Environmental Engineering
The environment and climate change is ingrained into almost all aspects of research in Sustainable Engineering. From developing new sustainable materials through to reducing emissions from full-scale industrial supply chains, our research aims to drive down environmental impacts of the products we use. Some of our key research topics are:
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Measuring and mitigating methane and other pollutant emissions from industrial sites using innovative measurement techniques such as drone-based atmospheric sensing. In particular, we specialise in measuring and reducing methane emissions from liquid petroleum gas ships, and have commercialised a novel catalyst to reduce this through the spin-out, Methanox.
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Multi-scale modelling of the combustion of current and new fuels to create a better fundamental understanding of how to reduce emissions and increase efficiency.
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Assessing the toxicity and environmental impact of emerging semiconductors
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Sustainable remediation of emerging contaminants in water resources. This includes: development of hand-held sensors to determine contaminant concentrations; removal of contaminants using nature-based solutions (e.g. algal foams, sustainable activated carbon filters); sustainable destruction of enriched contaminant waste streams; development of new materials to destroy emerging contaminant via advanced oxidation, e.g. photocatalysis.
Our collaborative, solution-driven approaches bring key societal challenges to the forefront, working with industry, policy makers and the 3rd sector to driving economic, environmental and social benefit.