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

Driven by concerns over public health and intensifying legislative demands of the food industry in Europe and USA, the reliable and effective removal of unwanted objects from food products at a processing stage is increasingly important. The assurance of food quality and safety throughout the pre- and post-harvest food chain makes this issue even more significant. The effective implementation of relevant technological solutions for food safety and quality can dictate the survival, growth and competitive edge of some major sectors of the economy.

Food sorting machines are essential for eliminating unwanted food items from the production process to ensure that quality is maintained at the highest level for consumers. Key research at City University London has led to the development of a unique solenoid actuator valve (ejector), which opens and closes a high-pressure air jet in such machines to remove defective food items more accurately and efficiently from the production line.

The sorting machines which use it have a fivefold improvement in consumer food quality and safety and are 20% more energy efficient. Sales of these machines have been enhanced by 50% as a consequence of these improvements. The new valve delivers approximately 50% less food waste during the first sorting pass and offers a fourfold reduction in power consumption, contributing positively to global agricultural sustainability. The work undertaken has also assisted the industrial partner in opening up a new market for sorting machines for sorting plastics.

Summary of the impact

University of Huddersfield research into engine technologies has resulted in a major new partnership with the UK arm of engineering multinational BorgWarner, leading to the company increasing R&D capabilities in the UK. This collaboration, funded partly by parent company BorgWarner US and partly by the government's Regional Growth Fund, involves multi-million-pound investment, as well as significant job creation and safeguarding. It was a key factor in the company securing a substantial contract with Jaguar Land Rover, whose decision was informed by the University's capacity to help BorgWarner further its R&D activities and upskill its workforce for the benefit of the UK automotive supply chain and the local and national economy.

Summary of the impact

The Imperial College Pile `ICP' effective-stress pile design approaches for offshore foundations offer much better design reliability than conventional methods. Their use delivers substantial economies in many hydrocarbon and renewable energy projects, better safety and confidence in developing adventurous structures in others. The ICP has enabled production in otherwise unviable marginal hydrocarbon fields, new options in high-value deep-water projects and helped eliminate installation failures that can cost hundreds of £million. We present evidence that the research delivered direct benefits exceeding £400m since 2008 in projects known to us, with larger worldwide benefits through project risk reduction and independent exploitation.

Summary of the impact

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.

Summary of the impact

The techniques developed by the Warwick Ultrasonics Group focus on non-destructive testing (NDT) and address particular industrial needs as specified by industrial funders. These partners have included over 40 companies in the REF Impact period, ranging from SMEs to large multi- nationals operating in a range of sectors such as the heavy manufacturing, nuclear energy, food, petrochemical, transport, aerospace, power generation, equipment manufacturing and service industries. In particular, our spin-out company, Sonemat, has commercialised high-performance electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs) developed by the research group, which has led to economic benefits for NDT equipment suppliers and their end users. Further industrial impact has arisen from novel NDT methodologies established by the Group.

Summary of the impact

The University of Manchester and Delphi Diesel Systems jointly developed a reverse tapered micro-hole drilling technique, which has resulted in wide commercial applications for the manufacture of fuel injection nozzles in diesel engines and is used by Volkswagen, Ford and Renault in passenger cars and trucks. The technique has resulted in 1.5% fuel saving, 35-40% reduction in particulate matter emission, 20% reduction in NOx emission, 3% reduction in CO₂ emission, and allows diesel engines to satisfy the new EU emission legislation Euro 5 in 2008/2009. Delphi's diesel engine component business increased by €0.8 billion/year as a result of the new fuel injection technology.

Summary of the impact

Computational Dynamics Ltd, partnering with adapco and trading as CD-adapco www.cd-adapco.com is the world's largest independent CFD-focused provider of engineering simulation software, with major products STAR-CD and STAR-CCM+. It was formed by Professor David Gosman and Dr Raad Issa and its turnover has grown more than 30 fold since 1993 and by over 250% since 2008 to currently ~ $190M pa. It employs around 750 staff, of whom roughly 80 are located in the London office. The company won a Queen's Award for Exports in 1997. Key technologies that underpin this growth were developed since 1993 in the Mechanical Engineering department at Imperial College. CD-adapco has over 7000 users of its software, working at 3000 different companies. It makes a major contribution in maintaining the competiveness of UK industry via improved understanding and design and lower costs through the reduced need to undertake expensive experimental studies.

Summary of the impact

As 288,000 UK construction workers were estimated to have contracted vibration white finger and 170,000 had claimed compensation by 2011 this study relates to the design and development of a hand and arm vibration (HAVmeter) monitor by the ERPE Reactec student start-up company. This company initially focussed on optimisation of sweeping for curlers, contributing to team GB winning the 2002 Winter Olympic Gold medal. The current Reactec (HAVmeter) instrument measures and reports on vibration white finger, which potentially affects 5 million British workers.

The HAVmeter has sales in excess of £9M, over the 2008-2013 period, and is now in use by 45,000 construction workers. Reactec, with 23 employees and a turnover of ~£2.5M p.a., company innovation has been recognised with 4 industrial awards since 2009.

Summary of the impact

Impact on the environment

• The adoption of cost effective CO₂ reduction technologies across a range of Ford vehicles reduced CO₂ emissions by an estimated 40,000 tonnes in 2012. This reduction applies pro rata for 2013 and becomes cumulative year on year.

Economic impact

• Improvements to vehicle engines have saved over €25M in fuel costs to the owners of Ford vehicles in 2012.
• Research has led to improvements that have been made to Ford products and processes; these improvements have been used to address upcoming legislation on CO₂ in a cost effective manner. Future penalties of up to €0.5bn have been avoided by these improved products and processes.

Impact on practitioners

• Improved monitoring processes, reducing variability in measurement of CO₂ from vehicles within Ford by 50%, facilitating the adoption of a range of new fuel saving technologies, which helped to justify a $50M investment in the Ford UK facilities.