EPSRC announces funding for centre for doctoral training in resilient decarbonised fuel energy systems

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Centre (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), has announced today (Monday 4 February 2019) the list of Centres for Doctoral Training (CDT) that will receive a share from a total of £446m. CDTs are designed to train postgraduate students and tackle research and innovation challenges across the engineering and the physical sciences landscape

Amongst that list is the CDT for Resilient Decarbonised Fuel Energy Systems, creating a unique capability to carry out research in energy-intensive applications over the next eight years. The CDT is a collaboration between the Universities of Nottingham, Cardiff and Sheffield all of whom bring world-leading facilities and know-how to the team.

The remit for the CDT for Resilient Decarbonised Fuel Energy Systems is to carry out work in four themes which have a unifying vision of re-purposing and re-using existing energy infrastructure to deliver rapid and cost-effective decarbonisation.

The four themes are:

• Allowing the re-use and development of existing processes to generate energy and co-products from low-carbon biomass and waste fuels, and to maximise the social, environmental and economic benefits for the UK from this transition
• Decreasing CO₂ emissions from industrial processes by implementation of CCUS, integrating with heat networks where appropriate.
• Assessing options for the decarbonisation of natural gas users (as fuel or feedstock) in the power generation, industry and domestic heating system through a combination of hydrogen enhancement and/or CO₂ capture. Also critical in this theme is the development of technologies that enables the sustainable supply of carbon-lean H₂ and the adoption of H₂ or H₂ enriched fuel/feedstock in various applications within these sectors.
• Automating existing electricity, gas and other vector infrastructure (including existing and new methods of energy storage) based on advanced control technologies, data-mining and development of novel instrumentation, ensuring a smarter, more flexible energy system at lower cost. This allows flexible operation to support a system with lots of variable renewable generation.

The UKCCSRC would like to congratulate the Universities of Nottingham, Cardiff and Sheffield on the success of their bid and welcome the valuable contribution that the CDT will make in ensuring the next generation of skills is in place to further the UK’s efforts to decarbonise its energy systems. The UKCCSRC provides professional development opportunities for early career researchers in CCS by offering support for training opportunities, meetings and collaborations and we look forward to working alongside the CDT for Resilient Decarbonised Fuel Energy Systems in the future.