First published in Cleantech magazine 2011 Issue 5. Copyright Cleantech Investor Ltd
Elisabeth Jeffries discusses the roll-out of testing of large scale renewable energy generation devices at Edinburgh and Aberdeen - and observes that Scottish independence would jeopardise university research funding.
If it makes sense to teach toddlers to swim in a paddling pool before throwing them in the deep end, the same is true of most start-ups. Engineers at Edinburgh University, though, have to take that lesson literally. Having relied for years on a small pool to experiment with marine power models, they are about to step up a grade.
The launch of a new company obviously depends on first class product models, and it is to this end that marine entrepreneurs are about to get a new tank. It will ensure they can assess the impact of the elements on their devices much more reliably than before. At the moment, device developers test their designs at 1/100th scale and then immediately face the huge financial leap to quarter or even full scale testing, costing millions of pounds.
“The part missing [in research] has been to completely model at an appropriate scale,” says Tom Higgison, IP and strategic project manager at Edinburgh Research & Innovation. The new, round, £7.5 million tank, 30 metres in diameter, is due to open in 2013 and will also be available to entrepreneurs outside the university. Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the university, it will allow testing at scales between 1/40th and 1/10th, against realistic combinations of currents and waves, saving companies money and cutting the time from concept to market. It is predicted to simulate in hours or days conditions which would have taken years to test at sea. “It is de-risking the whole deployment of marine renewables,” states Higgison, pointing out that “almost every single full scale device ended up having turbine failures” partly because of this problem.
Edinburgh is of course where Stephen Salter devised his duck – one of the first wave power devices – in the 1970s, and alma mater of Richard Yemm, the Pelamis inventor. So it would seem to be a likely place to watch for more brainwaves in marine power, especially now the new tank is being built. This ancient university has all round strengths, though in recent years it has been particularly successful in genetics, education and computer science, producing world class research and inventions. It seems fair to add marine power to that list.Edinburgh University is not alone in trying to help cut the high risks of offshore marine power investment. Doing so is likely to attract and promote more enterprise, helping to create the cluster which the Scottish and UK Governments visualise. Aberdeen University has been engaged in a comparable scheme with the 11-turbine European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC) in Aberdeen Bay.
The centre has been devised by the Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group (AREG), a consortium of industry and research partners such as Aberdeen University, Vattenfall and Technip. Planning permission application was submitted in August 2011 (to the accompaniment of criticism from US business magnate Donald Trump - since the development would spoil views from the seaside golf course being developed by his company).The centre will serve to demonstrate new technologies in a real time offshore environment before their full scale commercial deployment, contributing to risk and cost reductions.
Professor Paul Mitchell, head of Aberdeen University’s Institute of Energy Technologies and a member of the AREG board, describes it as “a national lab where we can monitor wind speed and other issues like environmental interactions, sea mammals and birds. We’ll be able to test new prototype turbines there and evaluate the machines in their intended environment.”
This work could also include tests on important new equipment that will introduce more efficient subsea electricity networks and therefore facilitate the development of offshore renewables and electricity transmission at sea. Aberdeen experts, headed by Dr Dragan Jovcic, are masterminding the new subsea power transmission network (or supergrid) necessary for the planned large scale renewable energy development in the North and Baltic Seas. The proposed transmission network will improve power exchange between EU countries and strengthen the overall EU transmission system. Nothing like this has been done before, of course, because land-based technology does not have the same requirements.
Because of the considerable geographical distances, large power levels involved, and the use of cable conductors, the new subsea transmission grid must be based on direct current (DC) transmission technology, whereas existing overland networks are dominated by alternative current (AC) technology. “The research is addressing problems in renewable energy. There are losses in power during conversion from DC to AC and limits to how renewable energy resources distances apart are efficiently networked,” explains Dr Rachael Wakefield, technology transfer officer at Aberdeen University.
Research at the university’s power system group will help overcome some of these problems, producing a prototype of a new multi-terminal DC converter with circuit breaker that is more effective and more complex than existing technology. The prototype is expected to be ready by the end of 2011, with a spinout company or joint venture likely to follow shortly thereafter.
“It will reduce transmission losses. The technology also signifies changes in the weight of the device from tens of tonnes to a few 100 kilogrammes. It’s more robust and cheaper,” comments Professor Mitchell, adding that there has been plenty of commercial interest worldwide. A test rig is also being set up at the university to demonstrate the technology. The scientists will look to major renewable energy companies for investment sources.
Underwater activity of another kind is under scrutiny by a new organisation formed in 2009, the National Subsea Research Institute (NSRI), which is calling for research funding from public or private sources. It aims to create four chairs in Scottish and English universities. The bulk of the research will be aimed at the oil and gas sector, focusing on maximising hydrocarbons recovery in the now mature North Sea fields while reducing capital and operational expenditure. Some of its research work on intelligent monitoring systems, however, could help address the problems and accidents that lead to oil leaks.
Work at Edinburgh on yet another aspect of the increasingly complex aquatic and energy infrastructure in the region addresses the challenges of carbon capture and storage. The university is to host the first masters’ degree in carbon capture and storage, based at its school of engineering. It is also due to receive funding from the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI), relating to the development of a planned UK demonstration carbon capture plant. The ETI is a partnership between international industrial companies with a strong focus on energy (BP, Shell, Caterpillar, Rolls-Royce, EDF and E.On) and the UK Government, bridging the gap between laboratory proven technologies and full scale commercially tested systems to take them to demonstration scale. The plant should be designed, built, operated and tested by mid-2015.
Engineers will focus on pre-combustion carbon capture applications, involving carbon dioxide removal by physical separation. A £3.5 million initial phase will provide the front end engineering design for the demonstration unit, with construction company Costain working with the University of Edinburgh and Imperial College, London, to help understand and optimise performance of the technology. The ETI is also likely to invest £20 million in the second stage, as the pilot plant is built and demonstrated.
If both Edinburgh and Aberdeen Universities are heavily involved with the foundations of new North Sea energy infrastructures, they also have another point in common: both are launching new fuel cell spinouts. Edinburgh’s new spinout, MPower World, has developed a microbial fuel cell. The design of this remarkable device, which cleans out organic waste water and creates electricity, includes unique cell configuration and low cost specialised graphite electrodes.
Aberdeen’s fuel cell has a completely different use. The new spinout, with the working title Enocell, will target the offgrid electricity requirements in developing countries, for example. Its product will be a fuel cell charger for charging portable devices like smartphones. The fuel cell uses fuel more efficiently when light is present and contains a unique low cost device called a photocatalyst inside a new composite catalyst. This enhances the cell performance with carbon containing fuels, meaning that the cell does not need a catalyst made of expensive materials such as platinum. Unlike platinum catalysts, the photocatalyst is not harmed by carbon containing materials.
The company aims to start manufacturing in Q4 2013 and be profitable by 2015. Seed funding is expected, but the company is looking for angel investors.
Both Edinburgh and Aberdeen Universities are playing a major role in shaping the kind of facilitating technology needed for the new offshore renewable infrastructure, backed up by the Scottish Government’s strong policies on green growth. But an uncomfortable truth is to be found behind this major political platform.
Scottish universities punch above their weight in terms of high quality research output (filing 14.8% of UK university patents in 2008/9 for instance – a larger proportion than one might expect given the population and other indicators). But, although plenty of new Scottish businesses are funded or helped by Scottish or EU sources, the same is not true of research. About half of the research funding on which Scottish university IP depends comes from the UK tax pot – so much so that they would probably lose out if Scotland were to become a completely independent nation.
“We would lose access to Research Council funding, and to several other schemes which apply to the whole of the UK. It is not clear what could replace these; European Union funding of research in Scottish higher education institutions is already disproportionate to our size, and it is hard to see how this could be rapidly increased,” says Dr Charles Marriott, senior policy officer at Universities Scotland.
Elisabeth Jeffries
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