This series aims to share ideas between engineering disciplines about potential technological responses to climate change. The series will run generally on every second Wednesday from 5.00-6.00 in Lecture Room 2, and includes speakers from the Department as well as external speakers.
Future efficiency of the internal combustion engine - Wednesday 21 January Lecture Room 2 (LR2)
Nick Collings
Professor of Applied Thermodynamics - University of Cambridge
Abstract: It is perhaps becoming accepted that personal (motorised) mobility may become less prevalent in the future - for reasons we can all rehearse - and that public transport may once again become predominant. I'll take a stab in this presentation about what personal transport, in its survival form, might look like. Prepare to be unsurprised.
Nick Collings has been Professor of Applied Thermodynamics in the Cambridge University Engineering Department since 2000. His expertise is in internal combustion (IC) engines, particularly in relation to emissions: their origins, production, measurement and amelioration. His current research includes new engine concepts for fuel economy improvement, and the development of novel particle mass measurement for diesel emissions. He is also a Fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers of America and a Director of Cambustion Ltd.
Energy use in the University of Cambridge - with panel discussion on options for change - Wednesday 4 February Lecture Room 2 (LR2)
Paul Hasley and invited panel
University Energy Manager - University of Cambridge
Abstract: Paul Hasley will spend 25 minutes quantifying the use of energy at Cambridge University and discuss some current initiatives to reduce its carbon footprint. This will be followed by a panel discussion, for which all the past speakers in the ELCF seminar series have then been invited to present a single slide with their view on what the University should do. This will be a great opportunity to generate some interesting debate and perhaps start some initiatives aimed at introducing low carbon technologies to the University.
Paul Hasley has been the University's Energy Manager since 2004. Leading a team within the Estate Management and Building Service he initiated the development of a carbon management strategy for the University and gained Carbon Trust support for this in the form of £600k grant funding via the Salix programme. In the last year he has been kept busy with the introduction of a University policy to incentivise departments in the efficient use of electricity and the UK/EU legislation under the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. In the next year he will also be responsible for ensuring that the University complies with the Carbon Reduction Commitment. With a remit that includes all utilities he has also helped to continue the University's success in driving down water usage across the estate over the last two decades. EMBS work on water conservation at the University has been 'highly commended' by the HEEPI Green Gowns Awards twice in the last 4 years.
Paul is well versed in both the theory and practice of energy management. Having gained an MSc in Energy Conservation and Management he became a member of the Energy Institute in 1992 and then enjoyed a successful career which encompassed both public and private sector organisations. He recently became a Low Carbon Energy Assessor meaning that he is now qualified to produce Display Energy Certificates for University buildings.
Transportation in a Climate-Constrained World - Wednesday 18 February Lecture Room 2 (LR2)
Andreas Schäfer
Lecturer in Architecture - University of Cambridge
Abstract: Transportation consumes two-thirds of the world's petroleum and has become the largest contributor to global environmental change. Most of this increase in scale can be attributed to the strong desire for personal mobility that comes with economic growth. In their forthcoming book, Transportation in a Climate-Constrained World (MIT Press), Andreas Schafer and his MIT colleagues Professors John B. Heywood, Henry D. Jacoby, and Ian A. Waitz present the first integrated assessment of the factors affecting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from passenger transportation. They examine such topics as past and future travel demand; the influence of personal and business choices on passenger travel's climate impact; technologies and alternative fuels that may become available to mitigate GHG emissions from passenger transport; and policies that would promote a more sustainable transportation system. And most important, when all of these options are taken together, they consider whether a sustainable transportation system is possible in the next thirty to fifty years, or whether we must accept a future where transportation remains a major contributor to climate change.
Andreas Schäfer is a lecturer in the department of architecture at the University of Cambridge, where he lectures predominantly in the field of energy and sustainability. He has an MSc in aero- and astronautical engineering and a PhD in energy economics, both from the University of Stuttgart, Germany. He spent five years at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria, followed by seven years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Andreas has been working for more than 10 years in the area of technology, human behavior, and the environment. His main areas of interest are modeling the demand for energy services, assessing characteristics of future low-greenhouse gas emission technologies, and simulating the optimum technology dynamics in a greenhouse gas constrained energy system. He has published widely on global travel demand modeling, transport system technology assessment, and the introduction of technology. He is also part of the Institute for Aviation and the Environment, concerned with the integrated modelling of the world's aviation system (www.aimproject.aero).
The role of fuel cell technology in a low carbon economy - Wednesday 4 March Lecture Room 2 (LR2)
Nigel Brandon
Professor of Sustainable Development in Energy - Imperial College
Fuel cells are now available commercially in niche markets, and are emerging into mass market applications, particularly for the residential scale co-generation of electricity and heat. In this guise fuel cell products can reduce carbon emissions from hydrocarbon fuels such as natural gas and, in some variants, offer the potential to be coupled with fuels arising from green waste or biomass. In transport applications, when coupled with low carbon sources of hydrogen fuel, fuel cell powered cars and buses offer one route by which carbon emissions from the transport sector can be significantly reduced. This lecture will discuss these issues, highlighting some of the science and engineering challenges that remain to be addressed, and will draw on some of the presenters current research in fuel cell engineering.
Professor Nigel Brandon FREng holds an engineering degree and PhD from Imperial College London. His research interests are focussed on energy systems, and in particular the development and application of fuel cell technologies. Following research positions with BP and Rolls-Royce he returned to Imperial College as a faculty member in 1998. In 2004 he was appointed to the Shell Chair in Sustainable Development in Energy, in 2005 as Executive Director of the Imperial College Energy Futures Lab, and in 2006 as Senior Research Fellow to the UK Research Councils Energy programme and the UK Government Office of Science Focal Point in Energy with China. He leads the EPSRC funded Supergen fuel cell consortia, and is a founder and Chief Scientist of Ceres Power, an AIM listed fuel cell company spun out from Imperial College in 2001. He was awarded the 2007 Silver Medal from the UK Royal Academy of Engineering for his contribution to fuel cell engineering leading to commercial exploitation. He is a chartered engineer, a Fellow of the Energy Institute, a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, and Fellow of The City and Guilds of London Institute. He sits on the Editorial Boards of the Journals of Renewable Power Generation, Chemistry and Sustainability: Energy and Materials, and Power and Energy.
