Green Industry Special : University of Birmingham targets India

The University of Birmingham, which embraces green motoring, aims to increase its engagement with the Indian auto industry to accelerate the commercialisation of its research.

With the establishment of the Research Council’s UK (RCUK) office in India, the appetite for collaboration between the UK and India has seen a considerable step change. Since its launch in 2008, RCUK India has facilitated over £80 million (Rs 640 crore) of UK-India research funding covering a range of themes including energy, climate change, advanced manufacturing, health and life sciences and the digital economy. These collaborations assist interactions between industry and academia to address mutual areas of interest and the challenge for the automotive industry is finding the right academic partner. This article takes a look at the University of Birmingham’s approach.

In 2009, the University of Birmingham opened a representative office in New Delhi to maintain and build partnerships with the public and private sector, support its alumni, and provide local services to those students who wish to come and study in the United Kingdom. With considerable green credentials, it is the only research institution in the UK to have integrated research work across all aspects of hydrogen energy research. With an internationally recognised programme of research into hydrogen as a future energy vector and the development of key technologies in all of these areas, the University of Birmingham is working towards making a full hydrogen economy a reality. The University was founded on Birmingham’s science and engineering base and now boasts an annual income of more than £400 million (Rs 3,200 crore) and is home to almost 30,000 students. The Guardian newspaper’s ‘University Guide 2011’ places mechanical engineering at the University of Birmingham fourth in the UK. The major expertise relevant to the automotive market is based in the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences within which the Centre for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Research is a leading centre recognised for its dynamism and expertise in fuel cell technologies. The focus here is on applied research evidenced by the number of industry partners engaged with the University such as Tata Motors, Mitsubishi and Tata’s subsidiary, Jaguar Land Rover. Industry can engage with this expertise through commercial research and consultancy services, accessing equipment and facilities, through to collaboration and partnership to access its intellectual property.

Birmingham Science City — Hydrogen Energy Project

The £6.5 million (Rs 52 crore) Hydrogen Energy Project represents the creation of state-of-the-art facilities for hydrogen and fuel cell technology research in the West Midlands and was funded by a Regional Development Agency under the Birmingham Science City Initiative which unites the Universities of Birmingham and Warwick in a recently formed Science City Research Alliance (SCRA).

The project seeks to develop new processes and technologies for the sustainable production of hydrogen and other high-value chemicals, the efficient separation and storage of hydrogen, and the utilisation of hydrogen as an energy vector in fuel cells.

The range of capabilities and expertise available includes:

• Biochemical hydrogen production from organic waste and bio-refining

• Thermal technologies for hydrogen and platform chemical production

• Solid-state hydrogen storage

• The development of fuel cells for transport and domestic applications

• Materials development for hydrogen technologies

The project also supports a number of demonstration facilities allowing researchers to evaluate hydrogen technologies in real applications and demonstrate benefits to end users. An example includes the hydrogen refuelling station (the first in the UK) and five hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in operation on campus at the University of Birmingham.



The principal aim of the project is the encouragement of industrial and academic collaborations. It provides an opportunity for business and industry to access the latest thinking and state-of-the-art research/testing equipment available in the field. In further support of this project, £5.5 million (Rs 44 crore) has been committed by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to underpin the activity through the creation of a Doctoral Training Centre, which will fund 50 hydrogen and fuel cell PhD projects with industry over the next nine years. Over 50 different companies including Tata Motors have engaged with the project developing new fuel cell components and processes, novel hydrogen storage materials and new ways of turning waste into energy.

The CABLED Project

CABLED (Coventry and Birmingham Low Emission Vehicle Demonstrators) is a consortium, led by global engineering consultancy – Arup. It is the largest of eight regional teams in the UK to participate in the £25 million (Rs 200 crore) Technology Strategy Board’s Ultra Low Carbon Vehicle Demonstrator competition as well as the first to begin vehicle trials. Launched in 2009 and supported by £2.5 million from a regional development agency, two University of Birmingham engineers took part in a UK-wide project to trial electric and ultra low emission vehicles. Twenty-five Mitsubishi i-MiEVs (Mitsubishi innovative Electric Vehicle) were given to independent drivers, to test over a 12-month period.

Six vehicle manufacturers – Jaguar/Land Rover, Mitsubishi/Colt, Mercedes-Benz/Smart, Tata Motors, LTI and Microcab Industries contributed their own vehicles towards the low carbon scheme, which includes a mix of fully electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell cars. A fleet of Microcab Vehicles which combine many innovative energy efficiency measures, including energy recovery from otherwise wasted heat in the exhaust, can be seen regularly driven on the University of Birmingham campus. The project was launched as part of the UK Government’s commitment to an 80 percent cut in carbon emissions by 2050.The carbon output of transport — currently a quarter of all UK emissions — has to be significantly reduced. The CABLED demonstrator programme is a major step towards achieving that goal.

Future Power Systems research

The Future Power Systems Group is currently working towards the first year on the SERVE project which aims to provide technical solutions that will allow the diesel engine to operate with a diverse range of renewable fuels. The project has two major objectives. One is to identify the changes required by the engine system (including aftertreatment) to run on blends containing up to 30 percent of a variety of both generations bio-diesel fuels. The second is to develop novel ‘Flex-diesel’ technologies involving onboard pre- and after-treatment to maintain optimised engine performance and emissions with increasing percentages of fully sustainable bio-fuels and thermal management. The project is funded by the UK Government and the Technology Strategy Board in collaboration with Jaguar Cars. The Future Power Systems Group also recently completed two projects supported by Jaguar Cars looking at the development of a clean and efficient powertrain system.

Delivering energy from waste

With the pressing need to find new ways of generating and recovering energy, the use of biofuels has the potential to provide a significant contribution to this challenge. The University of Birmingham has particular strength in the development of bio-processing techniques, technology for the production of biofuels, and bio-energy from organic waste and manufacturing by-products. The University along with partners EKB Technology (based on work at Oxford University) founded Spinout Biowaste to Energy Ltd which is pioneering a new proprietary solution to the growing waste mountain that dramatically reduces the waste volume, while providing clean energy. They are a multidisciplinary team, leveraging engineers, scientists, and business people with diverse backgrounds across waste management, energy production, and life and physical sciences. The company continues to seek industry partners looking for unique economic solutions to their biological waste challenges.

The University of Birmingham recognises India as an emerging major global power and its presence in New Delhi has enabled it to better understand the needs and aspirations of Indian research institutions and public and private sector business. The University is increasing its global engagement across a range of activities. In particular, where the University has significant technology competence in low carbon vehicle technologies it is keen to explore opportunities to accelerate the commercialisation of its research with businesses in India.

For more information on the University of Birmingham's automotive expertise, contact the business team: businessteam@bham.ac.uk, +44 (0)121 414 3898

STATE-OF-THE-ART FACILITIES AVAILABLE TO INDUSTRY

THE FUTURE ENGINES and Fuels Laboratory at the University of Birmingham opened in January 2007. The laboratory was refurbished with funding of over £800,000 (Rs 6.4 crore) from the University. It is supported by industrial partners Jaguar, Land Rover, Ford, Johnson Matthey and Shell.

The facilities comprise seven test beds, two single-cylinder research engines, one Ford optical engine with laser diagnostics, two multi-cylinder Jaguar and Land Rover prototype engines, one Formula Student racing engine and one teaching engine, along with a unique fuel test cell equipped with two GC mass-spectrometers. One more Jaguar/Ford engine test bed is under construction and an additional dedicated Biofuel engine test bed is being prepared.

The Vehicle Dynamics Laboratory provides a number of key facilities to support research and consultancy activities in the area of vehicle dynamics. It has strong links with the UK and the international automotive industry. Areas of interest include tyre dynamics, vehicle ride and handling, and vehicle structural dynamics and interior noise.

Manufacturing Technology Centre

The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) in Coventry is the result of collaboration between leading manufacturing companies and four world-renowned research partners: the Universities of Birmingham, Loughborough and Nottingham, plus welding specialist TWI. A key benefit of MTC is that it will offer an innovation-rich environment to help bridge the gap between research and production. It will focus on finding solutions in net shape manufacturing; high-integrity fabrication; advanced tooling and fixturing; intelligent automation and process modelling/digital manufacture. Working at MTC, companies will be able to test new manufacturing methods, taking lab research to pre-production development before moving on to full-scale production within their own premises. This should reduce manufacturing costs, cut ‘time to market’ and boost productivity.

For Birmingham, the initial focus will be on leading projects using the University’s world-class expertise in net shape manufacturing of high-performance components in high-value metals and the modelling and characterisation of advanced metals and their processing.