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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.
Exceptional rainfall in June 2007 lead to widespread flood damage in the UK; Hull was particularly badly affected with 8600 houses and 1300 businesses flooded, the closure of schools and cancellation of many events. At the instigation of the City Council, Hull University geographers produced two influential reports that explained how and why the flooding happened and what might be done to improve flood readiness for the future.
The reports had impact at a national scale. They fed into the findings of the House of Commons Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (published 7 May 2008) and the Pitt Report (a Government Independent Review, published 25 June 2008), which were both tasked with addressing the summer 2007 floods. Significant elements of `The Flood and Water Management Act' (2010), which was enacted subsequently, were informed by our research.
The reports also impacted at the regional scale. Their findings were adopted by Hull City Council, the Environment Agency and Yorkshire Water. Therefore, our research also shaped several practical strategies to improve flood prevention policies and minimise danger, damage, distress and expense in future floods.
Bram Stoker (1847-1912), celebrated as author of Dracula (1897), was also business manager at Henry Irving's Royal Lyceum Theatre, London (1878-1902). Dr Wynne's innovative research on Stoker's life and writings establishes his importance as a drama critic and the impact of the theatre on his fiction. Dracula's melodramatic and visual dimensions may now be viewed in the context of a Victorian theatrical culture immersed in the Gothic. Wynne's landmark work on Stoker and Dracula has influenced school teachers and students by changing their approaches to teaching and learning and has engaged the attention of regional museums and literary societies. Disseminated worldwide through conferences and symposia, organised in Hull and Whitby, and in national and international radio, television and newspapers, Wynne's innovative perspectives are energising debates on Stoker in the twenty-first century.
Falls are a common and serious health risk for older people and reducing falls is a priority for the NHS. Research at the University of Bradford on the link between vision and falls has led to new healthcare guidelines, specifically those from the College of Optometrists and the British Geriatrics Society and endorsed by Age UK and the Royal College of General Practitioners. Continuing professional development practices have changed and public awareness of this health risk has been raised by Which? reports and subsequent media coverage. These developments have impacted on the health and welfare of older people, particularly those at risk of falls.
Chemtrix Ltd. was established in February 2006 as a 50-50 joint venture between the University of Hull and Lionix Ltd. In 2008 the company attracted investment from Limburg Ventures BV, Panthera, Technostartersfund, Microfix BV and Hugo Delissen (€2 million) that led to the creation of Chemtrix BV. In 2009 the Company launched Chemtrix USA and a second investment round followed with investors Particon BV. In 2012 ESK Ceramics GmbH & Co. KG, acquired a minority interest (30%) in Chemtrix BV based on a valuation of €5.3 million.
The three products developed and marketed by Chemtix, Labtrix®, KiloFlow® and Plantrix®, are differentiated from competitor products as they offer `scalable flow chemistry', such that optimised reaction conditions can be easily scaled from R&D to production. In addition to the employees and investors in Chemtrix the main non-academic beneficiaries of the research have been industrial customers such as Janssen Pharmaceutica NV, Edward Air Force Base, Iolitec GmbH and DSM.
Hull City Council is deploying Restorative Practices (RPs) to transform the lives and experiences of children and young people. This has resulted in and continues to achieve significant reductions in youth offending, improvements in educational attainment, and higher levels of well-being and happiness. Research conducted by Gerry Johnstone and his research team has enabled service providers to use RPs more effectively to achieve their goals, resulting in enhanced personal well-being, more appropriate behaviour, and a strengthening of personal responsibility amongst young people in Hull.
Studies into the deactivation and regeneration of heteropoly acid catalysts, which took place in the group of Professor Ivan Kozhevnikov at Liverpool University since 1996, resulted in the large-scale industrial application of these catalysts in BP's process for the synthesis of the widely used solvent ethyl acetate, thus making significant economic and environmental impact. This process, trademarked AVADA (for AdVanced Acetates by Direct Addition of acetic acid to ethylene), was launched in 2001 at Hull, UK, on a scale of 220,000 tonnes p.a., then the world's largest ethyl acetate production plant. The impact continued through the REF period from 2008 to 2013. In October 2011, the AVADA process produced 56% of the ethyl acetate in Europe (245,000 tonnes p.a. production capacity and $340m p.a. factory gate value), being the second largest in the world after the Zhenjiang 270,000 tonnes p.a. ethyl acetate plant in China. Over the REF period, the AVADA process produced 1.2 million tonnes of ethyl acetate worth $1.7 billion. The AVADA process makes ethyl acetate with 100% atom efficiency, avoiding the use of ethanol as an intermediate. It beats conventional processes in environmental friendliness by reducing energy consumption by 20% and feedstock losses by 35%, thus removing more than 100,000 tonnes p.a. of wastewater stream. At the heart of the AVADA process is a highly efficient heteropoly acid catalyst that is responsible for its superior performance. Implementation of measures improving catalyst stability and resistance to coking, which originated from collaboration between the Kozhevnikov group and BP Chemicals, prevented otherwise fast catalyst deactivation to create an economically viable process.
The impact of the Hull University Business School`s (HUBS) research on ESV emerged out of a project with Yorkshire Bank and Irwin Mitchell Solicitors (August 2010-July 2011) and a separate project with the Co-operative Group and the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens (FCFCG) (February 2012 - January 2013). These led to wider impacts on:
1) Corporate ESV policies of the case study companies.
2) Hull and East Yorkshire Community Foundation (HEYCF) approaches to ESV and engagement with business.
3) Securing new funding from the ESRC Knowledge Exchange Opportunities Grants Scheme in partnership with HEYCF.
Since June 2010, Dr Iona McCleery has led a programme of public engagement activities including workshops in schools and museum exhibitions. These activities enhance adults' and children's awareness of historical food and diets and encourage participants to reflect on their own diet through comparison with medieval lifestyles. Supported by the Wellcome Trust, the work has been a highly successful example of original historical research's ability to fire the public imagination and to inspire children in formal education to follow a healthier lifestyle (50,000 adults and children in Yorkshire have participated in the project to date.)
Research conducted within the Aon Benfield UCL Hazard Centre has underpinned the development of innovative extreme weather services for the real-time monitoring of global tropical storms and European extreme weather. These services have achieved significant commercial and humanitarian impacts worldwide. Within the REF impact period these impacts included £1.319 million of income generated by sales of commercial products; 24,000 subscribers receiving free storm alerts and/or seasonal forecasts; seasonal forecasts distributed to reinsurance companies worldwide; and a contribution to lives saved in Bangladesh from tropical storm Mahasen (2013). Twenty-two international organisations have also benefited from the commercial extreme weather services; for example, they support the claims division at RSA in assessing risk, allocating resources and detecting fraudulent weather claims; and they enable the Norwegian Hull Club to alert its portfolio of over 9,200 vessels worldwide to steer clear of approaching dangerous storms.