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Economic impact
Environmental impact
Novel integrated control systems together with their application within a holistic operational strategy have been created as a result of research with Caterpillar. Caterpillar the world's largest manufacturer of high-speed diesel generator sets (gen-sets) has invested [text removed for publication]. This activity yields significant commercial advantage in both performance and efficiency bringing benefits for the environment, through reduced emissions, and major customer operational savings.
Reducing vehicle noise and vibration is a key quality objective in the automotive industry. Historically, the approach has been costly palliation late in the manufacturing process; now a new approach applied earlier in the vehicle development cycle has been devised by Loughborough University and Ford and implemented at Ford that has led to savings of $7 per vehicle with respect to clutch in-cycle vibration (whoop). Ford has reported savings of $10M over 5 years, whilst reductions in transmission rattle have led to 5% fuel efficiency gains [5.1]. Ford has made an investment of £240M in its engine and transmission work at Bridgend, which includes aspects of work reported here and has created 600 new jobs [5.2].
The impact of the research at Loughborough University from 1999 to date has transformed informational processes in Leicestershire Police and has been adopted by other Police forces across the UK and internationally. Within Leicestershire it has led directly to [5.1]:
Model Predictive Control (MPC) is a controller design methodology involving on-line dynamic optimisation of a user-defined objective. The research of Prof. D.Q. Mayne FRS and his colleagues at Imperial College has resulted in the first MPC algorithms capable of dealing with both linear and nonlinear systems and hard constraints on controls and states, thus making MPC a viable technique for industrial applications. His research in linear and nonlinear MPC has been exploited by multinational companies such as Honeywell and ABB. Evidence of impact is found in: 1) ethylene production by Basell Polyolefins GmbH resulting in economic benefits in millions of dollars annually; 2) Sinopec's JinShan power plant efficiency, reducing fuel consumptions of 500 tons of coal and 1,700 tons of coke per annum; 3) automotive powertrain design creating new business for Honeywell (based on OnRAMP design suite); 4) ABB's cpmPlus Expert Optimizer tools used for cement manufacturing, affecting companies such as Untervaz (Switzerland), Lägerdorf (Germany) and Buzzi (Italy); 5) ABB's BoilerMaz system for optimising boiler start-up mechanism resulting in energy savings per start-up of around 15%.
Loughborough University's (LU) research collaboration with The Hardstaff Group has resulted in a commercial Oil-Ignition-Gas-Injection system (OIGI®), which substitutes natural gas for Diesel oil in heavy goods vehicles. Using optical diagnostics OIGI® was redesigned, increasing average substitution rates from 45% to 60%. The economic impact for Hardstaff was a fuel saving of £406k per annum. The research allowed Hardstaff to create new business with Mercedes-Benz in the UK and Volvo in Sweden. OIGI® reduces CO2 by up to 15%, harmful nitrogen oxides and particulate emissions by 30%. The research also demonstrated, for the first time, dual fuel technology in small, high-speed diesel engines, paving the way for its application in passenger cars.
Research by Amol Sasane and co-authors is the foundation of an invention patented and used by the aerospace company Boeing to design flight control systems. The invention is a method which aims to optimize aerodynamic performance of aircraft, thereby improving fuel efficiency and flight safety.
Sasane and his co-authors' research is explicitly mentioned as having been used to overcome a problem in flight control — one that arises in newer, more sophisticated aircraft designs — in Patent no. US 8, 185,255 B2, 'Robust control effector allocation'.
Collaborations funded through EPSRC Interact and RCUK UK-China Science Bridge resulted in QUB's advanced control research having important economic and environmental impact in China, Pakistan, Vietnam. This includes the creation of new core modules for the Shanghai Automation Instrumentation Co (SAIC) SUPMAX Distributed Control System series of products now in use for whole plant monitoring and control to maximise energy efficiency and reduce pollutant emissions. These products have since 2008 increased SAIC's revenue by over $50M p.a. Related networked monitoring technologies have been successfully deployed in Baosteel's hot-rolling production lines and in the Nantong Water Treatment Company that treats 20,000 tonnes of industrial waste water daily.
The HOTFIRE collaborative research project (2004-2008) into advanced engine combustion systems led directly to a new, high specific power output, high fuel economy, low CO2 emissions turbocharged `down-sized' three-cylinder engine that was demonstrated in the Opel Astra car in 2008. The valuable new knowledge, understanding and techniques gained in the HOTFIRE project has directly contributed to the successful delivery of a major engine family project for an ASEAN region OEM client of Lotus Engineering.
Our work has facilitated the creation of a variety of innovative control strategies for First Hydro Company (FHC), owner of Europe's largest pump storage plant. FHC's two plants are both supported by the simulation platform developed as part of our research and responsible for balancing load variation on the National Grid. Critically, FHC's business model relies on their ability to provide ancillary services within a short time. Our research produced a comprehensive plant model, and was used to enhance the dynamic response of the Dinorwig station; this resulted in improvement in National Grid stability and has provided competitive advantages to FHC since 2008.