that they would not need a separate battery.

You can read more about this exciting development on the College's website here, and in an article featured in tce today here.

Video: Group leader Dr. Emile Greenhalgh of the Department of Aeronautics explains how the material works

Other members of the team working on Composite Energy Storage are Prof. Milo Shaffer, Dr. Joachim Steinke, Prof. Anthony Kucernak (Chemistry) and Chemical Engineering researchers Dr. Natasha Shirshova, Dr. Kingsley Ho, Dr. Hui Qian and Atif Javaid.

Departmental Research to be Showcased at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition!

2009-12-23T12:27:00.005Z

Prof. Sergei Kazarian and his research group have been selected to present an exhibit showcasing their research on "Chemical Photography: Seeing in a Different Light" at the highly prestigious Royal Society's 350th Anniversary Summer Science Exhibition at the South Bank Centre in London in the Summer of 2010. The exhibition is aimed to present scientific achievements at the forefront of the UK's research activities.

Says Prof. Kazarian: "Our group is excited by the opportunity to present highlights of our research to the public and to contribute to public engagement with science and engineering. It will be the longest exhibition yet which will require much preparation, but even former members of the group have expressed interest in helping to present our research, so we are all very enthusiastic about the event."

Sustainable Energy Futures MSc Wins Top Innovation Award!

2009-11-17T16:34:00.011Z

The Faculty of Engineering's multi-disciplinary MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures has won the prestigious iChemE Innovation and Excellence Award in Education and Training. The course, which is the first of its kind in the UK, was established by a team led by Chemical Engineering's Prof. Sandro Macchietto in 2007, and many of our academics are involved in the teaching and research elements of the programme. You can read more about the course here, and an interview with Prof. Macchietto here.

Prof. Macchietto (3rd from left) accepting the award
alongside one of last year's students, Philip Grünewald

More Recognition for Chemical Engineering's Researchers

2009-11-03T09:38:00.009Z

Many congratulations this week to two of the Department's leading researchers!

Dr. Claire Adjiman, pictured left, has been awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize for Engineering for her work on optimisation theories, algorithms and property prediction methods. The Prizes are awarded annually to outstanding young scholars who have made a substantial and recognised contribution to their particular field of study, are recognised at an international level, and whose future contributions are held to be of correspondingly high promise.

More good news this week has come with the announcement that Dr. Serafim Kalliadasis, left, has been successful in winning an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council - grants that allow exceptional established research leaders to pursue frontier research of their choice.

Success in Research Excellence Awards!

2009-10-15T11:53:00.005+01:00

The Department's Molecular Systems Engineering group, led by Prof. George Jackson, has been recognised by the College in the 2009 Research Excellence Awards - designed to reward research teams that have demonstrated high academic achievement and have significant future potential.

More information about the Molecular Systems Engineering group, pictured below, and Prof. Jackson can be found by clicking on the links above.

Many congratulations to the group!

Virtual modelling tool helps industry to predict properties of liquids and gases

2009-09-01T14:04:00.005+01:00

Academics from the Department's Centre for Process Systems Engineering have developed a new virtual modelling tool which scientists say could revolutionise parts of industry, making processes more efficient and cost effective.

Read all about it by clicking here

Head of Department Wins Prestigious Award

2009-07-30T16:05:00.003+01:00

Prof. Andrew Livingston, Head of Chemical Engineering here at Imperial, was recently awarded the prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal, awarded annually to recogonise individuals that have made an outstanding contribution to British engineering, for his research on and commercialisation of membrane technology.

Says Prof. Livingston in this interview: "It is a great personal honour to be picked out and recognised in that way. I am also very proud and think it reflects well on Imperial and the environment that we have at the College. I think the UK really encourages scientists to take their ideas and use them in the real world."

Congratulations Andrew!

2009 Professorships Announced

2009-07-30T15:36:00.007+01:00

Earlier this month two new Professorships were announced by the Department, for two highly deserving candidates Dr. Yun Xu and Dr. Alexander Bismarck, pictured below. The promotions are effective as of 1st October. Congratulations to both! You can find out more about our newest Professors by clicking the links above.

How to say NO to atheroslerosis

2009-07-28T10:20:00.010+01:00

From an article published in the August issue of the Journal of the Royal Society Interface (http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/6/37/669.full.pdf+html?sid=2f3aebfb-5ecb-4950-9eb8-7364032dbacb):

Dr. F. Palombo and Prof. S.G. Kazarian (Chemical Engineering) in collaboration with Prof. P. D. Weinberg (Bioengineering) studied the precise composition of the fat-rich atherosclerotic lesions, which is of key importance in understanding the evolution of the disease. The high spatial resolution of ATR imaging enabled them to visualise changes in lesion composition with age in the rabbit aorta and to demonstrate beneficial effects of dietary arginine (the precursor of nitric oxide (NO)). This may have clinical implications since the composition of atherosclerotic lesions in human aortas also appear to change with age and diet. This chemical imaging approach could potentially improve understanding of atherosclerosis, the arterial disease that remains the primary cause of mortality in all developed countries.

Imperial College Sustainable Energy Futures Team Wins Npower Challenge

2009-07-23T20:26:00.008+01:00

What is right to be done, cannot be done too soon" Jane Austen

The "Sense and Sustainability" team from Imperial College won the nPower Energy Challenge 2009, ahead of stiff competition. The team consisted of Philipp Gruenewald, Andrew Hadland, Gaurav Monga and Alan Whitaker, postgraduate students in the interdepartmental MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures, supported by the Course Director, Prof. Sandro Macchietto, from the Department of Chemical Engineering (contacts below).

The 2009 Energy Challenge was: How does a power generation company respond to climate change? The final consisted in an 8 minute presentation in front of the RWE npower board at Wembley, with a £10K prize and a trophy (see picture attached). The team's proposed an energy service model, showing how an enrgy company could get customers to enter into new energy efficiency agreements and make a profit in the process.

The winning team were also invited to a reception at Westminster on 21st July, to meet and give their presentation to David Kidney, Parliamentary under Secretary of State for Energy, a number of members of Parliament, other guests and senior management from RWE nPower, headed by Volker Beckers, Chief Financial Officer and board member of the German parent RWE group. On the occasion, each team member were presented with a personal letter signed by the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, congratulating them: "Your winning submission is testimony to the excellent standard of engineering graduates in our universities, which in turn is crucial to the future success of industry in our country". Or, as the minister said, "The future is in safe hands with people like yourselves..."

The MSc is Sustainable Energy Future is part of a significant Imperial College initiative in the energy area, the Energy Futures Lab. That a team from the course won such a prestigious event confirms we indeed attract some really bright and enterprising people (the team members are very interesting personalities from diverse backgrounds!) who have a real chance of making a difference.

Sense and Sustainability Team Members

Alan Whitaker - alan.whitaker08@imperial.ac.uk (Team captain)

Andrew Hadland - andrew.hadland08@imperial.ac.uk

Gaurv Monga - gaurav.monga08@imperial.ac.uk

Philipp Gruenewald - philipp.gruenewald08@imperial.ac.uk

Supporting academic: Prof Sandro Macchietto - http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/people/s.macchietto

MSc in Sustainable Energy Futures : http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/energyfutureslab/students

2009-06-25T22:05:00.003+01:00

Neil Hirst addresses the IC4S launch

Imperial college was pleased to launch the Imperial College Centre for Carbon Capture and Storage on Tuesday. This centre, a part of the Energy Futures Laboratory and supported by the Grantham Institute for Climate Change, will act as a focal area for researchers at Imperial investigating all aspects of carbon capture and storage.

Carbon capture and storage is a group of technologies which prevent the release of CO2 from a power station or other large CO2 source by either taking it out from the exhaust gases or modifying the process and separating out the CO2 at a different stage. The CO2 is then compressed, transported to a storage site and pumped underground.

We were pleased that Mr Neil Hirst, Director for Energy Technology and R&D at the International Energy Agency was able to give the keynote speech, where he discussed the urgent need for carbon capture research. After this, there were presentations by Dr Jon Gibbins (Mechanical Engineering), Dr Tara LaForce (Earth Sciences) and Dr Paul Fennell (Chemical Engineering), outlining some of the ongoing projects in different areas of Imperial, ranging from capture (minimising the cost of capture) all the way through to storage (ensuring that the CO2 remains safely locked away below ground). A poster session followed, which gave everyone a chance to discuss potential joint work over a glass or two of wine.

Further information about CCS can be found at www.imperial.ac.uk/ccs, or contact the author

Concerted Effort on Solar Hydrogen Production

2009-06-12T12:03:00.008+01:00

Academic staff in Chemical Engineering (Klaus Hellgardt, Geoff Kelsall, Geoff Maitland) are involved in a £4.2M EPSRC funded project on developing the fundamentals but also the devices for the economical production of hydrogen from sunlight and water (nothing added...).
There are two strands to the project:

Biophotolytic hydrogen production
Photoelectrochemical hydrogen production

Working with a team of Biologists (Jim Barber, Peter Nixon) we are developing bioreactor systems to culture and grow algae (Clamydomonas Reinhardtii). When the growth medium for this algae species is deprived of sulphur, the metabolic pathway of the organism switches, leading to the photolytic production of hydrogen (from water). We can harvest this hydrogen via membranes and feed the hydrogen to fuel cells (Klaus Hellgardt, Nigel Brandon).

Working with Chemists (James Durrant, David Klug) we are also pursuing another avenue whereby we design appropriate semiconductors which upon illumination by sunlight have the ability to evolve oxygen from water. If we then connect these semiconductors to another electrode, we can complete a circuit and evolve hydrogen at a connected cathode (much like an electrolysis cell). The hydrogen can again be fed to a fuel cell.

In addition to the fundamental studies on the algae systems and the semiconductors, there are lots of engineering issues to be overcome to make cost effective devices that could eventually be installed on roofs and in our homes. We are working on these using e.g. fluid dynamics/multi-physics modelling packages such as Comsol to help us design and fabricate clever devices to incorporate the above materials and organisms into working demonstrators.

Today we had a very fruitful conversation wtih Neil Alford and Nic Harrison (they have just received a new grant from EPSRC to specifically develop novel nanostructured materials for energy systems) on how to push the semiconductor side further by using

theoretical models to predict band gaps for mixed and doped systems and
practical film growth techniques that might incorporate novel strain engineering concepts to change the chemistry and electronic properties of the materials.

So, perhaps in the not too distant future we might be making our own hydrogen at home from solar hydrogen reactors on our roofs and in our walls...

Carbon/Air - a new type of fuel cell

2009-06-09T12:28:00.000+01:00

Almost all fuel cells operate on either liquid or gaseous fuels. However, the energy density of solid fuels such as coal or biomass is much higher than that for liquids or gases. That is one reason why there are so many coal power stations in the world!
We have recently patented a new type of fuel cell (a Carbon/Air fuel cell) that utilizes coal, biomass or hydrocarbons directly to extract electrical energy at high efficiencies.
This type of fuel cell could offer a paradigm shift for the power industry.
Imagine a new type of power station operating at 70% efficiency and only creating a pure CO2 stream that could be used as feedstock for liquid fuel production (such as methanol)!

Imaging of proteins

2009-06-09T12:07:00.002+01:00

A paper by Professor Sergei Kazarian and Dr Andrew Chan, Chemical Engineering, et al. ‘ATR-FTIR Spectroscopic Imaging of Protein Crystallization‘ was featured on the 15 May 2009 cover of Analytical Chemistry, the leading journal in the field. This is the first paper to appear from the 5 year, the ERC Physical Science and Engineering Advanced Grant on Microchemical Imaging awarded to Professor Kazarian last year. The approach described in this article allows identification of protein crystals in situ, as the crystals form, without the need to disturb the sample or x-raying the crystals because spectra extracted from the image can be used as a direct indicator to distinguish protein from salt or other precipitants. This spectroscopic imaging can also be used for high-throughput analysis of protein crystallisation by studying different samples under a range of conditions.

Flow Chemistry to help the Pharmaceutical Industry

2009-06-09T11:49:00.000+01:00

We have recently started a new research project in collaboration with Mimi Hii from the Department of Chemistry (Enabling Oxidation Reactions on a Large Scale: Combining Electrochemistry with Flow). The project involves partners from Pfizer Global R & D.

In a nutshell, the project is about creating in situ reactants (oxidants and reductants) using electrochemical methods to react with pharmaceutical intermediates in a flow system (that is continuous production rather than batch operation). We hope that this will lead to much improved selectivities and yields with much reduced waste formation for many important chemical transformations.

We are currently filing a patent application on our ideas with Imperial Innovations.

Winner of the poster competition

2009-06-09T11:18:00.000+01:00

Dr. K. L. Andrew Chan, who is working with Prof. S. G. Kazarian, was the winner of the Annual Hounsfield Memorial Lecture 2009 poster competition for the best research poster, held at Imperial College on the 8 June 2009. This poster was about application of spectroscopic imaging to study live cancer cells and how they react to the change in the environment and also on the use of spectroscopy to study wound healing.

Making a better drug without changing the drug?

2009-06-09T11:15:00.004+01:00

How can we improve the physical properties of a drug without changing its molecular structure? It sounds impossible. Of course, drug's activity on a specific target in the body only depends on the drug's molecular structure. Luckily, however, this is only part of the story.

The physical properties of a drug, such as its solubility, dissolution rate and mechanical stability, also depend on the 3-dimensional arrangement of the drug molecules in the crystal lattice. One way to improve the physical properties of a drug is to introduce a second molecule in its crystal lattice.

How can we know which molecules are able to cocrystallise with a specific drug? What are the possible crystal structures and what are their properties? Can we know the answer to these questions before the drug is synthesised?

Our research addresses this challenge by using advances in the theory of intermolecular forces and computational science. We are progressing towards the development of algorithms to predict which molecule can form a stable cocrystal with favourable properties for a specific drug. Although further research is needed, the methodology has the potential of becoming a powerful tool in the hands of computational chemists working in drug design.

Qatar Carbonates and Carbon Storage Research Centre

2009-06-09T11:13:00.002+01:00

The Qatar Carbonates and Carbon Storage Research Centre (QCCSRC) is a 10 year, $70M collaboration between engineers at Imperial College, in Chemical Engineering and Earth Science and Engineering, with Qatar Petroleum and Shell aimed at

- understanding carbonate oil and gas reservoirs better

- measuring and predicting the properties of CO2 (mixed with hydrocarbons and water) under high temperature and pressure reservoir conditions

- using these to build a state-of-the-art simulator to design and optimise improved hydrocarbon recovery and CO2 capture in these reservoirs

- validate this approach against pilot-scale and full field scale demonstration projects

- provide the engineers of the future for Qatar

- transfer this technology to Qatar to enable clean exploitation of the country's natural resources, with minimal damage to the environment and the climate.

The Centre was launched at a ceremony at Imperial in June 2008. The initial projects are underway and the recruitment of PhD students, research fellows and lecturers is in full swing. Students from Qatar and the region are particularly encouraged to join the programme which aims to attract the best researchers in these fields from across the world to address one of the biggest engineering challenges of the 21st Century - continuing to meet the world's growing energy demands using fossil fuels without releasing the greenhouse gases which cause climate change.