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19Home improvementsScience and engineering for a hi-tech low carbon world

Aston Martin DB11 – the supercar with green credentials

Self-sufficient buildings powered by sunshine

Mark Miodownik on the circular economy of plastics

Squeezing more juice from electric vehicle batteries

Recycling eggshells into plastics makes cracking savings

3D-printed metals for stronger, lighter manufacturing

Self-healing, longer-lasting concrete

INSIDE: Chickens Cheetahs Cows Cooking Colds Coffee Crops Cars Cops Clothes Cogs Crags Circles Cubes

Editor: Mark Mallett ([email protected])Design: Angela Jones ([email protected])

Contributors: Dr James Burgon; Jo Enderby; Professor Lynn Gladden; Gemma Hulkes; Karen Manning; Dr Ellen Meek; Professor Mark Miodownik; Professor Philip Nelson; Richard Tibenham; Tim Walker

Contact: 01793 444305

To provide feedback on this magazine, please e-mail [email protected]

You can subscribe to print/electronic versions of Pioneer at epsrc.ukri.org

Pictures courtesy of thinkstock.com, istock.com and fotolia.com unless otherwise stated

PIONEER 19 Autumn 2018 2

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94-5: News Recent EPSRC/UKRI research and training investments

6-9: What we’ve learned Snapshots of EPSRC-supported research

10-23: People Movers, shakers and science in action – from 3D-printed microscopes to self-cleaning windows

24-25: Circular solutions Science writer James Burgon puts the case for a circular UK economy

26-33: Saving our energy EPSRC’s energy portfolio is driving cutting-edge low carbon research and innovation

34-35: Power plants EPSRC-funded green energy projects

36-37: Double the benefit Amazing results from a hi-tech EPSRC-supported irrigation project

38-41: The plastics paradox Mark Miodownik offers a solution to the environmental crisis we have created through our love affair with plastic

42-43: Plastics with potential EPSRC-supported research into reusing, recycling and reinventing plastics

44-45: Hot metal Green manufacturing tech that’s shaking and stirring the car industry

46-47: Made to last Low carbon solutions for more sustainable manufacturing

48-49: Building blocks 3D-printing tech that’s a game-changer for the car and aerospace industries

50-51: Chicken coup There’s money to be made from waste foodstuffs – the environment benefits, too

52-53: Running repairs Self-healing concrete for a greener built environment

54-55: Smarter structures EPSRC’s investments in low carbon construction

56-61: Inner vision One platform technology, a host of green inventions

62: In profile EPSRC’s new Executive Chair, Professor Lynn Gladden

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CONTENTS

Global greeningThroughout the UK, EPSRC-supported scientists, mathematicians and engineers are pioneering greener, more sustainable solutions to some of the most pressing global challenges – from ocean pollution to energy and water poverty. This edition of Pioneer is dedicated to their work. Professor Lynn Gladden, Executive Chair, EPSRC


Moving onEPSRC’s outgoing Executive Chair, Professor Philip Nelson, reflects on his time in office

It has been a tremendous privilege to have led EPSRC for the past four-and-a-half years. Prior to becoming CEO, I knew the organisation

reasonably well, as I was Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Southampton and a member of the EPSRC User Panel, where I was the academic voice among industrialists.

I could see that the organisation was very sound, with well-structured processes, an excellent executive team and staffed by very dedicated people who had built up a wealth of knowledge about the research portfolio and community.

But EPSRC is also hugely responsive; I have found that people will go that extra mile, change the way they do things, and rally around when things get difficult.

From the off there have been challenging projects to deal with – perhaps none more so than, as Chair of Research Councils UK’s CEO Group, helping to shape the agenda for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), into which all seven research councils, Innovate UK and Research England merged in April 2018.

As a £6 billion partnership of equals, UKRI has the authority, resources and people that can take UK research and innovation to a higher plain.

The formation of UKRI is particularly significant for EPSRC; our research portfolio provides the fundamental scientific platforms for much of the multidisciplinary research and innovation carried out across the UK – from working with the Medical Research Council on ways to tackle the

scourge of antimicrobial resistance, to collaborating with social scientists, biologists and environmental scientists in emerging disciplines like synthetic biology, or robotics and artificial intelligence.

UKRI’s formation brings with it tremendous opportunities for EPSRC to work more closely with Innovate UK, as so much of our portfolios are aligned. Together we can ensure cutting-edge science and engineering research can lead to commercial and technical application, and have national and global impact – particularly through schemes like the government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.

This focus on impact and application is spreading much wider. When visiting universities I have seen a genuine recognition of the need to engage with both business and the public to ensure that discovery-led science is pulled through into innovation. In turn, business is keen to work with the brightest and best from academia – something EPSRC has championed for many years.

EPSRC’s Prosperity Partnerships, introduced in 2017, which bring academics together with leading companies to tackle industry-led challenges, are a really good example of how much industry values the fundamental research expertise in our universities and is prepared to add real financial support to government-backed investment. Indeed, this month we announced the second wave of investment in a new series of Prosperity Partnerships.

Notwithstanding the success of these initiatives, they would not have come about were it not for EPSRC’s commitment to its core mission – which is to support fundamental science and engineering research by

giving dedicated people the freedom, time and space to exercise their curiosity and explore new ideas. I leave EPSRC’s executive team in the knowledge that this commitment remains as strong as ever.

My overriding memory of my time at EPSRC will be having the privilege of seeing at first hand some of the amazing research taking place at our universities, and of meeting so many hugely talented people.

I have witnessed what is probably the coldest place in the universe at a physics lab at Lancaster University; and I have been somewhere as hot as the sun at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in leafy Oxfordshire; I have also experienced the power of the oceans recreated at the University of Edinburgh’s FloWave Ocean Energy Research Facility, which features a 2.4 million-litre water tank capable of synthesising wave conditions at sea.

I have been hugely impressed by new advances in robotic surgery at Imperial College London; by research into next-generation 5G communications at the University of Bristol, and by exciting technologies being developed at our quantum hubs, such as super-sensitive gravimeters which could help in the early prediction of earthquakes.

As new Executive Chair, Professor Lynn Gladden (see page 63), takes the reins, I return to the University of Southampton knowing that EPSRC is in very good shape, and has managed to adapt to the new environment while retaining its core strengths.

EPSRC can, and will, play a vital role in setting the research and innovation agenda, helping to ensure UK and global prosperity.

Best wishes to all.


Recent UKRI & EPSRC investmentsNEWS

£900 million for UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship SchemeUKRI is investing £900 million over 11 years in a new fellowship scheme to support future research leaders. For the first time ever, this type of scheme is open to business as well as universities. The scheme is also open to researchers worldwide, ensuring that the UK continues to attract the most exceptional talent wherever they may come from.

Over the course of the next three years, 550 individuals drawn from academia and industry will be awarded UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships, which will provide up to seven years of funding to help the next generation of technology entrepreneurs, business leaders and innovators achieve their potential.

The fellowships include support for part-time awards and career-breaks, providing flexibility to researchers to tackle ambitious and challenging research questions.

£68 million for robotics and AI The Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund has awarded £68 million to ground-breaking multidisciplinary research projects in artificial intelligence and robotics, with £44.5 million of this allocated to four EPSRC-managed research hubs.

The hubs will develop robotic solutions to enable safer working conditions in sectors such as offshore energy, nuclear

energy and space, in environments which would otherwise be too hazardous for humans to enter without risk.

The hubs are supported by an additional £51.6 million from commercial and international partners including the UK Space Agency, which is co-funding one of the hubs.

£42 million for EV battery researchFour UK-based consortia have been awarded £42 million through the Faraday Institution, the UK’s independent national battery research institute, to conduct research aimed at accelerating the electric vehicle (EV) revolution.

The topics for the projects were chosen in consultation with industry and will involve 20 university and 25 industry partners, investigating extending battery life; battery system modelling; recycling and reuse; and next-generation solid state batteries.

The Faraday Institution is funded by EPSRC under the government’s £246 million investment in battery technology through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.

£20 million for Plastics Research and Innovation Fund UKRI is delivering a £20 million Plastics Research and Innovation Fund (PRIF) which brings together Britain’s best scientists and innovators to help move the country towards more circular economic and sustainable approaches to plastics.

PRIF is managed by EPSRC, and Innovate UK, working with the Waste and Resources Action Programme to ensure coordinated leadership of the Fund.

£39 million investment in future research leadersEPSRC is overseeing the award of 74 EPSRC-UKRI Innovation Fellowships to enable researchers to work in partnership with industry in priority areas aligned to the Government’s Industrial Strategy challenges including Quantum Technologies, Digital Manufacturing and New Approaches to Data Science.

By providing vital experience of leadership and aiding the development of entrepreneurial and enterprise skills, the Fellowships, awarded to researchers at 37 universities, are designed to act as a springboard to success for future leaders in both academia and industry.

A total of £38.8 million has been invested from the Government’s National Productivity Investment Fund to establish the three-year fellowships, with more than £8.1 million contributed by industry, universities and other partners. Over 175 companies, 36 partner universities and 17 other partners including government agencies and Catapult centres will take part in the initiative.

Seven Fellows have been co-funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, and four by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Recent UKRI investmentsEPSRC is coordinating a range of investments on behalf of UK Research and Innovation, the new body comprising all seven UK Research Councils, Research England and Innovate UK. New centrally-led initiatives include the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF), Future Leaders Fellowships and Innovation Fellowships.

The Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund is part of the Government’s Industrial Strategy and a core pillar of its commitment to increase funding in research and development by £4.7 billion over four years. Delivered by UK Research and Innovation, ISCF brings together leading research and business to tackle the big societal and industrial challenges of today.


Recent UKRI & EPSRC investmentsNEWS£14 million for data science researchEPSRC is investing £14 million in five new research projects that take novel approaches to challenges in data science, including the development of new machine-learning methods and novel mathematics to obtain meaning from the ‘shape’ of data.

The projects, led by the University of Glasgow, Lancaster University, the University of Liverpool, and the University of Oxford, will bring together statisticians, computer scientists and environmental scientists, alongside public and private sector partners and stakeholders.

The multidisciplinary research involves companies and public bodies such as GSK, Unilever, Skyscanner, Dstl, the Met Office and Public Health England, which are contributing a further £3.7 million investment, and includes a further £500,000 from the Natural Environment Research Council.

£6.6 million for new engineering EPSRC is investing £6.6 million in 28 highly original projects as part of its Engineering for a Prosperous Nation agenda, which aligns with the Government’s Year of Engineering theme.

Researchers at 17 universities from a diverse range of fields and across all career stages will lead projects such as the use of novel materials to create artificial leaves for use in solar power generation, the investigation of new solutions to antimicrobial resistance in wastewater systems, the development of intelligent driver seats to act as co-pilots in autonomous cars, and the use of diamond quantum technology to investigate neurological diseases.

£5.5 million for ED&I projects EPSRC is investing £5.5 million in 11 projects aimed at improving equality, diversity and inclusion (ED&I) in UK universities.

The Inclusion Matters initiative is the first of its kind, and is part of the collective approach by UK Research and Innovation to address diversity and equality challenges.

£20 million for NMR equipmentEPSRC is co-investing £20 million in very high and ultra-high field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy equipment at eight UK universities.

The equipment, which has been co-funded by the Biotechnology and Biosciences Research Council, the Medical Research Council and the Natural Environment Research Council, will enable researchers to study materials and molecular structures to unprecedented levels of precision.

£16 million for international healthcare technologiesEPSRC and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) are investing £16 million in 15 projects to develop new healthcare technologies to tackle international health challenges.

The projects address two key needs: affordable portable imaging and tools for disease diagnosis; and low cost reliable prosthetics and orthotics for low and middle income countries. They range from the development of prosthetics for refugees fleeing Syria who have large bone loss injuries, to faster diagnosis and treatment of parasitic diseases such as malaria.

The projects are funded by EPSRC through the Global Challenges Research Fund and by NIHR through its Global Health Research programme.

£184 million investment in doctoral trainingForty-one UK universities will share in a £184 million EPSRC investment in training the next generation of engineers and scientists.

The Doctoral Training Partnerships (DTPs), previously known as Doctoral Training Grants, will be awarded to universities for the provision of doctoral study and are allocated over a two-year period on the basis of EPSRC research grant income and fellowships.

The flexibility of the DTP allows universities to generate additional funding, for example from industry, and potentially support higher numbers of students.

EPSRC supports 9,000 postdoctoral students each year, either via DTPs, Centres for Doctoral Training or Industrial CASE studentships.

Approximately 80 per cent of doctoral students, once they have completed their PhDs, go on to employment in business and public services, or into academia.

New Prosperity Partnerships launchedEPSRC is co-investing in seven new Prosperity Partnerships that will build links between the UK’s research base and leading industry partners such as AkzoNobel, AstraZeneca, Google, Rolls-Royce, Tata Steel, and Weir Group, plus small-to-medium enterprise, Oxford PV.

EPSRC’s investment of £20.4 million has been complemented by £16.8 million from industry partners and £4.9 million from universities involved in the research.

Among research challenges, the new round of investment will seek to develop new materials for solar panels; new bio-catalysts for use in the production of medicines; and more sustainable coatings and paints.

Prosperity Partnerships are EPSRC’s flagship approach to co-investing with business in long-term, user-inspired basic research. They are five-year, multi-million pound research collaborations on topics of national and global importance which have been co-created by leading UK universities and businesses with a strong research presence in the UK.

The first wave of Prosperity Partnerships, in 2017 saw a combined investment of £78 million in eleven cutting-edge research projects ranging from digital infrastructure networks to offshore wind technologies.


War on wasteBovine respiratory disease (BRD) is a complex disease that affects millions of animals and costs an estimated £80 million annually in the UK alone.

EPSRC-supported researchers at the University of Bristol are using artificial intelligence (AI) methods for early BRD diagnosis in dairy calves.

The team believe that a trained AI system will be capable of recognising subtle changes in temperature patterns leading to automated detection of BRD much earlier than at present, as well as have the ability to alert vets and farmers in a timely manner. They are confident their research will result in prototype products capable of commercialisation.

Keywords: Bristol AI calves

Upping the cyber anteResearchers at the University of Sheffield have solved a key puzzle in quantum physics that could help to make data transfer totally secure.

The team have developed a way of generating very rapid single-photon light pulses. Each photon, or particle of light, represents a bit of binary code – the fundamental language of computing. These photons cannot be intercepted without disturbing them in a way that would alert the sender that something was amiss.

Keywords: Sheffield photon data transfer

New insights into Earth’s formationAn international team of scientists have discovered fresh insights into the metallic core at the centre of our planet. The findings could aid understanding of how Earth was formed from elements in space, some 10 billion years ago.

The research may help to explain why Earth is the only planet known to have an abundance of nitrogen in its atmosphere – where it exists as a gas. Nitrogen in the air could emerge from deeper within the planet, where, for example, it could mix with other liquid metal. The findings could also shed light on how the planet’s atmosphere evolved and how it may develop in future.

The study, carried out by the University of Edinburgh with researchers in China and the US, was supported by EPSRC and the British Council.

Keywords: Edinburgh Earth’s core

RobochemistResearchers at the University of Glasgow have built a robotic device which uses artificial intelligence to discover new molecules.

The machine is learning to create chemical reactions that could lead to new medicines and materials. It works initially with a human chemist to find promising new types of molecules. Then artificial intelligence takes over and the robot sets off to discover new molecules on its own.

Keywords: AI-driven chemistry

THINGS WE’VE LEARNED To find out more, type the Keywords into your favourite internet search engine


Thermal camouflage

Inspired by nature, EPSRC-supported scientists at The University of Manchester, working with colleagues from the US and Turkey, have developed a thin, lightweight and flexible film, made from ‘wonder material’ graphene, that can outfox infrared cameras, allowing hot bodies to appear cool and cold items to appear warm. The invention can also help camouflage an object by making it appear the same temperature as its background.

The design, which can adapt to its surroundings, was inspired by the colour-shifting capabilities of cuttlefish, and could also be useful for covering radiators on satellites, allowing them to be tweaked to reflect heat when facing the sun and emit excess heat when facing deep space.

Keywords: Manchester cuttlefish infrared

Gelling cellsEPSRC-supported researchers at Imperial College London and Loughborough University have used lasers to connect, arrange and merge artificial cells, paving the way for networks of artificial cells that act like tissues.

The team say that by altering artificial cell membranes they can now get the cells to stick together like ‘stickle bricks’ – allowing them to be arranged into whole new structures.

Merging cells in this way could allow whatever chemicals they are carrying to mix within the new, larger cell, kicking off chemical reactions. This could be useful, for example, for delivering materials such as drugs into cells, and in changing the composition of cells in real time, getting them to adopt new functions.

Keywords: Imperial stickle bricks

LifesaversManchester Metropolitan University researchers have used advanced computer modelling to better understand how to safely launch and retrieve lifeboats from bigger ships.

The team used a computational fluid dynamics modelling tool to identify and reduce the risk of collision and unacceptable motions during marine launch and recovery operations, both civil and military.

Funded by EPSRC, the project was short-listed for an award in The Engineer magazine’s annual Collaborate to Innovate awards.

Keywords: Metropolitan lifeboat modelling

A cure for the common cold?EPSRC-supported researchers at Imperial College London have lab-tested a molecule that can combat the common cold virus by preventing it from hijacking human cells.

Early lab-based tests with human cells have shown the molecule’s ability to completely block multiple strains of cold virus, and the team hope to move to animal and then human trials.

A drug based on this research could be extremely beneficial if given early in infection, and the team are working on making a version that could be inhaled, so that it gets to the lungs quickly.

Keywords: Imperial common cold

Robots for nuclear sitesIt is estimated that up to £200 billion will be spent on the clean-up and decommissioning of nuclear waste over the next 100 years. Now, EPSRC-supported computer scientists at the Univeristy of Lincoln are developing artificial intelligence systems to enable self-learning robots to be deployed in place of humans in hazardous nuclear sites.

Tackling challenges such as waste handling, cell decommissioning and site monitoring, the team’s machine-learning algorithms will enable vision-guided robot grasping, manipulation and cutting, mobile robot navigation, outdoor mapping and navigation.

Keywords: Lincoln nuclear robots


Jumping jiveEPSRC-supported researchers at The University of Manchester have unlocked the secrets of how some predatory spiders catch their prey whilst hunting by successfully training a spider to jump different distances and heights for the first time.

The study is the most advanced of its kind to date and the first to use 3D CT scanning and high-speed, high-resolution cameras to record, monitor and analyse a spider’s movement and behaviour.

In addition to answering the question of why jumping spider anatomy and behaviour evolved the way it did, the team are using this improved understanding to imagine a new class of agile micro-robots that would be unthinkable using current engineering technologies.

Keywords: EPSRC spider jumping

Electronic circuits in fabricAn international team of researchers have successfully incorporated washable, stretchable and breathable electronic circuits into fabric, opening up new possibilities for smart textiles and wearable electronics.

The circuits were made with cheap, safe and environmentally friendly inks, and printed using conventional inkjet printing techniques.

The research was led by EPSRC-supported scientists from the University of Cambridge Graphene Centre, working with colleagues in Italy and China with funding from international sources, including the Chinese Government. They demonstrated how graphene – a two-dimensional form of carbon – can be directly printed onto fabric to produce integrated electronic circuits which are comfortable to wear and can survive up to 20 cycles in a typical washing machine.

Keywords: Cambridge graphene textiles

Graphene photosynthesisResearchers at The University of Manchester have discovered another new and unexpected physical effect in ‘wonder material’ graphene – membranes that could be used in devices to artificially mimic photosynthesis.

The new findings demonstrated an increase in the rate at which the material conducts protons when it is simply illuminated with sunlight. The ‘photo-proton’ effect, as it has been dubbed, could be exploited to design devices able to directly harvest solar energy to produce hydrogen gas, a promising green fuel. Other possible applications include light-induced water splitting and photo-catalysis.

Graphene is a sheet of carbon atoms just one atom thick with numerous unique physical and mechanical properties. It is an excellent conductor of electrons and can absorb light of all wavelengths.

Keywords: Graphene photosynthesis

One-hour liver damage testA rapid blood test that can detect liver damage before symptoms appear has been designed and verified using clinical samples by a team from UCL and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

The researchers, co-supported by EPSRC, the Royal Society and healthcare partners, say the test could address a huge need for early detection of liver disease as it distinguishes between samples taken from healthy individuals and those with varying degrees of liver damage. They hope it could be used on a routine basis in GP surgeries and hospital clinics to screen people with an elevated risk of liver disease, so that they can access treatment before it’s too late.

Keywords: UCL Amherst liver

THINGS WE’VE LEARNED To find out more, type the Keywords into your favourite internet search engine


Plasma tackles allergensIt is estimated that over 12 million people in the UK alone suffer from allergies as a result of airborne allergens, with a cost to the economy of around £7.1 billion per annum through lost productivity.

EPSRC-supported researchers at the University of Liverpool, led by Dr James Walsh, are developing a device that harnesses the power of cold plasma to destroy airborne allergens on contact.

The team hope the low-cost device could significantly improve the quality of life for a vast number of people.

Keywords: James Walsh allergen

Hand that sees scoops international award

A bionic hand that can ‘see’ objects and pick them up by itself has won a prestigious 2018 Netexplo UNESCO Award in Paris.

Selected from over 2,000 innovations from around the world, the hand has been given the award in recognition of its “potential to have a profound and lasting impact on society”.

Developed with EPSRC funding by biomedical engineers at Newcastle University led by Dr Kianoush Nazarpour (pictured), the new generation of prosthetic limb allows the wearer to reach for objects automatically, without thinking, just like a real hand. It is fitted with a camera which instantaneously takes a picture of the object in front of it, assesses its shape and size and triggers a series of movements in the hand.

Keywords: Newcastle bionic hand

Bone sugarScientists at the University of York have shown that altering the structure of sugar chains on the surface of stem cells could help promote bone growth in the body. The new discovery could have important implications for future treatments of osteoporosis.

This is the first time that these sugar chains have been connected to bone growth and could pave the way for new investigations into possible future treatments for osteoporosis, where bone strength is a particular issue.

The research was supported by Arthritis Research UK and funded by EPSRC.

Keywords: York bone sugar chains

New form of carbonA new form of carbon created by scientists at Lancaster University and China’s Jilin University could be utilised to improve the safety, power, charge speed and lifespan of batteries for phones, computers and electric vehicles.

During their work, the team, who were supported by EPSRC, the Royal Society and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, realised that one of the forms of carbon they had created could store a large volume of lithium ions and also conduct electricity.

Keywords: Lancaster new carbon

Bug crushersEPSRC-supported researchers at UCL, working with colleagues from the National Physical Laboratory and with support from Diamond Light Source, have created an artificial virus which kills bacteria on first contact, and could help in the global fight against antibiotic resistance, with more than 700,000 people across the world dying from drug-resistant infections every year.

This new virus is built using the same geometric principles that determine structures of naturally occurring viruses. The resulting synthetic virus acts as an incredibly small spherical ‘drone’ that, upon recognising bacterial cells, attacks their cell walls with bullet speed and efficacy.

Keywords: NPL artificial virus

PIONEER 19 Autumn 2018

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Sandwiches’ colossal carbon costsAccording to the British Sandwich Association, every year in the UK we eat over 11.5 billion sandwiches, spending £8 billion in the process, at an average cost of £2 per snack. That’s a lot of dough.

If you find these figures startling, consider this: our annual sandwich consumption equates to 9.5 million tonnes of CO2 emissions – equivalent to the annual use of 8.6 million cars – according to EPSRC-supported research at The University of Manchester led by Professor Adisa Azapagic (pictured).

The research team arrived at these findings after conducting the first-ever study looking at the carbon footprint of the sandwiches we consume. They considered the whole life cycle of sandwiches, including the production of ingredients, sandwiches and their packaging, as well as food waste

discarded at home and elsewhere in the supply chain.

The team’s results show the largest contributor to a sandwich’s carbon footprint is the agricultural production and processing of its ingredients. Depending on the type, this can account for between 37-67 per cent of CO2 equivalent for ready-made sandwiches.

Sandwiches containing meat are the worst culprits, all over 1,000g of CO2 equivalent each.

Keeping sandwiches chilled in shops and supermarkets also significantly contributes to their carbon footprint and their equivalent greenhouse gas emissions.

Packaging material comes in at up to 8.5 per cent, and transporting materials and refrigerating sandwiches themselves adds a further four per cent.

The study concludes that the carbon footprint of the snacks could be reduced by as much as 50 per cent if a combination of changes were made to recipes, packaging and waste disposal.

Extending sell-by and use-by dates would help prevent at least 2,000 tonnes of sandwich waste annually.

Professor Azapagic says: “Commercial sandwiches undergo rigorous shelf-life testing and are normally safe for consumption beyond the use-by date stated on the label.

“You could also consider making a home-made sandwich as our results show that, like-for-like, the carbon footprint is half that of the commercial sandwich.”

Keywords: Sandwich carbon footprint

Predictive policingAn EPSRC-supported consortium including mathematicians, policing partners and social scientists has been formed to improve ‘predictive policing’ and tackle other challenges for future cities.

Predictive policing uses maths and statistics to predict times and places that serious crimes will occur based on historical crime data in a given area, allowing police to efficiently allocate resources.

The team are drawing on the results of a highly successful trial in Los Angeles and are confident they can improve on these.

Project leader, Professor Mark Girolami, from Imperial College London, says: “With more powerful models we can start to predict not just where, but when, and what type of crime is likely to occur.”

Keywords: EPSRC predictive policing


Professor Athanassios Fokas, an EPSRC-supported mathematician from the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge, has introduced a new methodology suggesting a solution to one of the greatest open problems in the history of mathematics. His completely new approach suggests the validity of the 110-year-old Lindelöf hypothesis. The result has far-reaching implications for fields like quantum computing, number theory and encryption, which forms the basis for cybersecurity.

Keywords: Fokas hypothesis

Chemical engineer, Dr Kyra Sedransk Campbell, an EPSRC/Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellow at Imperial College London, has been awarded the prestigious Nicklin Medal from the Institute of Chemical Engineers for being an outstanding young researcher and role model. The medal is an international award made to an outstanding early career researcher.

Keywords: Kyra Nicklin

As part of their mission to raise awareness of electronic waste with a range of audiences, researchers from the EPSRC-funded Closed Loop Emotionally Valuable E-waste Recovery (CLEVER) project devised an interactive game, based on the popular children’s game ‘Operation’.

The game has been successfully road-tested at events such as Glastonbury Festival. CLEVER involves researchers from the Universities of Bath, Newcastle, Surrey and Loughborough.

Keywords: CORE e-waste game

EPSRC-supported scientists at the University of Glasgow, led by Professor David Cumming, have developed a Star Trek-inspired handheld ‘tricorder’ for use in medical diagnostics.

The device, based on a silicon chip, pairs a handheld sensor with a smartphone app to measure the levels of various metabolites in fluid samples from patients. The team say the breakthrough could help make rapid, sophisticated medical diagnostics more accessible to people around the world.

Keywords: Glasgow tricorder

Pulling power

University of Sheffield researchers, funded by EPSRC and the EU, have shown that animals spin silk by pulling rather than pushing it out of their bodies. They suggest that if this process can be copied in an industrial setting, it could improve how synthetic materials are processed and offer more environmentally-friendly alternatives.

Research leader, Dr Chris Holland, says: “If I gave you a piece of chewing gum and asked you to make me a fibre, you wouldn’t push it through your teeth as it’s too stiff. You’d grab one end and pull it out – and that’s what the silkworm and spider do.”

Synthetic textiles are currently made by pushing a liquid raw material through a dye. The liquid is solidified by exposing it to harsh chemicals and through high

changes in temperature. Silk, however, can solidify into a fibre at room temperature and leave only water behind – causing less environmental damage.

PhD student Jamie Sparkes, who is the lead author of the group’s paper on the research, says: “Silk is one of the most promising green biomaterials, and could be the perfect replacement for nylon and polyester-based clothing.

“The traditional production process for silk is both arduous and time-consuming, but if we can bypass that by mimicking nature in an industrial setting, we could improve not only silk, but also how we process our synthetic materials.”

Keywords: Sheffield silk pulling


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3D-printed microscope Dr Richard Bowman, an EPSRC-supported researcher at the University of Bath, has developed a game-changing high quality microscope, using consumer electronics and ultra-low cost 3D-printed components.

At just £30, the device uses mass-produced lenses, a Raspberry Pi mini-computer and a 3D-printed plastic frame to reliably magnify up to 1.5 millionths of a metre. Not only is it a fraction of the cost of alternatives, its open-source design is available to anyone with a 3D printer anywhere on the planet, and could provide health workers in the developing world with life-saving diagnosis tools for diseases such as malaria. The project is funded through the UK Government’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).

Dr Bowman says: “The biggest challenge has been to achieve repeatable, precise positioning of samples using roughly manufactured plastic parts, but we have managed to do this, enabling people to quickly manufacture a precision device on location without large start-up costs.”

Dr Bowman, an optical physicist, conceived the idea during a Research Fellowship from the Royal Commission

at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, and was kick-started by £5,000 in seed funding from an ambitious interdisciplinary research programme called OpenPlant.

Co-funded by EPSRC and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, OpenPlant seeks to underpin advances in UK agriculture and bio-production through the development and open sharing of new tools and methods for plant synthetic biology.

With support from OpenPlant and the GCRF, Dr Bowman’s technology has evolved into a family of low cost 3D-printed microscopes, optical devices and accessories found in community labs, schools, social enterprises and research labs worldwide.

As well as low cost models, the microscope can be equipped with motors and objective lenses to make an instrument that’s at home in a research environment.

The hybrid screen-based design uses a modified webcam as the optical detector, making it possible to automate part of what can be a

long and boring process of examining individual samples through an eyepiece. Dr Bowman says: “The microscope automatically scans the sample, and the technician pans through the images on a screen rather than through an eyepiece, looking for parasites – it’s like using Google Maps.”

The technology has been applied by WaterScope, an award-winning not-for-profit start-up co-founded by Dr Bowman and emerging from the Cambridge Postdoc Business Plan Competition, led by Cambridge Enterprise and Entrepreneurial Postdocs of Cambridge. The company is using microscopy to bring safe drinking water to rural and urban settings, and bring about better diagnostics for public health and sanitation in the developing world.

With support from EPSRC and the Royal Academy of Engineering, WaterScope is taking automation to the next level through the development of a simple-to-use bacterial imaging device which employs image recognition technology to automatically identify and count bacterial colonies.

Keywords: Bowman microscope


Dr Louise Jennings has led EPSRC-supported research at the University of Leeds to develop a new ISO global standard for total hip-joint prostheses that recognises the need for them to be tested beyond the ‘normal’ walking gait to better predict the risk of failure in patients. Medical device and implant companies must obtain a CE mark to sell their product in Europe, with similar approaches taken for sales in the USA.

Keywords: Jennings hip prostheses

People living in flood-prone areas could benefit from new statistical models being developed by EPSRC-supported researchers at Lancaster University and the University of Oslo, led by Dr Christian Rohrbeck.

The model improves on existing flooding models by more accurately capturing the relationship between the number of insurance claims and weather conditions.

Keywords: Lancaster Oslo flood

Professor Richard Bowden, from the University of Surrey, is leading EPSRC-supported research to develop the world’s first machine capable of turning British Sign Language into written English. The project aims to recognise the signer’s hand motion and shape, facial expression and body posture.

Keywords: Bowden BSL

EPSRC-funded doctoral students were among the winners at the 2018 STEM for Britain competition at the Houses of Parliament, among them Helen Parker, from the University of Edinburgh, who won the £3,000 gold award for physics and was also named overall winner. Louise Mason, from the University of Glasgow, won the £3,000 gold award for engineering, Michelle Teplensky, from the University of Cambridge, won the £1,250 chemistry silver award and Evan Sheridan won the bronze award for physics.

The STEM awards, which aim to help politicians understand more about the UK’s thriving science and engineering base, offer an unparalleled opportunity for early-career researchers to showcase their work and engage with MPs.

Keywords: 2018 STEM for Britain

EPSRC-supported researchers at the University of Sussex and Swansea University have invented a way to morph liquid metal into physical shapes.

The team say the findings represent an “extremely promising” new class of materials that can be programmed to seamlessly change shape. This opens up new possibilities in soft robotics and shape-changing digital displays.

While the invention might bring to mind the film Terminator 2, in which the title character morphs out of a pool of liquid metal, the creation of 3D shapes is still

some way off. More immediate applications could include reprogrammable circuit boards and conductive ink.

The electric fields used to shape the liquid are created by a computer, meaning that the position and shape of the liquid metal can be programmed and controlled dynamically.

Yutaka Tokuda, the Research Associate working on this project at the University of Sussex, says: “This is a new class of programmable materials in a liquid state which can dynamically transform from a simple droplet shape to many other complex geometries in a controllable manner.

“While this work is in its early stages, the compelling evidence of detailed 2D control of liquid metals excites us to explore more potential applications in computer graphics, smart electronics, soft robotics and flexible displays.”

Keywords: Yutaka metal

Metal morphers

manufactured at a lower cost and can be easily incorporated in flexible and stretchable substrates, enabling their implementation in wearable or implantable sensing applications.

Dr Pappa says: “An implantable device could allow us to monitor the metabolic activity of the brain in real time under stress conditions, such as immediately before a seizure.”

The project was funded by EPSRC, the Marie Curie Foundation and the KAUST Office of Sponsored Research. Project partners include King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia.

Keywords: Anna-Maria Pappa blood

An international team of researchers led by Dr Anna-Maria Pappa (pictured) at the University of Cambridge have developed a low-cost sensor made from semiconducting plastic that can be used to diagnose or monitor a wide range of health conditions, such as surgical complications or neurodegenerative diseases.

The sensor can measure the amount of critical metabolites, such as lactate or glucose, that are present in sweat, tears, saliva or blood.

When incorporated into a diagnostic device, the sensor could allow patient health conditions to be monitored quickly, cheaply and accurately.

The new device has a far simpler design than existing sensors, and opens up a wide range of new possibilities for health monitoring down to the cellular level.

Since the sensor does not consist of metals such as gold or platinum, it can be

Low-cost health sensor


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Juice extractorsBrill Power, a spin-out company from the University of Oxford, has developed award-winning technology that increases the lifetime and reliability of multi-cell battery packs while avoiding over-engineering.

Formed to bring to market EPSRC-supported research led by Professor David Howey, the company is tackling a major failing in conventional lithium-ion batteries – limited lifetime and diminishing storage capacity.

The company’s CEO, Christoph Birkl, who co-founded Brill Power after finishing his PhD in Professor Howey’s group at Oxford, says: “Batteries are generally perceived as a green way to store and transport energy. But there is also the important fact that producing batteries takes a lot of thermal energy and lots of materials, some of which are nasty chemicals.”

Large lithium battery packs are usually limited by their weakest cells, which degrade at different rates. As the cells are connected in series, the battery is as weak as its weakest cell.

Christoph says: “We devised an intelligent control system that can extend the lifetime of multi-cell batteries by up to 60 per cent while maintaining high performance. We do that by individually managing every cell in a battery pack.

“It’s estimated the technology could help save up to 23 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent annually by 2020 if all lithium batteries were equipped with it.”

The company has won a host of awards including the top prize at the Shell New Energy Challenge 2017. It was also chosen to showcase its technology at the European Parliament in Brussels.

In 2017, Brill Power was selected to lead a consortium to develop batteries for the electrification of vehicles as part of the £246 million Faraday Battery Challenge, led by EPSRC, Innovate UK and the Advanced Propulsion Centre, under the Government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.

The company has also joined forces with E-Car, the UK’s leading low-emission car club, to explore ways to enhance battery manufacture and performance of electric vehicles.

Christoph says: “We have to improve batteries… we have to make sure we can get them to be as efficient as possible, get every joule of energy out of them to make them live as long as the cars live.”

Keywords: Brill Power


EPSRC-supported researchers at Heriot-Watt University have launched an online mapping survey to help their research into mitigating the negative impact that environmental noise has on city dwellers’ health and wellbeing.

The team, led by Dr Sarah Payne, wants residents in Edinburgh, Brighton & Hove and Sheffield to go online and identify the quietest and calmest parts of the cities. This will establish whether the councils and public agree over which areas are quiet or calm, and determine the best criteria to identify those areas.

Keywords: HW Payne survey

EPSRC-supported scientists at Imperial College London have designed a way for bacteria that don’t usually live together – such as those that normally live on the skin, and those that live in the sea – to communicate with each other.

The research, co-led by Dr Guy-Bart Stan and Dr Karen Polizzi, could pave the way for engineering new bacteria systems to aid a number of processes, such as producing green energy.

Keywords: Guy-Bart bacteria

Drug discovery could be significantly accelerated thanks to a new high precision machine-learning model, developed by an international collaboration of researchers, including Dr James Kermode, an EPSRC-supported scientist at Warwick’s School of Engineering.

The system can predict whether or not a candidate drug molecule will bind to a target protein with 99 per cent accuracy. This is equivalent to predicting with near-certainty the activity of hundreds of compounds after actually testing them – by running only a couple of dozen tests. The new method could accelerate the screening of candidate molecules thousands of times over.

Keywords: Kermode drugs Warwick

Researchers from the University of Central Lancashire, led by Dr Seren Griffiths, are creating an augmented reality visual reconstruction of the Neolithic Bryn Celli Ddu burial chamber in Northern Wales. The project is funded by EPSRC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Keywords: Seren Bryn Celli

Water from sand

With EPSRC funding, Dr Alison Parker, from Cranfield University, is investigating the use of ‘sand dams’ in countries with acute water problems to provide a source of clean water close to people’s homes, particularly in countries such as Kenya.

Sand dams are impermeable concrete structures constructed across seasonal rivers in order to trap both water and sediment (sand) behind them during rain storms. The water is stored in the spaces between the sand grains and extracted using a well during the dry season. With no standing water, there are fewer threats from mosquitoes and other water-borne hazards. However, there are to date no studies on the quality of water removed from sand dams.

Dr Parker says: “There is an assumption that the water quality is protected by the sand, but this has not been tested.

“We know that pathogens are removed by biological processes when water is passed through clean sand – this principle of slow sand filtration is used in conventional water treatment.

“Through field measurements, laboratory experiments and computer modelling we are testing the hypothesis that water in a sand dam is not only protected from contamination, but its quality is improved as it passes through the sand.”

Keywords: Parker sand dam

lab components, equipment and materials to over 1,000 research institutions in more than 80 countries.

The company’s sales have seen continuous growth over the past six years, and over 80 per cent of total turnover is attributed to overseas sales. The company’s workforce has also tripled.

Keywords: Ossila Queen’s

Ossila Limited, a company formed by physicists at the University of Sheffield to bring EPSRC-supported research to market, has been awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for its outstanding achievements in international trade.

Co-founded by Professor David Lidzey (pictured), Ossila’s solar cell prototyping platform has enabled researchers across the world to create functional solar cells, and advance research into renewable energy devices. Ossila now supplies its

Queen’s Award for Sheffield company


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Scrap leaderRhys Charles, who is studying for an Engineering Doctorate at the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Industrial Functional Coatings (COATED), led by Swansea University, has found a way to repurpose the precious metal, platinum, found in electronic devices such as laptops, tablets and mobile phones, for use in solar cells.

His research has helped his sponsor company, METech Recycling, a provider of full-lifecycle electronic equipment management services, maximise financial and environmental benefits. It has also informed the Welsh Government’s policy on the circular economy.

Precious and heavy metals such as platinum, palladium, gold, silver and copper are a key component in the coatings that enable solar cells to generate electricity efficiently. They are, however, becoming increasingly scarce as well as more expensive to procure.

In a project sponsored by METech, Rhys demonstrated how platinum can be recovered from electronic devices, specifically thermocouples, which are used to measure temperature.

The metal is recovered in the form of chloroplatinic acid. This acid can be used in solar cell manufacture to deposit a transparent layer of platinum on the cells, which then controls the chemical reactions and enables the cells to produce power.

Rhys says: “We looked at getting the components recycled, but found there wasn’t suitable value that was recoverable through traditional recycling processes. So, instead of recovering the platinum we turned it directly into an added value compound – chloropatinic acid – which costs twice the price of platinum, and was hence worth repurposing.”

Rhys shared the fruits of his labour with colleagues from SPECIFIC, an EPSRC-supported Innovation

and Knowledge Centre at Swansea University (see page 29), which is developing functional coatings for glass and steel walls and roofs which can generate, store and release energy.

Rhys’s research led him to co-author a report on the recovery of critical raw materials from waste electrical and electronic equipment for the influential circular economy campaign group Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP). Rhys was also invited to join the Expert Advisory Group for the Mapping Critical Resources for Wales project on behalf of the Welsh Government.

Gareth Liversage, METech Recycling’s former site manager, says: “Rhys’s time with us had a huge impact on how our business performed. From his analysis of materials we were able to find the right end-process with the maximum financial and environmental return possible.”

Keywords: Rhys Charles circular

Mouth plasterEPSRC-supported scientists from the University of Sheffield’s School of Clinical Dentistry, working with Copenhagen company Dermtreat A/S, have developed a plaster which sticks inside the mouth that could revolutionise the treatment of oral conditions.

The unique biodegradeable patch, made from special polymers which are able to stick to moist surfaces, can be used to administer steroids directly to oral ulcers or lesions whilst also creating a protective barrier around the affected area, accelerating the healing process.

Until now ulcers inside the mouth have been treated using creams or mouthwashes for the whole mouth, but these are often ineffective due to inadequate drug contact times with the lesion.

Dr Craig Murdoch, who led the research, says: “Current treatments consist of using steroids in the form of mouthwashes, creams or ointments, but these are often ineffective due to inadequate drug contact times with the lesion.

“Patients who have trialled the patch found it to be very comfortable to wear and they were really pleased with the length of adhesion which makes it particularly effective and efficient.”

Dermtreat A/S was recently awarded US$17.7 million from the venture capital firm Sofinnova to take the patches into phase two clinical trials both in the US and the UK.

The company is also funding further research at the Dental School to develop the next generation of patches that contain other useful drugs.

Keywords: Sheffield mouth plaster


Professor Davide Mattia, from the University of Bath, is developing a unique nanoporous metal foam that uses sunlight to safely remove micro-pollutants from water without increasing carbon emissions or producing toxic by-products.

Professor Mattia, who holds an EPSRC Established Career Fellowship in Water Engineering, is working with academic and industrial partners to retrofit existing water treatment plants to accommodate this new technology.

Keywords: Mattia Bath pollutants

Professor Anthony Bull, from Imperial College London, is investigating the development of prostheses for through-knee amputees, such as landmine victims, with the aim of having them manufactured locally in landmine-plagued countries such as Cambodia at low cost.

Keywords: Anthony Bull Cambodia

Professor Jonathan Cooper, from the University of Glasgow, is developing paper DNA diagnostic tests and mobile-phone based imaging technology to enable diagnosis of parasitic diseases in remote locations.

Keywords: Glasgow paper DNA

Dr Ben Ward, an alumnus from STREAM, the EPSRC Industrial Doctorate Centre for the water sector, and currently Drinking Water Asset Manager, South West Water, has been accepted into the Institute of Water’s ‘Rising Stars’ initiative, which recognises individuals in the UK water utility sector with the potential and drive to succeed within the water industry.

Keywords: Ben Ward Rising Star

Dr Dan Stowell, an EPSRC-supported research fellow in machine listening at Queen Mary University of London, has developed Warblr, an app for mobile telephones and tablets which identifies a UK bird from the recording made by the user.

Dr Stowell hopes to take the computer analysis of the sounds birds make to a new level, to discover more about the social interaction that is going on. In turn, this will help in the understanding of human speech evolution.

Keywords: Warblr

Cat snapping

was repackaged into a form that was small and light enough to be carried by a domestic cat.

Keywords: Hailes Big cats

With EPSRC funding, Professor Stephen Hailes from UCL, and Professor Alan Wilson from the Royal Veterinary College, developed GPS tracking collars and other smart technologies to monitor the behaviour of domestic and wild cats.

The team worked closely with the BBC on two major TV series. For BBC One’s Big Cats, which unlocked the secrets of wild cheetah behaviour, the collars enabled 3D tracking and terrain analysis using aircraft-mounted and UAV-based systems.

For Horizon’s The Secret Life of the Cat, which tracked the territorial behaviour of domestic cats, the core technology from the team’s wildlife collars, which includes a GPS receiver, accelerometers, gyroscopes and central processing unit,


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Tackling the toxinsUniversity of Bath researchers have developed a low cost, sustainable and recyclable device for detecting toxic compounds in water. The technology has far-reaching potential for use in parts of the world where access to safe drinking water is limited.

Inspired by the simplicity of litmus paper – commonly used for the rapid assessment of acidity in water – the team devised a way to screen-print biodegradable carbon electrodes onto a single piece of paper, creating a cheap but effective microbial fuel cell (MFC).

MFCs use the natural biological processes of ‘electric’ bacteria to generate an electric signal. The team attached these bacteria to the carbon electrodes. When the bacteria are exposed to polluted water, a change in the electric signal occurs, which can

be used as a warning message that the water is unsafe to drink.

The proof-of-concept device overcomes many of the problems associated with testing water quality in the developing world. It is easy to use and transport, weighs less than one gram and is expected to cost no more than £1. It is also environmentally friendly since the paper sensor is made of biodegradable components.

The EPSRC-supported team, co-led by Dr Mirella Di Lorenzo (pictured with the device), are now investigating how to link up the sensor with an electronic device such as a mobile phone, via a wireless transmitter, for a quick and user-friendly way of identifying if a water supply is safe to use.

Dr Di Lorenzo says: “This work could lead to a revolutionary way of testing water at the point of use, which is not

only green, easy to operate and rapid, but also affordable to all.”

The research also involved colleagues from the University of Bath’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, who designed the devices.

Co-research leader, Professor Janet Scott, whose team devised the materials used in the devices, says: “This is a great example of how scientists and engineers working closely together can develop useful technologies with the potential to impact positively on the lives of citizens globally.”

The research received funding from EPSRC via the UK Government’s Global Challenges Research Fund, and involved a partnership with the Brazilian Nanotechnology National Laboratory.

Keyword: Bath Di Lorenzo water

PEOPLEPEOPLE


OpenCell, an innovative complex of 20 low cost, start-up studios built out of shipping containers, has been launched near London’s Shepherd’s Bush Market to provide affordable spaces for innovators and entrepreneurs to build, test and demonstrate biotech-focused innovations.

Conceived by Helene Steiner, a UK-based designer, researcher and member of the EPSRC/BBSRC OpenPlant Forum, the project is co-funded and advised by Professors Paul Freemont and Richard Kitney, co-directors of SynbiCITE, an EPSRC-supported centre for synthetic biology at Imperial College London.

Keywords: Biolab Steiner

A multidisciplinary project team are developing a microchip-based test for the detection and monitoring of breast cancer recurrence. The project, co-funded by EPSRC and Cancer Research UK, is led by Dr Melpomeni Kalofonou and Professor Chris Toumazou, from Imperial College London, in collaboration with cancer specialists Professors Charles Coombes and Simak Ali, and with Professor Jacqui Shaw from the University of Leicester. The system may help to predict the risk of breast cancer relapse and, repeated over the course of treatment, monitor disease progression and drug response, allowing treatment to be tailored to the patient.

Keywords: Toumazou liquid biopsy

UCL researchers have developed a quick and simple test to predict which people with early-stage Parkinson’s disease are likely to develop dementia.

The EPSRC-suppported research team, led by Dr Rimona Weil, developed their idea for the test after noticing that many people with Parkinson’s say they have trouble reading CAPTCHA images, an online security check using distorted text to tell humans and computers apart.

Keywords: Weil cats and dogs

With EPSRC support, Professor Paulo Jorge Bartolo is developing low-cost biodegradable prostheses that can be manufactured with 3D printing. The University of Manchester project is to be directed at first at helping Syrian refugees who have lost limbs.

Keywords: Bartolo prosthesis

Hip mimic

at Leeds, to develop materials and structures designed to mimic human bone and tissue.

They are also investigating the use of 3D-printing techniques to create material properties like those found in the natural human hip, in order to understand how it performs at the extremes of loading and motion.

Keywords: Leeds hip simulator

Around 80 million people worldwide suffer from hip osteoarthritis, of whom an increasing number require a replacement joint.

With EPSRC funding, University of Leeds researchers led by Dr Sophie Williams (pictured) are developing a mechanical anatomical hip simulator to advance the understanding of hip shape and motion and improve outcomes for hip replacement patients.

Professor Williams says: “Computer simulations are great, and they enable us to go through lots of different variables very quickly, but we need to understand what is physically happening to the materials.

“This project is looking at mechanical performance when you go to extremes of motion, so not necessarily gymnastics, but maybe just bending down to tie your shoe laces, which can cause impingement in the joint.”

The team are working with Professor Russ Harris and Dr Rob Kay, both advanced manufacturing engineers

sufferers self-manage their conditions, as well as feel better and live longer.

Dr Yang says: “Dry electrodes, printed onto everyday clothing fabric, will deliver a small electrical current to interfere with the pain signals and stimulate the release of the body’s natural endorphins, easing the pain.”

Keywords: Kai Yang textiles

The pain of millions of people living with arthritis in the UK could be eased through new e-textile technologies being developed by the University of Southampton’s Smart Electronic Materials and Systems group.

Dr Kai Yang (pictured) has been awarded an EPSRC-UKRI Innovation Fellowship to develop e-textile technology to help arthritis

Smart textiles ease pain

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An international research team led by UCL have developed a way for technology that enables surfaces, such as windows, to essentially clean themselves. Applications for the technology include self-cleaning worktops and even clothes.

Using cutting-edge chemistry and inspired by natural processes, the team devised a new kind of paint that takes its cue from the water repelling properties of plants such as the lotus whose leaves have stubbled surfaces that cause rainwater to ball into tight droplets. When these balls roll along the surface of the leaf, they pick up dirt, viruses and bacteria, cleaning it but not making it wet. In this way, a rain shower could clean a car instead of making it dirty.

Working at the nanoscale, the team developed a paint that, just like the lotus leaf, has a rough surface, and

is ‘superhydrophobic’ (highly afraid of water). They added a hydrophobic chemical called fluorosilane, which makes the surface waxy. The effect is that water forms near-spherical droplets that pick up dirt as they roll off – acting like a miniature vacuum cleaner.

The breakthrough builds on long-term EPSRC support of research into surface sciences at UCL, led by Professors Ivan Parkin and Claire Carmalt (pictured).

While self-cleaning surfaces are not a new invention, most are short-lived after they have been applied. The UCL team came up with a simple yet ingenious solution to this problem.

Professor Carmalt says: “The biggest challenge for the widespread application of self-cleaning surfaces is finding a way to make them tough enough to withstand everyday damage.

The surfaces tend to be mechanically weak and so rub off easily, but by pairing our paint with different adhesives we’ve shown it is possible to make a robust self-cleaning surface that makes the paint effective even after being scratched, scuffed or exposed to oil.

“We paired the paint with commercially available adhesives so our methods can be scaled-up for use in industry such as car manufacture. Potential applications include paint for cars, antimicrobial coatings to combat hospital infections, and within a new type of smart window that could cut window-cleaning costs in tall buildings and reduce heating bills.”

Keywords: Carmalt cleaning

Pane relief

The hole story

Growing underground

Dr Valeska Ting (pictured), from the University of Bristol, an EPSRC Early Career Fellow, has led the development of composite materials able to absorb and store hydrogen gas at high densities, potentially enabling the gas to be stored safely and compactly, making it suitable as a fuel to power vehicles.

The composites are made from nanostructured carbons, metal-organic frameworks or zeolites, all of which have a high surface area and act like a sponge, absorbing hydrogen and storing it in nanometre-sized pores at higher densities than is possible in gas form.

The team have incorporated active responsive polymers into the composite, which can change shape in response to light, heat and magnetic fields. As the polymers shift, the pores in the composite can be blocked or unblocked, enabling hydrogen to move through them.

Existing porous materials can only store gas at very high pressures or very low temperatures in order to carry the amount of hydrogen needed for transportation, and so cannot be used at room temperatures.

Dr Ting says: “Hydrogen is a gas at room temperatures and pressures, which takes up a lot of volume. Because the gas is stored within a solid material, you can carry it around, instead of carrying a giant balloon of hydrogen gas or a high pressure tank.”

The team estimate their new materials could store up to 10 times more hydrogen at room temperature than existing materials, and could find application in many other fields of research, such as in CO2 capture, controllable drug delivery and smart packaging, and will enable Dr Ting to develop a new research area in active gas trapping composites.

Keywords: Ting zeolites

Researchers from the EPSRC-supported Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction (CSIC) have developed a smart monitoring system for Growing Underground, an award-winning urban farming facility, which is growing micro greens and salad leaves in former WW2 air raid shelters 120 feet below the streets of London.

The CSIC team, led by Dr Ruchi Choudhary, installed wireless sensors and web cams that monitor temperature, humidity, CO2, air velocity and light in a section of the tunnel used for growing crops. And the plants, fed by hydroponic systems, are thriving.

Keywords: Growing underground


Researchers at Queen Mary University of London, led by Dr Julien Gautrot, have discovered that cells can ‘walk’ on liquids a bit like the way geckos stick to other surfaces.

The research, co-funded by EPSRC and the Swedish Government, could lead to the design of a new generation of cell technologies for the improved production of adherent stem cells for regenerative medicine.

Keywords: Cells walk on liquid

Scientists have developed a new predictive computer model which aims to help reduce the prevalence of liver fluke disease, which can significantly impact livestock production in farms, leading to an estimated £300 million annual loss in productivity in the UK alone.

The research involves teams from the University of Bristol, Queen’s University Belfast, the University of Liverpool and Scotland’s Rural College and was funded by EPSRC, the Royal Society and Bristol’s Cabot and Elizabeth Blackwell Institutes.

Keywords: Bristol liver fluke

EPSRC-supported scientists at the University of Glasgow have shown that nanoscale quantities of liquid can be brought to a boil if they are shaken at extreme speeds. The findings could in theory help improve systems that prevent the build-up of ice on aeroplanes; enhance cooling systems in smartphones; and make it possible to develop appliances that dry clothes more quickly using less energy.

The team, led by Dr Rohit Pillai, used the EPSRC-supported ARCHER UK National Supercomputing Service to run its simulations.

Keywords: Archer boil extreme speeds

On 21 May, 2018, Dr Melanie Windridge, a plasma physicist and science communicator, whose PhD in fusion energy was funded by EPSRC, climbed to the summit of Mount Everest. Her achievement is part of an ongoing outreach project to help inspire young people, especially girls, to reach new heights in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and business.

Keywords: Windridge Everest


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Cooking with sunlightMore than 2.7 billion people in the developing world use fossil fuels, such as coal, or biomass, such as wood and charcoal, as a primary cooking fuel. They do so out of necessity; it is the only fuel they can afford.

But using these fuels can also be a matter of life and death, as soot and smoke emissions are a primary cause of serious health problems related to indoor air pollution. Factor in deforestation and greenhouse emissions and the need for cleaner, affordable cooking systems becomes obvious.

EPSRC-supported researchers at the Centre for Sustainable Energy Use in Food Chains (CSEF) at Brunel University and researchers at the University of Technology Jamaica have developed and tested a small solar hydrogen plant suitable for small communities in the developing world.

The kit is made up of solar panels, an electrolyser and hydrogen storage cylinders suitable for household distribution.

The multidisciplinary project was funded by the Caribbean & Pacific

Research Programme for Sustainable Development and the European APC, a regulatory and development consultancy.

The CSEF team for this project, led by Professor Maria Kolokotroni, carried out case studies in Ghana, Indonesia and Jamaica in communities of 20 households where they trialled the solar hydrogen cooking unit as well as a metal hydride storage system.

The system was sized to generate enough hydrogen to provide for typical domestic cooking demand. The team’s findings indicated that 10 tonnes of CO2 per year per household could be saved by replacing harmful biomass fuel with hydrogen. The results also revealed substantial improvements in air quality and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Project researcher, Dr Evangelia Topriska, now Assistant Professor at Heriot-Watt University, Dubai Campus (pictured), says: “Hydrogen is a clean and sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. It has no carbon emissions and offers important improvements in health and quality of life. It also reduces deforestation for firewood

and charcoal. Basically, you are cooking with water, which is the only by-product.”

Families in Jamaica are now trialling a small-scale system using compressed hydrogen gas cylinders. The team are considering conducting similar research in African countries.

The main drawback at present is the capital cost, although Dr Topriska points out that the cost of electrolytic hydrogen is projected to keep falling year after year.

She says: “It may be between 10 and 20 years before cooking systems like these can become a reality on a large scale, but the potential is clear enough: if we can overcome the cost issues, there is a viable way of tackling an age-old killer and making a big difference to the environment.”

Keywords: Topriska sunlight

Picture courtesy Divine Novieto


A virtual reality colonoscopy developed by EPSRC-supported researchers at the University of Sheffield could help clinicians to detect abnormalities in the digestive system.

The technology, developed by postdoctoral researcher, David Randall, enables clinicians to virtually travel inside a patient’s colon, viewing its mucosal surface with an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset.

The research was featured on BBC Radio Four’s flagship Today programme, with presenter Justin Webb experiencing the VR technology for himself.

Keywords: David Randall colonoscopy

The Metropolitan Police Service is using an innovative new exercise that teaches business leaders how to protect their companies from cyber attacks. The resource is based on a ‘game’ developed by EPSRC-funded academics, led by Professor Awais Rashid at the University of Bristol, in partnership with the National Cyber Security Centre. Officers in the Met’s Fraud and Linked Crime Online unit have adapted the game, which requires no prior cyber security expertise to play, to be included in their regular cyber awareness presentations given to businesses and other organisations.

Keywords: Awais Rashid Met Police

A prototype device for gauging patients’ immunity to Ebola and other diseases has been developed by experts at Imperial College London led by Professor Molly Stevens, in collaboration with UCL researchers.

The device works in a similar way to a pregnancy test. However, instead of detecting hormones, it looks for an antibody called Immunoglobulin G, which is released following exposure to certain viruses.

In addition to lab trials, the portable biosensor has been used in Uganda to analyse blood serum from survivors previously exposed to the Ebola virus. The device is connected to a smartphone for on-screen results, and the trial test takes around 15 minutes, compared to around five hours using conventional lab-based equipment.

Keywords: Imperial ebola sensor

Cog logic

The new oil sensor has been developed in collaboration with Shell Global Solutions and colleagues in electronics and computer science at the university as part of a wider project to investigate oil quality and degradation.

Professor Wang says: “Our sensor technology could significantly reduce the amount of lubricants used by vehicles, as well as cut down on maintenance bills and help the environment.”

Keywords: Wang oil sensors

proportion of the 550,000 tonnes of ground coffee waste produced by UK coffee shops and households annually.

Keyword: Chiu CIM coffee

Food emulsions, such as salad dressings and mayonnaise, are a staple of most UK kitchens. But all emulsions need a stabilising ingredient to prevent them from separating back into their main component parts of oil and water. In mayonnaise, for example, egg is the stabiliser.

Dr Natalie Chiu and Professor Tim Foster at the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Food, led by The University of Nottingham, have shown that waste coffee grounds can be used to stabilise food emulsions.

If this solution were adopted nationwide, it would enable reuse of a significant

Grounds for hope

University of Southampton researchers have developed a low-cost oil quality sensor which, when fitted to an engine, monitors oil degradation. The sensor can help users, lubricant manufacturers and operators to decide the exact time oil needs to be changed, saving them money, and benefitting the environment.

The research is led by Professor Ling Wang (pictured), a leading expert in tribology – the science of all interacting surfaces in relative motion. Professor Wang is also Deputy Head of the EPSRC-supported national Centre for Advanced Tribology at Southampton, which aims to provide real-world solutions to issues such as industrial waste and extending the lifespan of equipment.

She says: “In any process where two materials rub against each other, tribology plays a part. “To improve the performance of a material, we can modify its surface by adding a coating or changing the surface texture so that wear is reduced.”


CIRCULAR ECONOMY

It is clear that our ‘disposable culture’ is unsustainable: the global middle-class is expanding and our hunger for new products means we are rapidly burning through finite natural resources. This, in turn, is creating insecurities in global material markets and causing environmental damage through resource extraction, landfilling, and pollution.

What can we do to change this? Well, there is this one idea that may help: it’s called the circular economy.

In a circular economy, restoration and recovery processes are used to increase the lifespan of products, components and materials. This goes beyond current recycling methods, as the highest quality and value is extracted at each stage of a product’s life cycle: an engineered part is more valuable than the raw materials that comprise it.

For example, rather than disposing of an old or broken smartphone, a circular phone would be designed for easy repair, component reuse, and material extraction at end-of-life.

Biological materials, like food and agricultural waste, can also be looped through a value chain. For example, a process called anaerobic digestion uses microorganisms to break down bio-waste in the absence of oxygen. This produces biogas, a renewable fuel, and a nutrient rich slurry, which can be ‘mined’ for chemicals or used as a crop fertiliser.

The theory is simple: once a resource enters a supply chain, it loops back through it indefinitely. However, to achieve this kind of system, resource use and economic growth must be

Circular solutionsGoing round in circles is rarely considered efficient, but it could be just what our economy needs, argues science writer James Burgon

decoupled, fundamentally changing how people consume products. So, how would you feel about never owning anything ever again?

If a company prioritises consumer access to a product over ownership, it can retain control over the resources it contains. For example, by selling printing services not hardware, Xerox can reuse or recycle more than 90 per cent of its equipment. Similarly, the Dutch company Mud Jeans leases rather than sells clothing, which is later returned by customers, shredded, and re-spun into ‘new’ denim. However, despite such companies adopting aspects of the circular economy, a ‘business-as-usual’ approach will not facilitate a full economic transition.

Currently, most supply chains are linear, with each stakeholder only interested in their ‘link’ of the chain. For example, around 80 per cent of a product’s environmental impact is dictated by decisions made at the design stage. Changes here could radically alter product reusability, but there is no incentive to do so: gluing together a smartphone makes it less repairable than using screws, but it also makes it thinner, which is more attractive to consumers. Therefore, any company that adopts a more circular design in isolation may find itself at a competitive disadvantage.

To overcome this obstacle, several organisations have emerged to encourage cooperation along and across supply chains, such as the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme). However, government intervention will likely be required to make any significant change.

Although good domestic strategies are needed, it is

important to remember that most supply chains are global and it will require international cooperation to make them circular. This has been recognised by the EU, which recently adopted a comprehensive Circular Economy Package. Given the economic strength of this political block, the initiatives included in this package will likely extend circular principles beyond EU member states. This is important, as the World Economic Forum estimates that a more circular economy could be worth over US$1 trillion per year to the global economy by 2025.

Further, as circular products are designed to be an input for a new industry at end-of-life, waste is minimised and stable secondary materials markets are created. This could potentially lessen the tensions that arise between nations from the need to control territories rich in natural resources and also avoids the environmental impacts of resource extraction and pollution.

Transitioning to a circular economy could deliver many economic, environmental and social benefits. However, it will take a coordinated international approach to achieve. Consumers must change their relationship with products, and governments and industries must be willing to work together to put long-term sustainability and economic stability above short-term wins.

A version of this article was published in theGist magazine, and was specialist edited by Lorna Christie and copy edited by Katrina Wesencraft. Dr James Burgon, whose doctorate was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council, is a science writer at the National Physical Laboratory and co-author of a POST briefing on the circular economy written for the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology.

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hydrogen fuel facilities that can accommodate and sustain larger quantities of renewable energy.

Bioenergy

Bioenergy – derived from either burning or chemical treatment of biomass crops such as willow and miscanthus, trees or agricultural waste – is an exciting research area attracting some of the UK’s most innovative researchers, among them Professor Jason Hallett, from Imperial College London.

With PhD student, Florence Gschwend, Professor Hallett formed a company, Chrysalix Technologies, to transform unwanted waste wood into a low cost raw material for use in the production of clean and inexpensive chemicals, materials and fuels. He has also nurtured the careers of other members of his group, including Dr Clementine Chambon, who successfully balanced her PhD with her role as co-founder and chief technologist of social enterprise Oorja, which is working to bring sustainably-generated electricity to rural India.

Saving our energyIf we’re serious about saving the planet for future generations, we have to get serious about how we generate, consume, store and safeguard our energy supply. EPSRC’s Head of Energy, Dr Jim Fleming, describes EPSRC’s sustainable energy commitments

Continued on page 28

Research is key to the UK achieving a secure and affordable low carbon energy system while conserving our natural resources, the environment and our quality of life. It is also vital to ensuring continued economic growth as the country moves toward a circular economy, decarbonises its industry and transport sectors, and transitions away from its dependence on fossil fuels.

EPSRC leads the UKRI Energy Programme on behalf of all UK Research Councils. Our £1.1 billion energy portfolio covers the full range of speculative and user-led energy research, from biofuels, solar, tidal and wind energy to sustainable energy storage and secure electricity networks. Through our investments we are also nurturing the next generation of highly skilled energy researchers.

Supergen

We have long recognised that solutions to the global energy conundrum can only come through coordinated, multidisciplinary research. Which is why, since 2003, we have led Supergen (see page 31), the UK’s flagship research initiative in sustainable power generation and supply.

Funded under the UKRI Energy Programme, Supergen is a multidisciplinary research initiative covering a vast green energy landscape, taking in areas such as climate change, fossil fuel extraction rates, emissions control, and increasing public awareness of environmental concerns.

Focusing on collaborative research projects between industry and academia, Supergen is helping the UK meet its environmental emissions targets through a radical improvement in the sustainability of the UK’s power generation and supply.

Research into renewable energy is destined to play a pivotal role in the UK power generation matrix. The scientists and engineers we support in this field are tackling a host of challenges, including the intermittent nature of solar and wind energy, the need for power networks to be able to adapt to a constantly changing input, and the decarbonisation of transport.

For example, the rapid increase in the number of electric vehicles on UK roads will require the development of smarter electricity networks and


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Continued from page 27

To further support research in this dynamic field, in 2018 we invested in a new Supergen Bioenergy Hub, led by Professor Patricia Thornley from Aston University. The hub brings together a network of academic, industrial and policy stakeholders to maximise the environmental benefits of sustainable bioenergy.

Wind, wave and tidal energy

Research into harnessing the wind and tidal currents is already well established in the UK, which has the greatest wind energy potential in Europe, and EPSRC supports world-leading research into the harvesting of energy from waves and tidal streams.

Among recent initiatives, in 2018 we invested in a new Supergen Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Hub, led by Professor Deborah Greaves OBE from Plymouth University. The hub brings together scientists and engineers working in wave, tidal and offshore wind research to share the skills, resources and expertise the UK needs to maintain its leading position in this field. The team are addressing technical, environmental and interdisciplinary challenges which require a coordinated response at national and regional level.

Among other EPSRC-funded projects, Professor Greaves is co-leading an initiative to investigate the effect of severe wave impacts on lighthouses (see page 32).

Many of the challenges facing offshore renewable energy generation and supply will be solved through the application of exciting new technologies such as robotics and automation. Our investments in this area include a £4 million academia/industry consortium, led by The University of Manchester, investigating the use of robotics, artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies to run and maintain offshore windfarms.

To enable the speedy transition of fundamental ORE research to commercial application, we work closely with our UKRI partner Innovate UK and its Offshore Renewable Energy

Catapult on projects such as improving the efficiency and reliability of wind turbines, and reducing intermittency of supply.

Synaptec Ltd, a company co-founded by Dr Philip Orr, a former EPSRC-supported PhD student, has developed sensor-based optical fibre technology for real-time monitoring and control of offshore wind assets, such as turbines, which by their nature are remote and inaccessible. The technology significantly reduces companies’ operating costs.

Solar

Solar energy is the only renewable energy technology that, in theory, if coupled with significant amounts of cheap and efficient energy storage, could meet all of the world’s energy needs. The researchers we support continue to develop new technologies in this field, combining with industry to resolve challenges such as cost, practicality and efficiency. Many have successfully steered their academic research to commercial application.

For example, solar visionary Professor Henry Snaith, from the University of Oxford, who pioneered the development of hybrid materials for energy and photovoltaics, formed Oxford PV to bring his research to market.

The company is now the acknowledged leader in the field of perovskite solar cells, which could transform the economics of silicon solar energy generation.

Professor Snaith has received a host of honours for his work, which has initiated a new international research field, and has the potential to bring solar energy to the market at a fraction of the cost of currently used materials.

Sunlight is a global resource, and Oxford PV is a partner in a £7 million EPSRC-funded consortium of 12 UK and Indian universities helping villages in India adapt their buildings to harness solar power for off-grid use. A key partner in this project is the SPECIFIC Innovation and Knowledge Centre (see page 29).

Another example of the internationally relevant nature of our portfolio is the

work of Phil Sandwell, a PhD student at The University of Manchester’s Grantham Institute, and Professor Jenny Nelson, Head of the Institute’s mitigation team, who have worked with Oorja to replace kerosene oil lamps in Indian villages with electric lighting.

Energy storage

One method of reducing fossil fuel consumption is to look at cheaper and more efficient alternative methods of storing and transporting renewable energy. EPSRC-supported research in this field has resulted in long-term impact over many decades.

For example, research in the 1980s by Professors John Goodenough, Mike Thackeray, Peter Bruce and Bill David was pivotal in the development of the first commercial lithium-ion batteries, which have since transformed portable electronic devices. Professor Bruce is also one of the pioneers of the Li-air battery, which could hold the key for next-generation electric vehicles.

Another pioneer is Professor Clare Grey, a chemist and expert in the application to materials of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). She and her team developed NMR methodology to monitor structural changes that occur during the operation of a battery. Her research has helped us to understand how batteries charge and discharge, and has clarified the physical properties of a number of technologically important materials. She has also pioneered new battery technologies including a prototype lithium air battery. She is also co-founder of the Faraday Institution, a new research institute set up through the Government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund to research the development, manufacture and production of new electrical storage technologies for the automotive and other relevant sectors, making the UK the go-to place and world leader for battery technology research.

A coordinated initiative supported by EPSRC, with Innovate UK and the Advanced Propulsion Centre, the


Harnessing the power of the sun Every day the sun provides enough energy to power our planet for 27 years. So why not capture that energy with everyday buildings – using coatings that generate, store and release it?

This is the challenge being addressed by SPECIFIC, an EPSRC-supported Innovation and Knowledge Centre driven by a singular vision – that buildings could be their own power stations.

This unique approach to the capture and consumption of solar energy is part of an integrated programme to develop low carbon and carbon-negative electricity and heat systems.

Supported by an initial £20 million investment from EPSRC, Innovate UK and the Welsh Government, together with investment from Swansea University and industry, SPECIFIC brings together a wide range of academic and industry partners to share expertise in ‘functional coatings’, such as photovoltaic materials built into a building’s cladding; energy storage; technology scale-up; manufacture at scale; business development and commercial know-how.

Led by Swansea University, with Strategic Partners AkzoNobel, NSG Pilkington, Tata Steel and Cardiff University, and involving other business/academic partners, SPECIFIC, now in its second phase, has attracted over £40 million of funding from its original investors and partner organisations.

The buildings-as-power-station concept has already been proven to work, with the opening of an energy-positive classroom on the Swansea University Bay campus which provides teaching space and a laboratory for students, as well as a building-scale development facility for SPECIFIC and its industry partners.

The award-winning classroom can run off grid, with electricity generated by solar cells integrated into a perforated steel-clad roof. The cells are supplied by SPECIFIC spin-out company BIPVco. Since launch, the classroom has generated more energy than it has consumed.

Following the success of the Active Classroom, Innovate UK supported the construction of the UK’s first energy positive Active Office on the SPECIFIC campus. The building supports 40 people and is capable of generating more energy than it uses. It can also share solar energy with the Active Classroom.

In September 2018, the Chancellor announced a new £36 million investment to develop clean energy innovation at Swansea University through a new national Active Building Centre.

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Faraday Institution is one of three elements that comprise the Faraday Battery Challenge, the Government’s £246 million commitment over the next four years to support the research and development of industrially-relevant battery technologies, complete the battery R&D ecosystem; develop manufacturing tools and methods for mass production; and demonstrate production-rate reliability and quality.

Fuel cells

Over the last few decades, EPSRC-supported researchers have been at the forefront of the development of fuel cell technology now employed in zero emission vehicles and stationary combined heat and power units.

In addition to accelerating academic research, our investments have led to a host of industrial partnerships and successful spin-out companies, including Ceres Power, from Imperial College London, whose low cost SteelCell® Solid Oxide Fuel Cell technology can generate power from conventional fuels like natural gas and from sustainable fuels like biogas, ethanol or hydrogen, 24 hours a day. In August 2018, the company entered into a new partnership with the Welding Institute and Nissan to further develop fuel cell technology for electric vehicle applications, supported through the Faraday Battery Challenge.

Meanwhile, spin-out company, ITM Power (see page 59), which has developed innovative hydrogen fuelcell- based technologies, is rolling out hydrogen vehicle refuelling stations across the UK, among a host of initiatives.

Cryogenic storage

EPSRC also supports research into cryogenic energy storage, another hugely promising technology that stores off-peak energy using liquefied air as the storage medium. The system takes in surplus electricity during off-peak hours and uses this to help produce a cryogen from a gaseous input, such as air. Our funding led to the creation of a dedicated cryogenic storage centre at the University of

Birmingham, led by Professor Yulong Ding. We are also in partnership with the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Natural Science Foundation in a UK-China Grid Scale Energy Storage collaboration, launched in 2013.

Bringing together experts from academia and industry in both countries, this collaboration led to the development of the Centre for Energy Storage at the University of Birmingham, led by Professor Ding, who oversaw the launch of a pilot-scale UK manufacturing facility at Birmingham. The centre’s research was crucial to the creation of an award-winning demonstration power plant in Xinjiang, China.

Nuclear fission

Nuclear fission remains a key element in the UK energy mix, and currently provides 20 per cent of the country’s electricity. EPSRC investments in this area include research into planned new nuclear build and pioneering projects focusing on legacy waste clean-up, disposal and decommissioning.

A team led by Professor Claire Corkhill at the University of Sheffield, working with Sellafield Ltd, have found that by mixing plutonium-contaminated waste with blast furnace slag and turning it into glass its volume can be reduced by 85-95 per cent. The process effectively locks-in the radioactive plutonium, creating an end product that is safe for long-term storage.

Supply infrastructure

No matter how effective the next generation of energy technologies, it will depend on a supply infrastructure that is fit for purpose, and EPSRC-supported researchers are playing a key role in the development of the UK energy network.

Among a raft of achievements, Professors Goran Strbac and Tim Green at Imperial College London have, since 2008, informed the National Grid’s investments in £3 billion worth of network assets such as power lines, underground cabling and high-pressure gas pipes.

They have also had a significant influence on government policy. For example, Professor Strbac led on the National Infrastructure Commission’s 2017 Delivering Future-proof Energy Infrastructure report.

Whole systems and energy demand

The UK’s energy system is largely fragmented, costly and ineffective. We need a radical re-think of how we use energy infrastructure; we also urgently need to understand how it can be enhanced through the digital and big data revolutions. A holistic, whole-systems approach to efficient sustainable energy infrastructure is needed. Essentially, an integrated energy system would bring together key sectors, such as power, heat and gas, in a more efficient and intelligent way.

Among initiatives to tackle this challenge, the newly-formed EPSRC National Centre for Energy Systems Integration (CESI) is for the first time at a national scale studying the value of a whole systems approach to the energy system. Led by Newcastle University, this consortium of five research-intensive universities and 34 public and industrial sector partners is tackling challenges to our energy nexus such as decarbonisation, repurposing the gas network, integrating electric vehicles, deterring cyber-attacks and securing energy supply.

The centre is also encouraging new ways of thinking. For example, what if energy distributors were to share storage and other assets, so that the load is spread across the entire energy system, balancing supply with demand, especially during spikes in energy usage?

Such an approach could make energy more affordable, and tailored to customers’ actual requirements, ensuring they receive the energy service they need when they need it.

Energy demand

In March 2018, EPSRC, together with the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), invested £19.5 million



31

Biomass energy derived from crops such as wheat could play an important role in the future global energy mix.

Tackling global energy challengesRecognising the value of multidisciplinary collaboration in energy research, for nearly two decades EPSRC has led Supergen, the UK’s flagship initiative in sustainable power generation and supply.

The ambitious multidisciplinary research initiative, funded under the UKRI Energy Programme, covers a vast green energy landscape, taking in areas such as climate change, fossil fuel extraction rates, emissions control, and increasing public awareness of environmental concerns. To tackle these challenges, Supergen brings together world-leading academics, industry and other stakeholders to develop cutting-edge technologies in areas including bioenergy; energy networks; energy storage; fuel cells; hydrogen and other vectors; marine, wave and tidal; solar technology; and wind power.

The main goal of the initiative is to contribute to the UK’s environmental emissions targets through a radical improvement in the sustainability of the UK’s power generation and supply.

EPSRC has invested over £150 million in this flagship initiative, which includes 10 dedicated hubs tackling major global energy challenges. This has led to the development of new tools and technologies as well as greater collaboration between academia, government, industry and international partners. It has also had a strong influence on government energy policy.

The programme is now in its fourth phase, launched in 2017, which focuses on high impact user, industrial and government-inspired problems while also covering adventurous discovery-led investigations.

Under Phase 4, in July 2018 EPSRC invested £15 million in three new Supergen hubs investigating Offshore Renewable Energy, Bioenergy and Energy Networks. Involving academics from 19 universities and 70 partners including 22 from industry, these hubs will drive the next generation of renewable technologies and distribution systems vital to the UK.

Part of Supergen’s remit is to develop future research and innovation leaders – and to seek opportunities for innovation. This includes numerous collaborations with Innovate UK’s Energy Catapult network of technology and innovation centres dedicated to connecting businesses with the UK’s research and academic communities, and accelerating commercialisation of research.

Supergen also plays a key role in energy-focused EPSRC Centres for Doctoral Training, and enables individual research groups to create their own pathways to innovation and impact.


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in a new research centre, the UK Centre for Research on Energy Demand (UKCRED), which is investigating whole systems energy use from a socio-technical perspective and creating solutions to enhance business and industry efficiency, improve our homes and accelerate the shift to low carbon transport.

The centre builds on an earlier £30 million EPSRC investment in six multidisciplinary End Use Energy Demand Centres, which explored ways to reduce carbon emissions across society – from industrial processes, materials and products to regulation and organisational and individual behaviour.

Partnerships for growth

The collaborations we foster and support between industry, academia and other stakeholders are at the heart of EPSRC’s mission, and form a platform from which we can co-develop long-term cross-sector research, attract further funding and share best practice. You can find examples of these partnerships throughout this edition of Pioneer.

To ensure the national research priorities for energy in the UK are well supported, we have close working partnerships with organisations such as the Carbon Trust, the Energy Research Partnership, the Energy Catapults, the Department for Business, Energy, Innovation and Skills and the Nuclear Innovation and Research Advisory Board.

International reach

In contributing to the energy agenda, we have forged and continue to build major international links to address global energy challenges, such as with China on smart grids and cryogenics, with Japan on nuclear safety and decommissioning and with India on solar energy and fuel cells.

A new joint initiative, led by Professor Rajat Gupta, from Oxford Brookes University and co-funded by EPSRC, the Indian Government and ESRC, is testament to the global impact of the

researchers we support. Professor Gupta is leading a £1.5 million project to monitor the energy usage of some 2,000 homes in India. The findings will inform a new national residential energy code for high-quality, low-energy housing.

Impact on policy

Taken as a whole, our energy programme is uniquely positioned to provide policymakers with guidance about the development of potential energy scenarios and their impact on citizens, the economy and the environment.

For example, the UK Energy Research Centre, funded and established by the Research Councils UK Energy Programme in 2004, is at the forefont of world-class research into sustainable future energy systems and continues to inform UK policy development and research strategy.

Across a range of sectors, EPSRC-supported researchers have informed many aspects of UK Government energy strategy, including the 2013 Nuclear Industrial Strategy, the 2012 Bioenergy Strategy, the 2012 Carbon Capture & Storage Roadmap and the Low Carbon Industrial Strategy. More recently, EPSRC, alongside the research community, has contributed to the Government’s pivotal Clean Growth Strategy.

Investing in people

A hugely important aspect of our work is the development of the energy researchers, policymakers and business leaders of tomorrow. We support more than 800 PhD students engaged in energy-related research. Half of our PhD graduates enter either business or the public sector within a year of graduating.

The breadth of the doctoral research is vast, highly innovative, and grounded in fundamental science. For example, Samira Garcia, a PhD student with the Supergen Bioenergy Hub, is researching the potential of using coffee stems to provide bioenergy for the coffee sector. Coffee stems, obtained after coffee tree pruning, are an abundant and untapped source in the coffee supply chain, and a suitable

solid fuel for the production of energy products from biomass.

To maximise the quality of the PhD, we concentrate much of our training around specialist centres. There are now 14 EPSRC Centres for Doctoral Training in areas such as energy systems, low carbon technology, nuclear, renewables and demand reduction.

Among numerous programmes co-funded with industry and national organisations, the Industrial Doctorate Centre for Offshore Renewable Energy (idcore), worked with academic and industrial partners to train research engineers to accelerate the deployment of offshore wind, wave and tidal-current technologies.

Among successful graduates from idcore, which was co-funded by EPSRC and the Energy Technologies Institute, Dr Conaill Soraghan today leads the Operations & Maintenance Data Systems team at the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult. Conaill’s career trajectory, which took him from a maths degree and Masters through to an engineering PhD and now a role at the heart of a dynamic innovation-centred industry, is part of a connected UK research and innovation ecosystem that goes from strength to strength, most recently through the creation of UK Research and Innovation, which brings together the UK Research Councils, Innovate UK and Research England to form a new united body.

A brighter future

Investment in the people at all career stages who will lead tomorrow’s innovation is already creating new industries, jobs and commercial opportunities for the UK. The technologies and systems they are developing, the partnerships they are forging and the brilliance of their thinking is vital to the future of our planet.

Together with our partners in UKRI, we are providing the platform for their imaginations and innovations to flourish as we move with confidence towards a brighter decarbonised future.

Fastnet from aboveThis photograph of the Fastnet lighthouse off the coast of Ireland, taken by James Bassitt from the University of Exeter was among the winning entries in the 2017 EPSRC Science Photo Competition.

James is just visible on the concrete helipad, flying the drone from which this shot was taken. Shortly afterwards sea spray caused the drone to fail.

James and his team were collecting visual data of the craggy rock and lighthouse, which they are using to build up a picture of the behaviour of lighthouses under severe wave impacts, backed up with wave and structural modelling on dry land.

In order for the UK to safely and effectively harness its tidal resources over the long term, a full understanding of environmental forces on offshore structures is vital.


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Power plantsEPSRC-supported scientists and engineers are at the forefront of research into low-carbon technologies – within a £1.1 million portfolio focused on securing the UK’s energy future and tackling global sustainable energy challenges.

Gas giants

EPSRC-supported scientists at Queen’s University Belfast have launched a spin-out company, Porous Liquid Technologies Ltd, to bring to market a new class of porous liquid that can dissolve remarkably large amounts of gas. The research has gone from demonstration to commercialisation in less than three years.

Porous liquids contain microscopic cavities, each pore the size of a single molecule. Containing up to 10,000 times the number of cavities found in conventional liquids, the liquids allow fast uptake and release of large volumes of gas.

The technology could have applications in a wide range of industries, from

manufacturing and the oil and gas sector to medical diagnostics and household products.

Spray on solar cellsSolar cells made using a process similar to spray painting have been developed by a collaboration between scientists at the University of Sheffield.

The research is led by Professor David Lidzey (see page 15). He says: “Spray coating is currently used to apply paint to cars and in graphic printing. We have shown that it can also be used to make solar cells using specially designed plastic semiconductors.

“Maybe in the future surfaces on buildings and even car roofs will routinely generate electricity with these materials.”

Sweet success Daniel Malko, a PhD student in Professor Anthony Kucernak’s group at Imperial College London working on research supported by the EPSRC-led Supergen initiative (see page 31), co-invented a fuel cell capable of generating electrical energy from the organic molecules present in waste water, while also cleaning the water.

The research led to the formation of an award-winning spin-out company, SweetGen Ltd, whose target market includes industrial sites such as breweries or biofuel facilities. Cleaning dissolved organic molecules in global industrial wastewater has a cost of US$90 billion per year. SweetGen could save these industries up to US$12 billion – every year.

£500 million fuel cell spin-outIntelligent Energy, a company formed to commercialise EPSRC-supported research at Loughborough University, is one of the world’s largest independent fuel cell companies. The organisation employs over 350 people around the world and is valued at US$500 million.

A core team of EPSRC-funded researchers from Loughborough University joined the company at its inception in 1993, and continues to lead its R&D.

Major business partners include Suzuki, with whom the company has formed a joint venture company, Peugeot Citroën, Boeing, Airbus and Lotus. These collaborations have led to the development of the world’s first purpose-built fuel cell-powered motorbike; fuel cell-powered aircraft and zero emission road vehicles, including the hydrogen taxis used to shuttle VIPs during the 2012 Olympics.

The company’s growing international portfolio includes a £0.5 billion deal to supply India with safe, sustainable power to 27,000 telecoms towers across the country. Closer to home, the Metropolitan Police are currently


trialling a fleet of fast-charging zero-carbon Suzuki motorbikes, powered by Intelligent Energy fuel cells, on the streets of London.

Plastic sponge sucks-up carbon dioxideResearchers at the University of Liverpool, led by Professor Andrew Cooper, have developed a sponge-like plastic that sops up the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

The material – a relative of the plastics used in food containers – might ease our transition away from fossil fuels and toward new energy sources, such as hydrogen. It could also be integrated into power plant emission stacks in the future.

Professor Cooper says: “The key point is that this polymer is stable, it’s cheap, and it adsorbs carbon dioxide extremely well. It’s geared toward function in a real-world environment.”

The research was funded by EPSRC and E.ON Energy.

Myth-busting bioenergy blockbuster EPSRC-supported researchers have devised a graphic novel which addresses the big questions around bioenergy and climate change.

Bioenergy: A Graphic Introduction, a unique collaboration between artists and researchers from the EPSRC-supported Supergen Bioenergy Hub (see page 31), is a handy and accessible guide for the bioenergy industry and policymakers, but is also accessible for schoolchildren.

Using striking images which imagine alternative futures, the novel explains some of the technology involved and how it might be put into practice.

Fingerprinting carbon dioxideEPSRC-supported researchers at the University of Edinburgh have successfully trialled an inexpensive test which can distinguish between natural and industrial carbon dioxide.

The technology can be used to prevent leaks from greenhouse gas storage sites reaching the atmosphere and contributing to climate change.

The technique relies on what the researchers describe as the natural fingerprint of carbon dioxide. For example, carbon dioxide produced by burning gas in a power station is different from that produced by burning coal, biomass or oil and these would be different from the carbon dioxide produced naturally by plants or animals.

Forbes flyers Two students from the EPSRC-funded Nano Doctoral Training Centre at the University of Cambridge have been named on influential business magazine Forbes’ 30 under 30 list.

Jean de la Verpilliere and Alex Groombridge co-founded Echion Technologies Ltd with PhD supervisors, Dr Adam Boies and Dr Michaël De Volder, to bring technology developed through Jean’s doctorate to market.

The award-winning company’s new hybrid nanomaterial could herald the next generation of fast-recharging high-performance automotive batteries, primarily targeted at electric buses and light duty fleet vehicles.

The company has secured an EPSRC Impact Acceleration Follow-on-Fund award to take the commercialisation of its materials research to the next level.

Storage to GridEPSRC-supported researchers from Newcastle University have joined forces with energy storage technology company, RedT, in a three-year Knowledge Transfer Partnership to develop a hybrid commercial energy storage system based around the company’s vanadium flow technology. The system will be capable of offering the full range of storage applications to the electricity grid. The partnership is funded by Innovate UK and the Scottish Funding Council.

Recycling greenhouse gases EPSRC-supported researchers at the University of Surrey have developed a patented and cost-effective catalyst to recycle two of the main causes behind climate change: carbon dioxide and methane.

The team have created an advanced nickel-based catalyst strengthened with tin and ceria, which they used to transform the two gases into a ‘synthesis gas’ that can be used to produce fuels and a range of valuable chemicals. They are now seeking partners from industry to help turn the technology into “a world-changing process”.

Nuclear fixAn EPSRC-funded academic/industry Prosperity Partnership, led by researchers at Strathclyde University, with engineering firm Babcock, is developing the technologies and expertise needed to extend the life of nuclear power plants and increase their generating capacity by improving their health.

In addition to advanced inspection techniques, the team are devising biotechnology solutions for infrastructure repair, operational intelligence and data science, as well as new products and processes for managing nuclear facilities and extending their lifetime.

Corking the bottleMost companies’ energy management systems are designed for energy managers, but there are few energy-feedback systems designed to engage staff, who are generally oblivious of the amount of energy the building they work in consumes. e-Genie, an energy monitoring tool for employees, was developed by researchers at The University of Nottingham to redress the balance.

Created with UCL and the Centre for Sustainable Energy, the project was led by Dr Alexa Spence. She says that building energy awareness into employees’ everyday work patterns has “led to huge savings” through simple behavioural changes such as discussing efficiency measures with colleagues.

Field trials at Nottinghamshire County Council offices resulted in a 37 per cent decrease in energy use after just six weeks. The project was supported by the RCUK Digital Economy Theme, led by EPSRC.

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Double the benefit

This photograph of a farmer holding the fruit from two okra crops in the village of Auroville in South India reflects the achievements of an extraordinary precision irrigation trial led by researchers from Heriot-Watt University.

The fruit on the right was grown using the farm’s conventional manual irrigation system. The fruit on the left was grown using a cloud-based

automated micro-irrigation system devised by researchers from the EPSRC-supported SCORRES project, led by Professor Eddie Owens of Heriot-Watt’s Energy Academy.

Thanks to the new system, not only has crop yield doubled in some cases, water use has been reduced by up to 80 per cent. Among a range of benefits, the system enables the optimal use of electrical energy

storage to both curtail local solar energy generation and reduce power supply disruption.

The photograph, taken by Vimal Bhojraj, from the project’s Indian business partner, Auroville Consulting, was a runner up in the 2017 EPSRC Science Photo Competition. Turn to page 63 to see the winning image.


SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS

The plastics paradoxMany kinds of plastic, particularly packaging, are seen as worthless after one use – and thrown away. Professor Mark Miodownik argues that a circular economy of plastic would retain its environmental and economic benefits while preventing the pollution of the oceans, poisoning of the food chain and harmful greenhouse gas emissions

Celluloid, the world’s first commercial plastic and 19th century wonder material, was invented to help address a looming environmental

crisis. But in one of history’s ironic twists, its successors are at the heart of a potential global catastrophe.

Celluloid was developed by two brothers, John and Isaiah Hyatt, in response to a challenge by US billiard ball makers Phelan and Collender, which offered $10,000 in gold to anyone who could come up with a substitute for ivory. It was the late 19th century, when billiard balls and many other items such as buttons were made from smooth and durable ivory, and the company was concerned about the dwindling global supplies of ivory tusk caused by unfettered elephant slaughter.

Tough, flexible and low in cost, celluloid went on to revolutionise the movie and photography industries. It also helped pave the way for the next generation of synthetic plastics, such as Bakelite.

One hundred and fifty years later, discarded plastic is a huge threat to the environment. This has happened because the value of the material has been lost on us.

Plastics have changed the way we live, in almost every way, from footwear to furniture, telephones to tennis rackets, MRI machines to medical tubing.

As Susan Freinkel, author of Plastic: A Toxic Love Affair, has observed: “In the 1940s, people told pollsters they considered ‘cellophane’ the third most beautiful word in the English language after ‘mother’ and ‘memory’.”

But in the latter decades of the 20th century, plastics started to be used in single-use items such as packaging,

and it’s at this point our relationship with them changed.

No longer did we see plastics as marvellous and miraculous materials, we saw them as cheap and disposable.

Throw-away culture

Plastics became a by-word for a throw-away culture. Only there was no ‘away’. Because of their very stable chemical structure, plastics did not biodegrade or dissolve in water. These, of course, were the very properties that made them so valuable as packaging materials, and made them so effective in reducing food waste.

But once these materials had been used they should not just have been discarded, because they stay in the environment for a hundred years or more, and since the sea is pretty much downhill from everywhere, they end up in the ocean.




If this pattern continues, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a champion of the circular economy, estimates there will be more plastics in the ocean than fish by 2050.

The problems caused by plastic pollution are numerous, and pressing – from poisoning marine life and disrupting the food chain to emitting greenhouse gases when burned. But solutions to these challenges come with many strings attached.

Analysis shows that banning plastic packaging will be counterproductive because it will radically increase food waste and so increase carbon dioxide emissions and global warming.

Biodegradable plastics are an interesting solution, but their biodegradability depends very much on the environment where the plastic ends up. In well-controlled environments the plastic will be completely consumed by micro-organisms. But in other places, such as the oceans, the temperature is generally too low for this to happen and so the plastics remain in the environment for long periods of time.

The solution favoured by government, manufacturers, retailers and environmental groups is to recycle plastics. This enables society to keep the advantages of using plastics whilst mitigating their environmental impact. So why haven’t we done it and why is the UK’s recycling rate down at around 15 per cent?

The answer lies not so much in the technology for recycling, much of which already exists. No, the problem is more of system design and economics.

Circular economy

Supermarkets and other retailers have made it their task to reduce food waste, increase product quality, and reduce food prices. But since the costs of recycling packaging are not included in their pricing they generally don’t prioritise making their packaging recyclable. Nor have they prioritised using more expensive recycled plastics in their packaging. This means that the recyclers can’t make much money selling recycled plastics to the manufacturers because there is not much demand for them. Hence the local authorities don’t get a big income from it and so don’t invest in recycling equipment. This results in a limited supply of recycled plastics which retailers mostly don’t want to use anyway. It’s a Catch 22 situation.

A circular economy would change all this – one which maximises the value and use of plastics by reusing and recycling them for as long as possible. If the supermarkets, retailers and manufacturers sign up to using recycled plastic, this would create a high demand as well as the economic conditions for investment in recycling. In theory.

UK Plastic Pact

To meet this challenge, a vast range of companies – those responsible for 80 per cent of the plastic packaging in the UK – have pledged to the UK Plastic Pact, which aims to make all plastic packing 100 per cent recyclable, reusable or compostable, and to eliminate all unnecessary single-use packaging, by 2025. That’s in seven years’ time, not long in terms of infrastructure investment, so it’s a big challenge.

Everyone wants the Plastic Pact to be successful, but already it’s clear that the local authorities who do the recycling will play a key role.

But success must be UK-wide, and provision for the recycling of different plastics is hugely inconsistent across the whole

country. A BBC survey conducted in September 2018 found that some local councils collect many different types of plastic waste, and others none at all. Councils’ recycling commitments and processes also vary widely. In Reading, you can throw a yoghurt pot into recycling. In Manchester you can’t.

Something needs to be done about this, as it will cost money up front to bring all recycling provided by different local authorities in line and make them all into effective and profitable re-manufacturers of plastic.

Once cash can be made from recycling this now valuable packing material, the money should flow throughout the system as part of a mutually-beneficial circular economy.

But the success of this solution hinges on our behaviour. People are at the heart of the economy. All plastic packaging goes through our hands; we determine whether companies who use un-recyclable plastic packaging get our money or not; and we decide to recycle our plastics or not.

With the UK Plastic Pact now in place, it is up to all of us to make it work. There’s a lot at stake. The health of the whole Earth, in fact.

About Mark Miodownik MBE

Mark is a materials engineer, Professor of Materials and Society at UCL where he teaches and runs a research group, and EPSRC Senior Media Fellow. Plastic Fantastic, his acclaimed Radio 4 series looking at our love affair with plastic, is available to listen to on the BBC iPlayer. www.markmiodownik.net


Plastics Research and Innovation Fund UKRI is delivering a £20 million Plastics Research and Innovation Fund (PRIF) which brings together Britain’s best scientists and innovators to help move the country towards more circular economic and sustainable approaches to plastics.

The fund, which is managed by EPSRC and Innovate UK, working with the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), will help to create new approaches and alternatives needed to rapidly reverse the impact that our use of plastics is having on the planet. By investing in

complementary research, innovation and networking, the fund aims to enhance leadership, coordinate knowledge, catalyse new ideas and devise rapid solutions for research and innovation across the UK.

Professor Duncan Wingham, UKRI’s Lead for the fund and Executive Chair of the Natural Environment Research Council, says: “The fund will bring the strength of UKRI’s entire portfolio, from environment to technology to business to behaviour and regulation, to bear on this pressing and very widely recognised problem. In addition, it will draw on the expertise of partners who have been working in the waste reduction and recycling arena for some time.”

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Plastics with potentialEPSRC-supported researchers are leading the development of new technologies and processes to reuse, recycle, recover and reinvent plastic products.

Turning CO2 into plastic

EPSRC-supported researchers at Swansea University have found a way to convert waste carbon dioxide into a molecule that forms the basis of making plastics.

The team, led by Dr Enrico Andreoli, converted waste CO2 into a molecule called ethylene, one of the most widely used molecules in the chemical industry and the starting material in the manufacture of detergents, synthetic lubricants, and the vast majority of plastics essential to modern society.

Currently, ethylene is produced at a very high temperature, using steam. The team have developed a process that uses CO2, water and green electricity to generate a sustainable ethylene at room temperature.

The global potential of using ethylene derived from CO2 is huge, utilising half a billion tonnes of the carbon emitted each year and offsetting global carbon emissions.

This research was supported by EPSRC, the Welsh Government, the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, and the US Department of Energy.

In the can

Enval, a company set up to commercialise EPSRC-funded research at the University of Cambridge, has pioneered and patented revolutionary technologies for the recycling of laminated plastic and aluminium packaging.

The award-winning technology was developed by Dr Carlos Ludlow-Palafox, who helped to develop the foundations of the Enval process while studying for a PhD under the supervision of Professor Howard Chase. The process offers a financially attractive recycling route for plastic/aluminium laminate packaging that has, to date, been unrecyclable.

The process involves using a large microwave oven heated to 600 degrees. The laminated material is broken down then fed into the microwave where the heat breaks the plastic into a gas, freeing the aluminium which remains undamaged. Some of the gas produced is used to power the plant, the rest is cooled to create oil which is then sold on.

In collaboration with stakeholders including multinationals Nestlé and Kraft, the company opened the world’s first commercial scale plant utilising Enval’s patented process.

Enval estimates 160,000 tons of plastic aluminium laminate packaging is used in the UK each year. Dr Ludlow-Palafox, Enval’s CEO, says: “Our recycling process will prevent thousands of tons of material from going to landfill.

“More importantly, we can recover the aluminium that is embedded in the plastic aluminium laminates. Aluminium is one of the most energy intensive products to produce... so if you already have the aluminium, the last thing you want is to send it back to landfill.”

Plastics from paper

EPSRC is co-investing in a £3 million project to develop plastics made from waste from the paper industry.

The research is led by Southampton company, Biome Bioplastics, in partnership with the universities of Warwick, Liverpool and Leeds, as well as the Centre for Process Innovation in Teesside.

The team hope to produce chemicals from plant and agricultural waste that can be made into plastics, as well as fragrances and personal care products.

The research is based on a breakthrough by Biome Bioplastics and the University of Warwick’s Centre for Industrial Biotechnology and Biorefining, who successfully demonstrated that bacterial degradation can be used to produce organic chemicals from lignin (a complex organic polymer deposited in the cell walls of many plants) that are suitable for bioplastic manufacture.

The team proved that soil bacteria can be used to manipulate the breakdown pathway and that the process can be controlled and improved using synthetic biology.

Co-funders include Innovate UK and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.

Shelf life saver

Each year, an estimated 18 million tonnes of edible food is sent to landfill


in the UK – usually by consumers responding to ‘use by’ dates on the products’ packaging. Insignia Technologies, a company set up to commercialise EPSRC-supported research led by Professor Andrew Mills at the University of Strathclyde, could help to dramatically reduce this figure, as well as help the food industry to reduce its waste.

The company has developed a range of smart packaging based around intelligent plastics and inks which change colour on detection of changes in CO2 and temperature, and thus indicate food freshness.

The labels can be customised for any food product and the company has developed a range of products for the retail, distribution and consumer sectors.

Liquid asset

EPSRC-supported research led by Professor Wayne Hayes, from the University of Reading, has led to the development of a new kind of plastic that can repair itself at body temperature.

The new material, a supramolecular polyurethane, ‘flows’ like a liquid when cut or scraped, filling in the damage in a couple of hours before its molecules bind together to become solid again.

The new material is remarkable because it is safe to humans and works at temperatures as low as 37 degrees Celsius, making it ideal for use in healthcare, opening the door to new self-healing wound dressings.

Other potential applications include self-healing vehicle paint, or as a coating for mobile phones.

Invisible barcodes

Researchers at Brunel University have joined forces with plastics recycling consultancy, Nextek, to develop luminescent materials which can be applied invisibly to labels on plastic packaging to aid the sorting process for recycling facilities.

The technology can identify a wide range of plastics, including bioplastics, chemical packaging and automotive plastics.

Among numerous potential benefits, for the first time it enables high-speed sorting machines to identify black plastics, as well as distinguish

between food-grade polymers from non-food-grade. In addition, it can enable companies to recover their own packaging for reuse, providing opportunities for brand owners to establish a circular economy for their products.

The new technology could also help boost recycling plant yields, and enhance UK plastics recycling as a whole. The concept could also be applied to the different plastics used in cars and electrical and electronic equipment.

Plastic fuels cars

Discarded plastic could be used to fuel cars in the future thanks to a ground-breaking process developed by scientists from Swansea University.

By adding light-absorbing materials to unwanted plastic they have been able to transform the plastic into hydrogen which in turn could be used to run cars.

The process, which is at a very early stage of development, could be cheaper than recycling because any kind of plastic can be used and, crucially, the plastic does not need to be cleaned first. It can also degrade all sorts of waste.

Bottling it

Blow Moulding Technologies, a company set up to commercialise research led by Dr Gary Menary at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), has developed specialist instrumentation that is helping soft drink and water industries optimise the design of bottles made from Polyethylene terephthalate (PET). Almost 500 billion PET plastic bottles were sold in 2016.

The technology is based on mathematical models developed through long-term research at QUB and supported by EPSRC and the soft drinks industry. It has been adopted by major corporate partners including Evian and Proctor & Gamble.

Dr Menary says: “There’s a huge drive in the industry to try to make things lighter. Evian make six million bottles a day. If they can save even one gram of material it will mean a financial saving of £2 million a year, plus the saving in energy. There are huge volumes involved.”

SUSTAINABLE MANUFACTURING

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The world-first technology, called Hot Form Quench™ (HFQ®), dramatically reduces costs and emissions – both in the production process and on the road.

HFQ® is the product of a series of EPSRC-funded projects led by Professor Jianguo Lin dating back to 2003. It has been developed with support from Innovate UK by Impression Technologies Ltd, a company formed to commercialise advanced metallurgical research at Imperial College London and the University of Birmingham.

Professor Lin’s research focused on resolving a major problem for the car industry – how to reduce weight. A lighter vehicle increases fuel economy and reduces exhaust emissions.The solution: replace steel with aluminium. This cuts weight by up to 50 per cent, saves 25 per cent in fuel, and reduces CO2 emissions by over 30 per cent.

By combining stamping and heat-treating in a single operation, HFQ® enables heated aluminium alloy

Hot metalA ‘greener’ aluminium forming process developed with EPSRC support is revolutionising the £160 billion global car manufacturing sector

sheet to be formed at speed into uniquely-shaped panel components – employed to stunning effect in the new Aston Martin DB11 (pictured) – while retaining the full strength of the material. This was hitherto impossible.

Thanks to HFQ®, Aston Martin can make parts that are up to 20 per cent lighter than if made using corresponding cold-formed components. Orders for the DB11 have increased significantly compared to the previous model.

Impression Technologies is now developing partnerships to use HFQ to build mainstream cars and aircraft, and Professor Lin says the process can also be used in the manufacture of commercial vehicles such as trucks.

There’s more good news. Impression Technologies is leading a new academic/industry consortium to develop HFQ® technology to mass-produce complex low-emission vehicles. The EPSRC-supported Brunel Centre for Advanced Solidification Technology at Brunel University is a key member of this project, which is applying research by Professor Zhongyun Fan into improving the recyclability of metals.

Building on revolutionary advances in liquid metal engineering and casting technologies that have enabled car makers to manufacture components up to 40 per cent lighter than previously possible, Professor Fan’s team’s long-term aim is to make high quality parts and materials from metal that has been used at least once.

Who knows, one day Bond may find himself being stirred but not shaken in a recycled Aston Martin.



Making things betterFrom ultra-efficient jet engines to smarter skid-lids for cyclists, EPSRC-supported researchers are at the forefront of low-carbon manufacturing research and innovation

Die cast partnership

Die casting is one of the most widely used production processes for aluminium automotive components, and is employed to make items such as engine blocks and gearbox casings.

Working with Ryobi Ltd, the world’s leading die casting manufacturer, EPSRC-supported researchers at Queen’s University Belfast developed a modified casting process that led to massive savings for the company, which implemented the new method across its UK facility.

The technology led to Ryobi making annual savings of around £1 million, as well as saving 742 GigaJoules of energy – enough to power 50 domestic homes. It also reduced aluminium consumption by up to 60 tonnes compared to previous figures.

In addition to cost, material and environmental savings, the project enabled less frequent die repair and a longer overall die life.

AI software finds faults

EPSRC-supported researchers at the University of Lincoln, in partnership with Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery, are developing intelligent software that can automatically detect system faults in industrial machines.

Using data provided by Siemens, the systems begin as ‘virtual apprentices’, trained by human engineers through coaching, examining and refining processes to diagnose faults in gas turbines. Artificial intelligence

enables the systems to learn until they are ready to be promoted to ‘virtual experts’, able to make sound judgements, matching and even outperforming human experts working without such support.

While this project looks specifically at gas turbine faults, it is hoped the technology could be applied to all fault diagnostic systems, including in power plants, military equipment, the health service and natural disaster monitoring. The project is led by Dr Yu Zhang through an EPSRC New Investigator Award.

Next-gen EVs

EPSRC-supported researchers from Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) are working with experts from Jaguar Land Rover to develop the next generation of longer-range electric vehicles (EVs).

By looking at the entire system – from a car’s batteries to its power electronics and through to its torque transmission – WMG and Jaguar Land Rover are combining underpinning science with innovative technology to understand where efficiencies can be made, identify areas for improvement and build a platform for future development.

The research is led by Professor Barbara Shollock and funded through an EPSRC Prosperity Partnership.

Hi-tech superalloys for greener jet engines

The jet engine is a tough engineering environment. The temperature in the hot gas stream can exceed 1,800 degrees centigrade, and the forces on the rotating turbine blades are equivalent to hanging 15 hatchback cars from each one.

EPSRC-supported researchers at the Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre (UTC) at the University of Cambridge are developing new metal alloys able to withstand the extreme conditions inside a new generation of gas turbine engines designed to burn hotter than ever before – helping to make the engines greener and more efficient. .


Circle line

Dr Fiona Charnley, Senior Lecturer in Circular Innovation at Cranfield University, is leading EPSRC-funded research into how data can be captured from products so that they can last longer through reuse, refurbishment and remanufacture.

The project team are developing new knowledge, tools and methodologies which will allow organisations to capture data throughout the lifecycle of their products and make informed decisions on the most appropriate circular economy strategy.

Project partners include the University of Sheffield, Airbus Group, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Manufacturing Technology Centre, RiverSimple, Cisco Systems and Rolls-Royce plc.

Manufacturing immortality

A consortium of seven institutions led by the University of Bristol is undertaking ground-breaking research into manufacturing new materials which have the ability to self-heal or regenerate.

The initial focus of the three-year Manufacturing Immortality project, led by Dr Paul Race, from the University of Bristol, is on creating materials for use in inaccessible places such as the deep ocean or radioactive sites. In the future, however, the research could lead to consumer goods such as

mobile phones with self-healing screens.

The aim is to combine bio and

non-biological composites.

For

example, bacteria could be paired with ceramics, and glass with electronics, enabling them to regenerate – or become very difficult to break.

The EPSRC-funded consortium includes experts from the University of Bristol, Sheffield Hallam University, The University of Manchester, Cranfield University, the University of Aberdeen, Lancaster University and Northumbria University.

Chatty factories

EPSRC-supported researchers at Cardiff University are exploring how the design of everyday products such as bikes and cars can be immediately adapted if they are found to have design flaws.

The aim of the ‘Chatty Factories’ project is to harness sophisticated artificial intelligence and sensor technologies to create a system whereby products embedded with customer data ‘talk’ to the factory floor where they are produced.

For example, if a customer drops their cycle helmet and it develops a hairline fracture, the helmet would talk to the factory, which would notify the cyclist they need a new one straight away. The company uses the new data to design and build a new helmet that is less likely to crack. The same principles would apply to electric vehicles and consumer devices, right up to aircraft and buildings.

Another key focus of the project, led by Dr Peter Burnap, is to tackle cybersecurity issues surrounding the Internet of Things, to ensure that customer data collected by products is safe from leaks or hacks, and is used in a transparent way by manufacturers.

The Cardiff team are working with scientists from the University of Edinburgh, The University of Nottingham, Lancaster University and

Bath Spa University.

FAST track for Fast-Forge

EPSRC-funded engineers at the University of Sheffield

have revolutionised the production of titanium for use in

aerospace grade titanium alloys – potentially halving the cost.

Although much in demand in the aerospace and defence sectors for its light weight and resistance to corrosion, titanium is three times the cost of steel, and is in limited supply. This shortage isn’t helped by the fact that 90 per cent of the forged titanium alloy used in industry is machined away to waste material.

Now, thanks to research led by Dr Nick Weston while a PhD student at the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Advanced Metallics at the University of Sheffield, what was once a 40-step process has been reduced to just two steps.

Dr Weston’s research was supported by PhD student, Lyndsey Benson, Dr Martin Jackson, and Professor Brad Wynne, an EPSRC Fellow at the High Value Manufacturing Catapult in Sheffield.

The Sheffield team’s underpinning research led to the development of the so-called Fast-Forge process, which transforms powdered titanium into a shaped component.

The process is being scaled up through an Innovate UK-funded collaboration with UK industry partners, Metalysis, Dstl, the Advanced Forming Research Centre and Safran Landing Systems.

Model employee

Research conducted by Sarah Hughes, an EPSRC-supported doctoral student, has helped Jaguar Land Rover save around £500,000 a year.Sarah spent most of her four-year Engineering Doctorate (EngD) based at the car manufacturer’s Gaydon plant in Warwickshire.

Sarah took the results of surveys carried out by market researchers and used statistical techniques, simulation and dynamic modelling to turn customer requirements into an engineering specification.

The company was then able to advise suppliers – of gearboxes for instance – what was needed depending on factors such as mileage and environment. This led to a reduction in the number of prototype models needed, and hence to savings in the region of £500,000 a year.


Building blocks

These 3D-printed aluminium structures, created by researchers at the EPSRC Centre for Additiive Manufacturing at The University of Nottingham, have exceptional strength and stiffness, allowing engineers to significantly reduce the weight of components.

Weight is a critical factor in the aerospace and automotive industries

and it directly correlates to the fuel efficiency and environmental impact of travel.

It is only possible to make such complex aluminium structures via selective laser melting, a type of additive manufacturing (AM) which uses 3D-printing techniques. By utilising AM’s unique capabilities, component weight can be minimised

without compromising strength or performance.

The photograph, taken by Sam Catchpole-Smith, a PhD student at the Centre for Additive Manufacturing, was one of the prize-winning images in the 2017 EPSRC Science Photo Competition.

Turn to page 63 for details of the 2018 competition.


SUSTAINABLE FOOD

Chicken coup

Bioethanol is a form of renewable energy that can be produced from agricultural feedstocks, such as hemp, corn and wheat, and is

widely used in North and South America as a gasoline additive. It’s big business. But with so much of

this raw material destined for landfill, it’s not as eco-friendly as it might seem, especially

when you factor in the amount of land needed to grow the crops.

Dr Emily Burton, from Nottingham Trent University, secured funding

from EPSRC and AB Agri, the agricultural division of

Associated British Foods, to help her find a way to

retrieve proteins from what would otherwise

have been discarded as cereal ‘waste’.

The breakthrough came when Dawn

Scholey, a PhD student at

Around 80 billion litres of the fuel bioethanol are produced annually from fermented cereals. The yeast

used in the process is discarded. Dr Emily Burton and her team found a way to extract liquid protein

from the yeast that’s now more valuable than the bioethanol itself


Nottingham recruited by Dr Burton, came up with a way to separate the protein from the waste yeast and showed that it contained nutrients that are easily digestible by chickens. This patented process could provide a cost-competitive alternative to soya-based protein and other feeds given to chickens bred for meat production.

The process has already been taken up by industry in the US, which is using it to produce high quality protein for poultry feed alongside bioethanol production.

If adopted worldwide, the process could lead to global production of three million tonnes of high-grade protein chicken from discarded bioethanol by-products.

The research project was borne out of the vision of biofuels pioneer Dr Pete Williams of AB Agri, which, with EPSRC, jointly funded Dawn Scholey via an Industrial CASE studentship awarded to Dr Burton.

A Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Plymouth University and a grant from

the Technology Strategy Board (now Innovate UK) subsequently enabled Dr Williams to demonstrate that the protein could be fed to fish such as farmed salmon.

In parallel with the EPSRC funding, the Nottingham researchers secured an Industrial CASE studentship from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) to enable PhD student, Harriet Lea, to work with animal health company Alltech UK3 on the development of a prebiotic chicken food supplement.

The combined support of BBSRC and EPSRC not only helped Emily Burton to establish a new poultry research unit with researchers at Nottingham Trent University, it provided a springboard for recruitment and training of researchers to meet a critical poultry industry skills need. Dr Dawn Scholey is now a full-time member of the team.

The research project has been so successful that the liquid protein extracted during the process essentially becomes the most

valuable component, more so than the bioethanol. The project is also testament to the value of academic/industry partnerships, and initiatives such as Industrial CASE, which provides funding for PhD studentships where businesses take the lead in arranging projects with an academic partner of their choice.

Pete Williams says: “We couldn’t have got this development started without the EPSRC Industrial CASE studentship, which allowed us to establish the proof of concept.”

Dr Burton says: “I’ve always had a close relationship with industry. This allows me and my team to really understand the problems and challenges companies face, so we try to direct research projects to focus on problem solving.

“Dawn’s studentship allowed us to build a small, simple poultry research facility. It got us going, and now we have a huge programme that was built out of that.”

Meanwhile in Leicester…Pankaj Pancholi, managing director of Just Egg Ltd, which gets through 1.5 million eggs a week for its range of mayonnaise products and hard boiled eggs, was looking for an ecologically sound way to discard the company’s egg shells rather than send over 900 tonnes of them every year to landfill, at a cost of £30,000.

He took his problem to Professor Andy Abbott at the University of Leicester. Building on his long-term EPSRC-funded research into bioplastics derived from food industry waste, Professor Abbott and his team designed and developed a process to recycle the egg shells and also find a use for the membrane attached to the shell.

The eggshells are chopped up, washed and then treated with a water-based solution to remove any remaining waste egg. Then, further blades cut the shell into a fine powder, which is dried for use as a filler to ‘bulk up’ different grades of plastic. The Leicester team are also exploring potential uses for the membrane, such as in wound dressings.

Professor Abbott says: “With 12.2 billion eggs consumed in the UK in 2015, recycling eggshells presents a huge business opportunity. Plastics cost around £2,000 a tonne, so using 30 to 40 per cent of recycled eggshell as a filler could save manufacturers a fortune.”

Mr Pancholi says: “Naturally we’re delighted by the cost savings. The icing on the cake would be if the egg shells could ultimately be recycled for use in the plastic packaging that we use for egg products.”

SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION

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Every year the UK budgets around £1 billion to repair damage to and maintain UK infrastructure such as tunnels, bridges and roads, many of which are made from concrete. An EPSRC-supported academic/industry consortium is developing smart, self-healing construction materials with an inbuilt ‘immune system’ that could help to dramatically reduce this bill.

The consortium draws on the skills of research teams from four universities, Cardiff, Cambridge, Bath and Bradford.They are collectively stretching the boundaries of materials science, synthetic biology and construction technologies, and are bringing this fundamental research to application with industry partners, including Highways England, the Welsh Government, Thames Tideway, HS2 Ltd and lead industry partner Costain.

Professor Bob Lark, from Cardiff University, who is principal investigator on the project, says: “Although concrete is the world’s most used building material, it is prone to cracking. If the cracks get too big they can lead to corrosion of the steel reinforcement, which jeopardises the structure’s integrity.

“Engineers often use a larger than necessary amount of steel reinforcement to control cracking, even though the extra steel has no structural use and adds to the cost.

“The overarching goal of the project is to extend the life of concrete infrastructure, optimise its performance and reduce disruption caused by maintenance activities. With industrial partners, we aim to

facilitate the scaling-up, marketing and commercialisation of resilient materials for the construction industry.”

Inspired by natural processes, the multidisciplinary team are embedding self-healing materials and technologies into the concrete when it is initially set. This built-in immune system can automatically sense when damage occurs and is able to carry out repairs autonomously without the need for human intervention.

The team are also developing shape-shifting materials, known as shape-memory polymers. When these materials are activated they can transform into a different shape that the material has ‘memorised’, enabling them to restrain and close cracks as they form, maintaining structural integrity.

The team are also harnessing the unique properties of bacillus pseudofirmus, a type of bacteria which, if supplied with appropriate nutrients, produce calcium carbonate that can heal cracks in the concrete if it becomes damaged. The bacteria and the nutrients or traditional healing agents are embedded into tiny microcapsules. Should a crack occur, the capsules release their cargoes and the cracks are filled by the products of the healing mechanism.

Another technique involves pumping organic and inorganic mineral-based healing agents into concrete structures through a network of tiny artificial tunnels within the concrete structure, in the same way that drugs are injected into our vascular systems, to repair any damage that occurs.

The project, known as Resilient Materials 4 Life (RM4L), builds on the successes of an earlier EPSRC-funded project which culminated in the UK’s first-ever field trials when the technology was successfully deployed in a series of retaining walls being constructed for the A465 Heads of the Valleys road in South Wales. Costain has won several prestigious industry awards for its work on the project.

Among key objectives RM4L has a strong focus on developing the research leaders of tomorrow, and includes the involvement of dedicated institutes such as the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Infrastructure and Built Environment, at the University of Cambridge, of which Costain is a major project partner.

Knowledge transfer is also high on the agenda. Costain’s Oliver Teall, a key member of the South Wales pilot, studied for an EPSRC-supported Engineering Doctorate (EngD), sponsored by Costain, in self-healing concrete at Cardiff University.

Dr Teall, who is now an Innovation and Research Manager with Costain, says: “One of the main drivers for taking the EngD was that I could remain an employee of Costain, thereby maintaining the industrial link and ensuring I had a job to return to following the research.”

Costain Group Innovation and Knowledge Manager, Tim Embley, says: “Our business thrives on innovation, whether it’s harnessed on site or through academic, technical and theoretical work. Postgraduate research is ultimately the best place from which to accelerate innovation to market.”

Running repairsSelf-healing concrete has the potential to transform the construction industry – and has already been successfully trialled in the field by EPSRC-supported researchers

SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION

Smarter structuresFrom insulation materials inspired by dragonfly wings to using autonomous drones to repair potholes, EPSRC-supported researchers are thinking laterally in their quest to develop the next generation of sustainable construction technologies

Winged wonders

An international research team led by scientists at Newcastle University have created a new form of highly efficient, low-cost insulation based on the wings of a dragonfly.

The material, known as an aerogel, is ultralight. A piece the size of a family car weighs less than a kilogram.

Starting out as a wet silica gel, the material is carefully dried to create a strong, porous material. Until now, this process has been lengthy, difficult and costly, and aerogels have been used in only highly specialist tasks, such as the collection of stardust in space.

The team have developed a low cost way to dry the aerogel by mimicking the way in which the dragonflies dry their wings. Instead of drying the silica under high temperature and pressure, they use bicarbonate of soda to ‘blow’ out the water molecules, trapping carbon dioxide gas in the pores.

Dr Lidija Šiller, who co-authored the team’s paper on their research, says: “A dragonfly’s wings are an ultralight aerogel – making up less than two per cent of the insect’s total body weight – and yet they are so strong they can carry the insect thousands of miles and between continents.”

The EPSRC-supported team say the next step will be to scale up the process to create larger panels that can be used to insulate our homes and buildings.

Growing strainsEPSRC-supported researchers from Newcastle University are investigating the possibility of using engineered bacterial cells as a building material – integrating civil engineering with the emerging field of synthetic biology.

They suggest that by saturating soil with billions of engineered bacteria cells, and then applying force to the ground, the bacteria would increase soil resistance by synthesising a new biological material to bind the soil grains together, resulting in the building blocks for a new structure.

The team, led by Professor Martyn Dade-Robertson, are building a proof of concept to show how we might design a manufacturing process where the material itself acts as manufacturer and designer, modelling and responding to its environment.

Leveraging lendingLENDERS, a report published by a consortium of like-minded organisations, including the Nationwide Building Society, Arup and the Energy Saving Trust, suggests that homebuyers could take out bigger mortgages if the energy ratings of properties were factored into the lending criteria of banks and building societies.

The report, based on research led by researchers at the EPSRC-led RCUK Centre for Energy Epidemiology, based at UCL, was featured as a case study in the UK Government’s Clean Growth Strategy, published in October 2017.

Power plantsProfessor Christopher Howe and Dr Paolo Bombelli, from the University of Cambridge, have combined ‘green wall’ technology and semi-transparent solar panels to generate a 24-7 electrical current from a renewable source of energy.

The team’s prototype ‘green bus shelter’, built in collaboration with eco-companies, could eventually generate enough electricity to light itself.

The building’s thin-film solar panels turn light into electricity. Plants grow behind the solar glass, ‘sharing the light’ by utilising the red spectrum radiation needed for photosynthesis, while avoiding the scorching effect of UV light. The plants also generate electrical currents as a consequence of photosynthesis and metabolic activity by day and by night.

Supported by an EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account, the project’s long-term aim is to develop a range of self-powered sustainable buildings – from bus stops to refugee shelters.

Robots repair roadsAn EPSRC-supported consortium led by Professor Philip Purnell from the University of Leeds is developing autonomous robots that can identify and repair potholes and cracks in our roads.

The consortium, which includes UCL and the universities of Birmingham and Southampton, are working with Leeds City Council on a range of

Photography: Mark Mallett

unmanned vehicles that identify damage at an early stage and relay the information gathered to ‘fixer-bots’ able to carry out repairs by 3D-printing tarmac into the cracks.

Repairing road damage at an early stage will minimise road congestion and lower road closure costs, as well as reduce reliance on manual labour.

The 3D printing systems can also be deployed on drones, which the team suggest could be used to repair flat roofs and other hard-to-access infrastructure.

Pile driversEvery year approximately 50,000 buildings are demolished in the UK, generating 45 million tonnes of waste. However, only a small percentage of this is reclaimed to be used in the construction industry.

Researchers at the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction, funded by EPSRC and Innovate UK, working with construction group Skanska, pioneered a way to test whether the foundations of buildings under demolition or reconstruction can be reused – saving construction companies time and money, and helping reduce environmental impact.

The team cored into the foundation supports of a London office block under demolition. They then inserted optical fibre-based sensors to measure the strain the foundations could absorb, and then advised on which could be reused.

The new building effectively retains over 50 per cent of the original structural mass – helping the company save £6 million, reduce construction time and decrease carbon emissions by over 1,000 tonnes on installation alone. The building is 80 per cent more efficient than the one it replaces.

SupermudPostgraduate student Alastair Marsh, from the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Decarbonisation of the Built Environment at the University of Bath, is investigating the potential of chemically-altered soil as a viable and robust construction material for building homes in some of the world’s poorest areas.

The process involves adding alkaline chemicals – similar to those found in household cleaning products – to the soil. This transforms clay present in the soil into a geopolymer – a kind of ‘glue’, similar to cement – which chemically binds the material together.

The research could provide a strong, affordable and environmentally-friendly housing solution for use in developing countries where modern building materials can be environmentally damaging and expensive.

Backbone to research Dr Mohammad Mehdi Kashani, from the University of Southampton, has been awarded EPSRC funding to construct a new resilience-based bridge design and construction inspired by the mechanics of the human spine.

Constructed using low-carbon composite materials, which are extremely durable against environmental threats, the design will be resilient to dynamic and extreme loadings, such as those created by high-speed trains and abnormal traffic. The new bridge column will be manufactured off-site and assembled on the construction site.

Healthy housing for the displacedEPSRC-supported researchers at the University of Bath are leading an international project to improve the living conditions of millions of refugees by designing better shelters.

The team are using new combinations of conventional and non-conventional materials including recycled plastic, bamboo, mud and straw to design shelters that can provide warmth in winter and cool conditions during the summer. The most successful designs will be tested in local conditions in Jordan.

The project has been funded through the Global Challenges Research Fund, which forms part of the UK’s Official Development Assistance commitment.


In the 1970s, research consultant, Dr Donald Highgate, came up with the first of a career-spanning series of major innovations in materials science. His inventions are as extraordinary as they are diverse – from clever contact lenses to supercapacitors that could charge a car in minutes and keep it on the road for hundreds of miles. All based around core technology developed through fundamental science.

Words: Dr Ellen Meek

As an innovator and serial entrepreneur Dr Highgate has filed over 30 patents and founded five companies. By far the most successful of these is ITM Power, a ground-breaking energy storage and clean fuel company formed to bring to market EPSRC-funded research led by Donald Highgate while he was working as a consultant and visiting researcher at the universities of Surrey and Cranfield.

EPSRC investment

The research behind ITM Power began in 1995 when EPSRC awarded a grant of £63,000 to Professor John Jones, from the University of Surrey, to develop a new material for use in hydrogen fuel cells. This project, which was instigated and led by Dr Highgate, built on a unique material that Highgate had originally developed for soft hydrophilic contact lenses.

The common thread running through Donald Highgate’s work is a platform technology based around his development of hydrophilic polymers (materials with an affinity for water) with remarkable properties, including, most recently, electronic

conductivity. Dr Highgate’s ability to identify commercial and societal opportunities arising from his core technology has led to a range of products and innovations – from a skin dressing material, to contact lenses, and from ‘green’ energy storage to an entirely new generation of healthcare technologies.

Throughout, Dr Highgate has forged collaborations with academics and experts in their field, combining university-based expertise and facilities with his gift for invention, while building long-term relationships that have stood the test of time.


Inner vision

Life through a lens: one of the first applications for Donald Highgate’s unique new material was for a new generation of soft contact lenses.


ENERGY INNOVATION

During the 1970s, through his successful consultancy business, Dr Highgate, with others, formed a company, IH Laboratories Ltd, that became a major supplier of materials to the UK contact lens industry, producing one million ‘polymer blanks’ per year. These little pellets of polymer material were purchased by contact lens manufacturers to be machined into bespoke contact lenses.

One of the unique qualities of the polymer blanks was their ability to absorb large amounts of water up to many times their own weight. It was this quality that enabled manufacturers of contact lenses to make better, more comfortable lenses, but Highgate’s gift for innovation saw him exploiting this property for use in many applications – from medical dressing material for Glaxo, one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, to a new generation of hydrogen fuel cell membranes. Hydrogen fuel cells are devices which convert chemical energy into electricity and promise a greener alternative to power generation.

Fast-forward to the 1990s, when EPSRC support enabled Dr Highgate to both develop and patent ionically conducting polymers suitable for application in both fuel cells and electrolysers. The EPSRC-funded research underpinned both a new fuel cell membrane material and a novel ‘single step’ fuel cell manufacturing process.

The new membrane was able to hold its own water and not dry out – a major problem with the industry standard material. This hydrophilic property not only gives the fuel cells a much longer life expectancy, it makes them much more sustainable.

The catalyst that accelerates the chemical processes in hydrogen fuel cells is platinum, an expensive material that is not generally recoverable in industry standard fuel cells without leaching harmful fluorides into the environment. Dr Highgate explains: “The reason why fuel cells are known to be expensive is because you buy the platinum and you throw it away at the end of life… With our material, at the end of life you

burn it and you get a little bit of carbon dioxide and all the valuable materials fall out; you can’t do that with the industry standard material.”

The EPSRC-funded research was not only pivotal in developing this new material, leading to two core patents, it also consolidated Highgate’s belief that the technology had powerful commercial potential.

ITM Power is born

In 2001, Highgate co-founded ITM Limited to take the research to market. The company, which evolved into ITM Power Plc, has gone from strength to strength. In 2004 it was the first UK-based fuel cell company to go public when it was floated on AIM, part of the London Stock Exchange, and it has secured over £55 million in investment since becoming publicly listed. Today it employs over 70 people and has expanded from its head office in Sheffield to subsidiaries in Germany, the USA and Denmark.

Dr Highgate, who was a founding Director and Director of Research on the ITM Power Board until 2009, says: “EPSRC support was fundamental to the formation of the company, which is still driven by its original mission of working towards a more sustainable future based on clean fuel and energy storage.”

Dr Highgate’s membrane is now used in many of ITM Power’s electrolyser systems which ‘split’ water into hydrogen and oxygen. This provides a way of storing energy produced from renewable sources like wind and solar power.

Dr Nicholas Van Dijk, Research Director at ITM Power, says: “With renewable resources such as wind and solar energy, sometimes you have too little and sometimes you have

too much. Not everybody wants to make a cup of tea when the wind is blowing, so, when there is an excess, ITM’s solution is to store that energy as hydrogen which can be put to a number of uses. Our focus is on large-scale energy storage with two main uses for the hydrogen: as a fuel for zero emission vehicles and in ‘power to gas’ energy storage applications where the renewable hydrogen can help decarbonise the gas grid.

“Hydrogen-fuelled vehicles have a big advantage over electric vehicles when it comes to long-distance travel. You can fill up your vehicle in less than three minutes and you can get about a range of 300 miles or more. The car also feels and drives like a normal vehicle, albeit silently.”

The ability to refuel quickly and travel long distances is especially important for commercial vehicles such as lorries, taxis and buses, which cannot spend long amounts of time recharging in between journeys. ITM Power is on the case.

Among a host of different initiatives, the company is rolling out hydrogen vehicle refuelling stations in the UK, including a joint venture with Shell that in 2017 saw the launch of the first hydrogen station to be situated on a forecourt in the UK, at Cobham services on the M25.

The company has identified particular opportunities in the rapidly growing European fuel cell energy bus (FCEB) market. It has recently secured an order for its first FCEB refueller in Birmingham; which it will build, own and operate. The company has also been selected as the preferred supplier for two further major bus projects.

Dr Van Dijk says: “The international hydrogen bus market is becoming very exciting for us. As buses use a depot refuelling model, only one refuelling station is needed for a whole fleet of buses, and the fuel revenues are bankable.”

This kind of activity is the result of a vigorous R&D programme with academic and industry partners. ITM Power is a partner on eight EPSRC-



EPSRC support was fundamental to the

formation of ITM Power

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Fuelled for success: Dr Donald Highgate’s EPSRC-supported research in the 1990s underpinned the formation of ITM Power, a highly successful UK supplier of renewable energy. Among a host of initiatives, the company is rolling out hydrogen vehicle refuelling stations like this one across the UK.

The company is still driven by its original mission of working towards a more sustainable future based on clean fuel and energy storage.

Because it is able to produce its hydrogen on site using renewable energy from wind and solar sources, the company incurs zero use of carbon in generation and transport. Electric vehicles on the other hand are usually charged from the National Grid which uses a mixture of renewable and carbon-based energy sources.

The company is also converting excess renewable energy into hydrogen which can be stored in the gas grid, helping to lower the carbon footprint of the natural gas network.P

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ENERGY INNOVATIONContinued from page 58

supported academic/industry research projects and is also a partner in two EPSRC Centres for Doctoral Training.

Dr Van Dijk says: “There is a huge knowledge base in the UK. As a partner on EPSRC-supported projects we can help drive the direction of the research towards commercial success.

“If something is useful for us we’ll help exploit it. And even if it’s not useful for us we’ll help make sure that the right questions are answered to help that technology be exploited effectively.”

The company has also benefitted from the support of UK research funders such as Innovate UK, the government’s innovation agency, which has awarded the company grants of over £1.6 million.

A new chapter

But the story doesn’t end there for Dr Highgate’s unique technology. In order to make an effective electrolyser fuel cell membrane he made his polymer material ‘ionically conducting’ and thus able to conduct positively charged hydronium ions. The next step was to make his material electrically conducting: “By doing so, you can make any electrical or electronic structure,” he says. This got him thinking.

Again, he turned to academia to find ways to exploit this opportunity. Specifically, Dr (now Professor) Ian Hamerton, a polymer chemist based at the University of Surrey with a number of EPSRC-supported projects under his belt, who has been a friend of Dr Highgate for over 20 years, and his Surrey colleague, Dr Brendan Howlin, a computational chemist.

Initial funding for the project was sourced through the creation of a company, Augmented Optics, which secured backing from city investors.

Dr Highgate says: “Our first idea was to create a business that could print electronically conductive components onto contact lenses, which would have had a range of potential applications, from blood sugar monitoring to hi-tech vision aids. To achieve this objective we had to make the polymer both transparent and bio-acceptable.”

Tip of the iceberg

It turned out that this was the tip of the iceberg. The more they investigated the new electrically conductive polymers the more extraordinary were the results. They realised they were on the cusp of creating an entirely new kind of supercapacitor, with a range of potentially revolutionary applications.

Dr Howlin says: “Like rechargeable batteries, supercapacitors can be used to store and release electricity, and are already used in lots of applications, even in some electric buses in China. The problem with supercapacitors is that they don’t store much energy, so need to be recharged frequently. So the Chinese bus has to make a lot of stops.

“Although supercapacitors charge and discharge rapidly they typically store just one tenth of the energy a battery does. Our supercapacitor, which uses fundamentally different technology, can store much, much more than that.”

Professor Hamerton adds: “The device is not only able to conduct electricity, it can also take up water. This is important because it will prevent the material from catching fire.”

So, the new supercapacitor was powerful and stable – essential for commercial development – but the team were staggered when they realised its true potential, so much so that they sought independent verification.

Ian Hamerton, now based at the University of Bristol’s Department of Aerospace Engineering, called in the services of his Bristol colleague Professor David Fermin, an electrochemist, asking him to put the new material through its paces. Professor Fermin confirmed that the new material was 1,000 to 10,000 times more powerful than any known capacitor materials.

If it were to achieve this extraordinary potential, the new supercapacitor could provide a safer, more efficient and greener alternative to battery power – one that would allow you to recharge your phone in seconds or your electric car in the same amount of time it takes to fill a regular car with petrol.

Dr Highgate and his collaborators duly founded another company, Supercapacitor Materials, a wholly owned subsidiary of Augmented Optics, in order to take this fundamental discovery through to application.

But the discoveries weren’t over, as the trio had come up with three other classes of electrically-conducting polymer materials including one that could have exciting applications in healthcare.

Professor Hamerton says: “Our experiments led to the development of soft, flexible, metal-free biocompatible materials that can be ionically conducting or electrically conducting. This opens up the possibility of producing a device able to communicate with the nervous system through ions rather than relying on the electrical impulses used by current devices. This would mimic the way that nerves work in the body.”

Dr Highgate says: “Today, if you want to make contact with a nerve you stick a wire in it… you get an output but you’re not talking to it in its own language. If we’re successful it would be possible to communicate directly with human nervous tissue and to transmit information in digital format… The first and most obvious application for this would be that it would make excellent prosthetic arms and legs.”

While much remains to be done, the team have developed a range of practical engineering prototype devices using technology that continues to stand up to scrutiny.

After 50 years of innovation, what is it that drives Donald Highgate to keep pushing at the boundaries of materials science instead of hanging up his lab coat to reflect on a highly productive career? It comes down to core values, and the development of new sustainable materials.

He says: “We are probably the first generation who, if we can dream of something, we can do it.

“There is a valid reason for finding a hydrocarbon replacement fuel that won’t ruin the world for our children. The future will hold us responsible if we don’t do it.”


“There is a valid

reason for finding

a hydrocarbon

replacement fuel that

won’t ruin the world

for our children. The

future will hold us

responsible if we

don’t do it”

Supercapcitor, super potential: Dr Donald Highgate (left) with Professor Ian Hamerton, a polymer chemist based in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Bristol. With University of Surrey colleague Dr Brendan Howlin, Professor Hamerton co-led research instigated by Dr Highgate that has uncovered a new class of electronically conducting flexible polymer materials with unique properties.

The materials are 1,000 to 10,000 times more powerful than any known capacitor materials. If they were to achieve their extraordinary potential, they could allow you to recharge your mobile phone in seconds or to charge your electric car in the same amount of time it takes to fill a regular car with petrol – while helping to achieve a more sustainable future.

Professor Hamerton says: “We believe this is an extremely exciting and potentially game-changing development. The polymers that underpin the technology have many possible uses in which tough, flexible conducting materials are desirable, including bioelectronics, sensors, wearable electronics, and advanced optics.”

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Professor Lynn GladdenIn profile

Professor Lynn Gladden, EPSRC’s new Executive Chair, is Shell Professor of Chemical Engineering and former Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at the University of Cambridge

What attracted you to the role of Executive Chair at EPSRC? During my career I have worked with EPSRC on many advisory groups and peer review panels and have also served as a member of EPSRC’s Council – its governing body. Over the years I have got to know it as a highly professional organisation which has served its community well.

What opportunities does UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) present? By combining all seven UK Research Councils with Innovate UK and Research England, UKRI is a single, powerful body to promote science within the UK and globally. The opportunity for enhanced funding into science means that the Engineering and Physical Sciences (EPS) community can now be even more adventurous, both in terms of its discovery-led and outcome-driven research.

Further, the ability to work more closely with our partner organisations has to make it easier for us to tackle new research challenges, as well as entirely new research questions, which require skills outside those held in the EPS community.

I would also like to explore opportunities for new ways of working with national labs, charities, international partners, SMEs and big industry. I think that there are significant opportunities to do exciting new science and engineering through real research partnerships across organisations that have generally interacted much more at arm’s length.

How important is it to engage young people in the excitement of engineering and physical sciences? Hugely – different young people will be switched on to science by different things. For some, it’s the excitement of discovery. For others the excitement and motivation is to make a difference and to deliver social benefit through their career. Of course, these two motivations are not mutually exclusive!

The need to introduce young people to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in school is well understood although there is still a long way to go. Older family members and

friends can also play a role in influencing young people – which means that we also need to communicate the importance of STEM to the general public.

What do you consider your greatest professional achievements?I set out to bring magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) into the chemical engineering sector – making it possible to create high resolution 3D images of structures and processes in unprecedented detail. One of the areas I am particularly interested in is characterising the behaviour of catalysts while they are operating.

Just last year my research group got to the stage where we could actually monitor hydrocarbon chain growth inside a catalyst pellet working inside a catalytic reactor. It’s fascinating to see how these new measurement methods can shed light on long-standing problems in the chemicals sector.

You’ve collaborated with major industry partners, such as Microsoft and Johnson Matthey. How important is it for science to be strongly linked to industry? It is certainly not necessary for all individual science projects to be linked to industry. However, I think that in certain fields, even when much of that research is still at the ‘discovery’ end of the pipeline, we need to foster an environment in which industry is made aware of new research advances and identify opportunities for business to collaborate with universities. I also think that university researchers do benefit from pursuing their research with an awareness of how that research might be used. This is an extremely challenging area but I think the rewards to both the academic and industrial communities would be great if we get it right.

With regard to my own work, I would have continued to develop MRI to look at catalytic processes without an industrial partner – because it was what I was interested in. However, my collaborations with industrial partners have given me greater understanding of the questions that industry really needs an answer to, and I have learned a lot from colleagues in industry who have introduced me to new ideas in chemistry and mathematics.

My partnerships with industry guide my thinking but do not control it.

How can EPSRC prosper within UKRI? We need simple, clear messaging about what EPSRC stands for – and that the two strands: ‘discovery-led’ and ‘outcome-driven’ research are the essence of the organisation.

Breakthrough/discovery-led science and engineering is essential in its own right, and is a prerequisite to the development of technology. EPSRC has an excellent track record in supporting fundamental research; and I am confident that this will flourish within UKRI while providing wider opportunities to support outcome-focused research, especially that which tackles the great challenges of our age, from food and water security to antimicrobial resistance.

What are your main interests outside science?Modern art – In particular, I am a Mark Rothko fan. Indeed my leaving gift when I left EPSRC Council was a book on the works of Rothko. However, my main pastime is walking – and I spend as much time as I can (which isn’t much!) in the Peak District.

In shortLynn Gladden is an internationally recognised chemical engineer whose research and development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods have widely benefited industrial processes. A high-profile leader across multiple disciplines, her research has resulted in new products and process technologies across many sectors of industry, particularly medicine, agricultural chemistry and the catalytic processes used in oil refineries.

Lynn is a Fellow of the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering. She was awarded a CBE for services to chemical engineering in 2009 and was elected a Foreign Member of the US National Academy of Engineering in 2015.


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About the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)

EPSRC is part of UK Research and Innovation, a non-departmental public body funded by a grant-in-aid from the UK government. epsrc.ukri.org.

EPSRC is the main funding body for engineering and physical sciences research in the UK. By investing in research and postgraduate training, we are building the knowledge and skills base needed to address the scientific and technological challenges facing the nation.

Our portfolio covers a vast range of fields, from healthcare technologies to structural engineering, manufacturing to mathematics, advanced materials to chemistry. The research we fund has impact across all sectors. It provides a platform for future UK prosperity by contributing to a healthy, connected, resilient, productive nation.

This image of a single positively-charged strontium atom, held near motionless by electric fields, won the overall prize in EPSRC’s 2017 Science Photography Competition.

Single Atom in an Ion Trap, by David Nadlinger, from the University of Oxford, shows the atom held by the fields emanating from the metal electrodes surrounding it. The distance between the small needle tips is about two millimetres.

When illuminated by a laser of the right blue-violet colour the atom absorbs and re-emits light particles sufficiently quickly for an ordinary camera to capture it in a long exposure photograph. The winning picture was taken through a window of the ultra-high vacuum chamber that houses the ion trap.

The image attracted media interest worldwide and drew the public’s attention to EPSRC’s portfolio. All EPSRC-supported researchers are eligible to enter the competition, and the deadline this year is 17 December. Entry forms are available from the EPSRC website.

Atom trap

£4.6 billion

Total value of EPSRC’s research and training portfolio:

3,800

Organisations involved in collaborative EPSRC grants:

Percentage of research portfolio that is multidisciplinary:

68%

55%

Percentage of research portfolio that is collaborative:

£ 1.1 billion

Total leveraged from users:

EPSRC AT A GLANCE

16

Super brain

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Counci l

Greener trucking Cooler ice cream Safer water Smarter energy networks Faster supercomputers

Professor Steve Furber – building a computer to think like a human

SPECIAL EDITION: SCIENCE FOR A CONNECTED NATION

Pioneer 16 19 july.indd 1 19/07/2016 09:05:24

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