Research Projects

All research projects at the School of Engineering. You can search keywords within Project title and filter by Research Institute.

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Project Title Principal Supervisor Research Institutes Project Summary
Enhanced oil/gas recovery and CO2 storage

Dr Xianfeng Fan

Materials and Processes

Enhanced oil/gas recovery and CO2 storage are a displacement process at pore scale, in which oil and gas are displaced by water or CO2 in reservoir at pore scale, or water is displaced by CO2 in aquifers at pore scale. This displacement is controlled by pore structure, pore wettability, pore surface chemistry, fluid viscosity and interfacial interaction between pore fluids and pore surfaces. The displacement controls the pore connectivity, therefore oil/gas recovery and CO2 storage capacity. We investigate the displacement and the effect of various factors on the displacement at pore scale and core scale.

Particulate Materials Processing

Dr Xianfeng Fan

Materials and Processes

Bubbling fluidization has been widely applied in process industries, such as power generation from coal, renewable energy production, gasification and pyrolysis. In this study, we attempted to predict solid flow patterns, solid and gas mixing, bubble behaviour in a bubbling fluidized bed based on operational conditions and bed design.

Development of UV and visible light active photocatalysts

Dr Xianfeng Fan

Materials and Processes

To address the need for effective vis response photocatalysts, we have synthesised WO3 and TiO2 nanowires to provide a fast transport channel for the photo-generated electrons which can retard the charge recombination. We are working on improving the visible activity of the catalysts through modifying the nanocomposites using metal (Ag, W, V, Fe, Ni) and non-metal (C, N, B, S) elements, and through the control over the microstructure or even over the crystal phase.

Development and Evaluation of Sustainable Technologies for Flexible Operation of Conventional Power Plants

Dr Hannah Chalmers

Energy Systems

The increasing amounts of renewable energy present on the national grid reduce C02 emissions caused by electrical power but they fit into an electrical grid designed for fossil fuels. Fossil fuels can be turned on and off at will and so are very good at matching variations in load. Renewable energy in the form of wind turbines is more variable (although that variability is much more predictable than most people think) and there is a need for existing power plants to operate much more flexibly to accommodate the changing power output from wind, tidal and solar power.

Off-grid Hybrid Energy Systems

Dr Jonathan Shek

Energy Systems

This project aims to innovate and improved solutions for the management of power flows in a hybrid electrical power system, to provide a secure, reliable, and high quality supply to varying load demands. The expected research outcome is the design of a robust and fault-tolerant management system, featuring higher efficiency and improved techno-economic performance.

Optimal system sizing through linear programming Testing and analysis of an off-the-shelf hybrid system Novel control system design for optimised performance Lab testing and field testing
The Edinburgh Fluid Dynamics Group

Dr Ignazio Maria Viola

Energy Systems

The Edinburgh Fluid Dynamics Group (EFDG) webpage can be found below:  

OFFGAS: OFFshore Gas Separation

Prof Stefano Brandani

Materials and Processes

Gas separations on offshore platforms are of increasing importance for the purification of natural gas and for the separation of CO2 used in enhanced oil recovery (EOR).

Post-Combustion Carbon Capture Using MOFs: Materials and Process Development

Prof Stefano Brandani

Materials and Processes

The proposal aims to develop an international collaborative research programme under Topic 4 of the FENCO-NET call: New innovative CO2 capture technologies.

Measurement of pore wettability

Dr Xianfeng Fan

Materials and Processes

Pore wetting is a principal control of the multiphase flows through porous media. However, the contact angle measurement on other than flat surfaces still remains a challenge. In order to indicate the wetting in a small pore, we developed a new pore contact angle measurement technique to directly measure the contact angles of fluids and gas/liquid/supercritical CO2 in micron-sized pores under ambient and reservoir conditions in this study, as well as the effect of chemical functional groups on pore contact angle.

Modelling advanced adsorption processes for post-combustion capture

Prof Stefano Brandani

Materials and Processes

Carbon capture from power stations and industrial sources is an essential pillar in the effort of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in order to achieve the legally binding target set by the 2008 Climate Change Act of 80% reductions by 2050. The current state-of-the-art technologies for post-combustion capture (including retrofit options for existing plants) are based on amine scrubbers, but inherent energy requirements make this an expensive option and significant research is aimed at the development of next generation carbon capture processes that reduce the cost of capital equipment and the energy needed.

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