Summary of the impact

The supply of electrical energy to centres of demand is an increasingly important issue as our power generation sources decarbonise. Without innovation in our use of high voltage cables, security of supply to our major cities cannot be guaranteed. Our research has:

• Identified how outdated international standards governing the rating of power cables can undermine network performance.
• Developed improved rating methods which will save National Grid £1.2 million annually.
• Informed new international technical guides.
• Designed, in conjunction with major industrial partners, cables that optimise transmission for lower operational costs, minimise the risk of network failure and cut carbon emissions.

Summary of the impact

The Computational Mechanics and Reliability Group at the University of Greenwich has been developing design and materials modelling expertise and tools for electronic manufacturing and reliability since the late 1990s. This case study details economic and environmental impacts and impacts on practitioners. In particular it shows how our expertise has:

• substantially aided companies to assemble miniaturised electronic systems using environmentally friendly materials;
• aided companies to predict reliability of new electronic systems before physical prototyping providing significant cost savings;
• led to formation of spin out companies by our academic partners.

Summary of the impact

Research conducted since July 2008 by the University of East London in collaboration with Control Techniques Dynamics (CTD), a leading manufacturer of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSMs), has led to the development of a software tool called the PMSM analyser. This tool has helped CTD to improve its motor design methodology by incorporating electromagnetic, thermal and cost models, together with genetic algorithms. In turn, the design optimisation allowed CTD to enhance motor performance and reduce manufacturing time by 30-40%, leading to an increase of 20% in company sales between 2008 and 2013. During the same period the company was able to cut materials usage by 15%.

Summary of the impact

Cloud computing is now used ubiquitously in consumer and commerce domains yielding unprecedented access to computing and data handling at affordable prices.

Work in this field was pioneered at the University of Southampton (UoS) from 1998 onwards and commercialised from 2008 through Dezineforce to enable companies to exploit cloud computing in engineering:

• The technology was applied in industries including aerospace and defence, energy, civil engineering and automotive.
• For small companies, we successfully demonstrated access to computing power and enhanced design tools delivered via the Cloud. e.g. Intelligent Flow Solutions used our tools to develop an innovative Wind Turbine Farm design with an increased lifetime return of over €55 million compared to alternative arrangements.
• Large companies benefited from more efficient ways of collaborative working and advanced design search/optimisation technologies, which had not been possible before. For example Arup achieved a £1 million+ figure saving on a stadium design in the Middle East.
• The IP was sold to Microsoft in 2011 with staff moving to roles in Microsoft's Azure Cloud/senior teams.

Throughout this period the team has also engaged in outreach to inspire and educate the next generation of scientists and engineers about High Performance and Cloud computing including a YouTube video with 485,000 hits and over 300 articles in media.

Summary of the impact

The Leicester Variwave project, in relation to electrostatic dust precipitation, utilises a novel high voltage, high frequency, high power transformer within the power supply, which has enabled cuts in industrial emissions of ~50 per cent and considerable cost savings. Most new-build power stations and many other industrial sites now use technology based on that developed in Leicester. As well as fly ash and dust, the technology has the ability to trap sub-micron particulates thought to be partly responsible for the increase in the number of asthma cases during the past few decades. The MD of [text removed for publication] states `Through publications made by ...Leicester ...we were interested to learn how the team designed their high voltage transformer, and how that transformer operated with the high frequency, high power switched-mode electronics. They achieved that `Holy Grail' combination [of high voltage, frequency, high power] in a 70 kW switched-mode power supply (SMPS) running at 20 KHz and at 50 kV. The publication in the IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery was very helpful, and enabled us to choose the direction when pushing the design boundaries in developing our own high power, high voltage technology for electrostatic precipitators'. Dr Devine, a key member of the Leicester team between 1995 and 2000, was employed by [text removed for publication] in 2001 purely on the basis of his knowledge of Variwave. [text removed for publication] now have 200 units in operation. In 2002 Dr Devine was head-hunted for his knowledge of Variwave and moved to [text removed for publication], who also developed commercial units. The uptake of the technology has been growing steadily since 2001. Exemplar data from one company on the associated reduction in emissions shows 195 switched mode power units installed in boiler plants worldwide by 2004 gave a reduction of around 60%. A 60% reduction in emissions is equivalent to a reduction from 40 mg.m^-3 to 16 mg.m^-3 of flue gas particulates. Since 2004 to date there are now estimated to be at least 5000 units installed worldwide.

Summary of the impact

Compressors developed at the Department of Engineering Science have formed a key component of the cryocoolers used to cool the infra-red sensors on satellites. Their low mass has trimmed almost $250k from the cost of individual satellite missions. Sixty seven have been sold to date, with sales totalling £2.8M between January 2008 and July 2013; three units are currently in Earth orbit with another nine planned to follow in 2014. A specialised version has been developed to achieve extremely low temperatures, with prototypes already built for the Mid Infra-Red Instrument (MIRI) that will form part of the James Webb Space Telescope.

Summary of the impact

Newcastle University's fundamental research into the automated synthesis of asynchronous systems and metastability analysis has resulted in new technologies that have been adopted worldwide by the microprocessor industry and educational sectors. In particular, Newcastle's asynchronous design methods and tools based on Petri nets have been used by the industry leading vendor Intel Corporation for their switch silicon technology, on which most transactions on the NYSE and NASDAQ (with combined daily volume of trade exceeding £80 billion) now rely. Oracle Corporation used the results of Newcastle's metastability analysis research for building their SPARC series of servers, marketed as having "world's fastest microprocessor".

Summary of the impact

City University London's patented rack generation mechanism, the `"N" rotor profile', offers substantial improvements on the rotary screw compressors widely used in industry at present. It allows for an increase in compressor capacity and makes compressors more energy efficient. Significantly, it can be easily retrofitted to existing compressors, thereby delivering immediate benefit. The mechanism has already been licensed to 27 major manufacturers around the world, resulting in savings of 0.1% of global electricity consumption and an equivalent reduction in global CO₂ emissions. City academic staff have worked with an existing firm (Howden Compressors Ltd) to raise funds and train researchers for the development of this technology. In addition, a new spin- out company (Heliex Power Ltd) has been formed to build on research developed since 2009. Important examples of the impact include:

• An increase in annual turnover at Howden Compressors Ltd. from £15M in 2009 to £39M in 2011 and a 40 % increase in the number of staff employed.
• The spin-out company Heliex Power Ltd is valued at £15M and has employed an additional 23 people following investment of £7M from BP Alternative Energy and ESB Novusmodus. A further £3M will have been invested by the end of November 2013. Heliex has been named in the 2013 Global Cleantech 100 list.
• An estimated reduction in carbon dioxide emissions worldwide from energy efficiency improvements totalling 30 Mt (0.1% of total emissions).

This research has enabled companies that operate worldwide in air compression, refrigeration, air conditioning, oil, gas and process industries to improve their economic and environmental performance in response to demanding governmental demands.

Summary of the impact

The world's longest high capacity terrestrial commercial communications system, now deployed worldwide, was developed from Aston University's pioneering research on the concept of dispersion managed solitons. The concepts and expertise from this research were used to develop and implement the associated system design for high capacity (1Tb/s) WDM (wavelength division multiplexing) transmission over 1000s of kilometres. Commercial development was led by Prof Doran and the core team from Aston who left the University to found Marconi-Solstis, a part of Marconi plc. Prof Doran and other key members of this team have since returned to Aston The system, now owned by Ericsson, (but still called Marconi MHL3000) has current annual sales of order $100M, and employs hundreds of people worldwide.

Summary of the impact

Research at the University of Leeds underpinned the development and manufacture of RF filter technology by Radio Design Ltd, including the 3G `Universal RF Combiner Unit' with sales of >£18M (40,000 units) since 2008, which led to the company's Queen's Award for Enterprise (Innovation) in 2011. This technology was subsequently improved specifically for the 2012 London Olympics for shared use by all five cellular operators, and has now been further developed, again using Leeds research, for 4G systems (with >£4.2M sales in 2013). Leeds research has contributed directly to ~75% of Radio Design's products, and its expansion from 11 employees in 2008 to 150 employees today. Leeds-designed RF filters have also been widely utilized by other manufacturers, with estimated annual international sales of tens of millions of pounds since 2008.

In parallel, Leeds research on the physical modelling and design of pHEMT switches has been used since 2008 by RFMD (UK) Ltd (previously Filtronic Compound Semiconductors), who supply all major mobile phone manufacturers — over 2 billion pHEMT switches are used worldwide, with RFMD's estimated sales exceeding £250M since 2008.