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In partnership with the US company Nalco, the University's Surfactant & Colloid Group developed a new multifunctional technology (Clean n Cor) for the oil industry that both removes accumulated deposits at a metal surface (enabling "break-through" of corrosion inhibitor to the metal surface) and inhibits corrosion. Clean n Cor technology not only protects assets such as oil pipelines against corrosion but also maximises oil production through enhancing water injectivity (water flow per unit pressure drop). Since its launch in 2007, it is currently one of Nalco's fastest growing new technologies and is used at over 100 production locations worldwide.
Using advanced mathematics and numerical modelling we have demonstrated how fundamental understanding of laminar-turbulent transitions in fluid flows can save energy. From 2008 we helped the cleantech company, Maxsys Fuel Systems Ltd, to understand and improve their technology and demonstrate to customers how it can reduce fuel use by 5-8%. Customers including Ford Motor, Dow Chemical and Findus testify to the impact from financial savings and reduced carbon emissions obtained by installing Maxsys products on industrial burners used widely in many industrial sectors including automotive, bulk chemicals and food. In 2010, Selas Heat Technology Company bought the Maxsys brand to invest in this success.
Research in materials modelling by the Computational Science and Engineering Group (CSEG) is helping aerospace, defence and transport companies design advanced materials and new manufacturing processes. From lightweight components like aeroengine turbine blades to the control of magnetic fields to stabilise the next generation of International Space Station levitation experiments, CSEG is supporting innovations which have:
In the assessment period, CSEG collaborated closely with leading industries in steel-making (ArcelorMittal, Corus), primary aluminium (Dubal, Rusal, Norsk-Hydro, SAMI) and lightweight structural materials for transport and aerospace (European Space Agency, Rolls-Royce).
This case study describes the creation and use of advanced simulation technology by international mining corporations to optimise high value metal recovery. The technology involved the development of advanced novel computational methods and software tools to model industrial scale heap leach processes for large scale industrial application at major mining operations. This focus on the development of optimised operational strategies has produced considerable economic benefits measured in the $multi-millions to industrial sponsors, including $58 million dollars in additional revenue for one multi-national corporation over one year following the adoption of engineered heaps based upon the advanced simulation tools from Swansea.
The SAFT-VR family of thermodynamic models has made it possible to predict reliably the behaviour of the many complex and challenging fluids that are found across a range of industrial sectors, including oil & gas, chemicals (refrigerants, surfactants, polymers), energy (carbon capture solvents, carbon dioxide-rich streams) and pharmaceuticals.
The SAFT-VR models have had a wide impact on industrial practice. At BP, they have been used to design novel surfactants that have increased the lifetime of oil fields up to five-fold, avoiding maintenance interventions costing millions of dollars and increasing productivity by 50% (worth $2-3 million per year per well). At Borealis, they have been used to understand how to increase the productivity of the reactor in the flagship Borstar process by 30%. At ICI and Ineos/Mexichem, they have been used to design efficient processes for producing replacement refrigerants with much reduced reliance on extreme and expensive experiments involving hydrogen fluoride, a highly corrosive substance. Industrial demand for access to the predictive capabilities of SAFT-VR has been such that Imperial College has licensed the software in 2013 to a UK SME in order to distribute it worldwide to users.
Edinburgh Designs Ltd., (EDL) was spun-out to exploit ERPE research from the original Wave Power Group. With six staff and an annual turnover approaching £2M EDL has supplied the equipment and control systems for wave tanks in 19 countries including the world's largest computer-controlled wave test facility, the US Navy Manoeuvring and Station Keeping Tank. They are currently completing the world's first circular tank, combining waves with currents in any relative direction, which is operated by the 6 person company, "FloWave" EDL, still run by the founding staff, it is the world-leading supplier of wave-making technology for scientific and recreational facilities.
Ultra-precise Bragg grating writing-technology, invented in the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), has led to impacts in the areas of security, safety, detection of bio-hazards and the underpinning laser technology currently being pursued for clean energy generation for future energy security. This case study highlights two aspects of the technology namely: planar-based for optical microchip sensors in areas such as portable detection of biohazards, which has resulted in the spin-out Stratophase, and fibre-based, inside the US National Ignition Facility (NIF), the world's largest laser system, based in California, built for fusion-energy research, which has ORC fabricated fibre Bragg gratings within its laser amplifier chains. These ultra-high precision laser-written engineered gratings have enabled important advances in biosecurity, management of environmental hazards and clean energy research.
The adoption of hydrogen and fuel cell systems provides one solution to fossil fuel depletion, security of energy supplies and sustainability concerns. However, safety is a key technological barrier to the hydrogen economy. The technological impact of this case study is the adoption of research outcomes, from work undertaken by the Hydrogen Safety Engineering and Research centre (HySAFER), Built Environment Research Institute into international regulations, codes, and standards (namely Commission Regulation (EU) No.406/2010, and the international ISO/TR15916), and development of novel safety strategies, guidance, protocols, and engineering solutions supported by significant external research funding.
We have optimised aerospace structural designs and assessment methods through development and application of hybrid residual stress characterisation techniques. Our research results on bonded crack retarders have redirected industry development programmes on hybrid metal laminate material systems and been used to evaluate reinforced structural concepts for US Air Force wing and fuselage applications. Methods to assess and mitigate maintenance-induced damage have been developed and implemented based on our research. Our contour measurement technology has been transferred to the US Air Force, which now has the capability to perform measurements in-house and support work with both NASA and the US Navy.
Mineral separation by froth flotation is the largest tonnage separation process in the world, and is used to recover the very small fraction (<0.5%) of valuable mineral from the mined ore. Typically, 5-15% of the valuable minerals are not recovered due to sub-optimal process settings, most important of which is the air rate. A methodology to determine the optimal air rate range to use, Peak Air Recovery (PAR), was developed by the Froth and Foam Research Group at Imperial College London.
Anglo American Platinum produces 40% of the world's platinum. They use the PAR methodology on all their flotation plants to establish to air rate control limits, tightening the operating range and improving the separation performance. Rio Tinto annually produce 300 000 tons of copper and 500 000 oz gold from their Kennecott Copper mine. They have implemented PAR as a control strategy, and statistical comparative tests have shown an increase in copper and gold recovery from this mine alone of the order of 1%, with a nominal value of approximately $30m per annum.