![Dr Francisco R Garcia Garcia, University of Edinburgh receiving the Hawley Award from Dr Paul Golby CBE FREng, Chair of NATS, with Master Engineer Dr Dolores Byrne OBE [image courtesy of Mark Witter Photography].](https://eng.ed.ac.uk/sites/eng.ed.ac.uk/files/images/news/Hawley%20award%20news%20header%20June%202024.png "Dr Francisco R Garcia Garcia, University of Edinburgh receiving the Hawley Award from Dr Paul Golby CBE FREng, Chair of NATS, with Master Engineer Dr Dolores Byrne OBE [image courtesy of Mark Witter Photography].")
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Dr Francisco Garcia Garcia has received a prestigious award for his work on carbon capture technologies to lower the emissions of marine vessels.
The Hawley Award 2024 is given annually by the Worshipful Company of Engineers in recognition of outstanding engineering innovation that promises to deliver demonstrable benefit to the environment and carries potential for real-world application.
Dr Garcia Garcia was presented with his award – consisting of a £5,000 prize and medal – at a ceremony at Carpenter's Hall in London.
Carbon capture at sea
Working with energy company Repsol, Dr Garcia Garcia has developed and tested a pioneering hollow fibre-based adsorption technology designed to capture carbon emissions on marine vessels.
Research has shown that greenhouse gas emissions from marine vessels have grown by 20% over the last decade, and currently account for around 3% of total global emissions. Without action, marine emissions could reach 130% of their 2008 levels by 2050.
Many marine vessels currently use old-fashioned packed bed reactors to capture carbon emissions, which are heavy, inefficient and take up a lot of space. To address this, Dr Garcia Garcia has developed a light and thin material which can capture emissions using significantly less energy, while also being easier to manufacture and taking up less space onboard ships.
His idea has attracted the investment of Stimwell Services, a company which operates vessels providing services to energy companies across the entire North Sea. Stimwell is now expanding its production facilities to manufacture Dr Garcia Garcia’s technology in-house.
It is hoped that the innovation could help companies across the sector to lower damaging carbon emissions from vessels which supply services to offshore rigs and wells.
Exciting potential
Dr Garcia Garcia said:
“This technology carries exciting potential to unlock tighter marine emission control legislation. Through this technology the UK has the opportunity to further its leadership in emission control, in alignment with its goal to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.”
Dr Garcia Garcia will use the Hawley Award prize money towards funding the 8th UK Emission Control Workshop (UKEM), a forum which draws experts from industry and academia to share the latest research and challenges around alternative fuels and advanced combustion.
This is the second success for Dr Garcia Garcia in recent months, as he recently received a Doctor Honoris Causa from the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Royal and Pontifical Higher University of San Francisco Xavier of Chuquisaca in Bolivia, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the field of chemical reaction engineering.
About the Hawley Award
The Hawley Award is given annually by the Engineers Trust – a charitable trust of the Worshipful Company of Engineers – which promotes the development and advancement of the science, art and practice of engineering. The Award is supported by the Engineering Council, the UK regulator of the engineering profession.
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