12 September 2013
Experts have been explaining how they have harnessed the energy locked up in sewage to power our waste water treatment at the British Science Festival.
Sewage plants have the ability to produce the power to run themselves and also clean energy for the future, Newcastle University researchers have found. Experts from Northumbrian Water Ltd and Newcastle University reveal how they have carried out the first trial of a hydrogen Microbial Electrolysis Cell (MEC) on raw sewage at a waste water treatment works on Tyneside.
Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the team are now preparing to install the next generation of MEC at a waste water treatment works in Sedgefield, County Durham.
The new system, led by Tom Curtis, Professor of Biological Engineering, Keith Scott, Professor of Electrochemical Engineering and Dr Elizabeth Heidrich, all of Newcastle University, takes this to the next level. Using raw, untreated waste water at normal temperatures, the entire process is fuelled using the energy from bugs.
Professor Curtis explains: "We spend a lot of electricity treating sewage and it's totally unnecessary. Waste water contains two to three times more energy than we use to treat it so if we can harness that energy we can not only close the loop on sewage treatment to create a totally self-treating system, we will also have spare energy to use elsewhere.
"What we have developed is a system that feeds on the waste as it arrives at the plant - the whole lot goes in and the microbes do all the hard work."
Around 2% of all electricity used in the UK is used to treat wastewater while the energy stored in UK wastewater is equivalent to five billion barrels of oil a year. Northumbrian Water is already leading the water industry with its award-winning £70 million 'power from poo' advanced anaerobic digestion (AAD) plants at Howdon on Tyneside and at Bran Sands on Teesside.
Maxine Mayhew, Commercial Director for Northumbrian Water, said: "As industry pioneers of generating power from wastewater we now look to our work with Newcastle University to take this energy production to another level and develop production of hydrogen - the clean fuel of the future."
So will we be powering Britain with sewage in years to come?
"Unlikely," says Professor Curtis, "but it's a start. I think if there's one thing we all realise it's that there's no magic bullet - no single source of sustainable energy that is going to save the world.
"But if every University in the country could save 2% of the nation's electricity bill we would be a long way down the road to sustainability. Most importantly, wasting energy in wastewater treatment is increasingly a global problem. As the BRICS urbanise and adopt our energy intensive treatment technologies in a world of rising energy costs we are all going to be in the same boat."
Further information is available from the University's Press Office.
28 August 2013
A new map reveals how prepared UK cities are for climate change.
The ability of cities to combat the cause of climate change and to adapt to future weather patterns depends on where we live in the UK, new research suggests.
Scientists at Newcastle University have revealed a "postcode lottery of preparedness" across the country based on what each city is doing to not only reduce greenhouse emissions but also adapt to future climate change and extremes of weather such as flooding and drought.
Devising a new way of ranking cities - the 'Urban Climate Change Preparedness Scores' - the team scored 30 cities based on four levels of readiness: Assessment, Planning, Action and Monitoring.
Publishing their results today in the academic journal Climatic Change, they reveal huge variation across the UK with London and Leicester gaining the highest scores both for adaptation and mitigation and Wrexham and Derry the lowest.
Newcastle University's Dr Oliver Heidrich who led the research said it highlighted at a glance the "state of readiness" across the country and how prepared we are for the future.
"Of the 30 cities we assessed, all of them acknowledged that climate change was a threat and all except two had a strategy or policy in place to reduce emissions and also adapt to cope better with future weather patterns, in particular flooding," explains Dr Heidrich, a senior researcher in the School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences.
"But a plan is only any good if you implement it and then assess it to see how effective it has been, this requires a long term investment in the strategies.
"We found that in many cities this wasn't happening. In some cases, plans were in place but nothing had been done about them. Many cities published plans and partially implemented associated schemes such as introducing electric vehicles or solar panels as well as making changes to the built environment to reduce the risk of flooding. But very often, no-one was monitoring to see whether it made a difference or had actually made things worse.
"The aim of this research is not to name and shame cities, but if we are to be prepared for the increased occurrences of floods and droughts then we do need to make sure that our climate change policies are in place, that they are working and that the consequences of implementing these strategies are being checked."
The 30 cities chosen for the study were those selected as part of the European Urban Audit database and are representative of urban areas across the UK.
The Newcastle team then applied the scoring methodology to assess the level of preparedness of each of the cities to climate change, rating from 0-3 against both adaption and mitigation.
London was found to have one of the most advanced strategies in place, mitigating the impact on climate change through, for example, energy efficiency and saving, increasing the use of renewables, waste management and the introduction of greener modes of transport. Leicester also scored highly, carrying out rigorous monitoring and providing regular reports on the city's carbon footprints.
Other cities, such as Newcastle, had advanced electric vehicle infrastructures in place while Sheffield and Coventry have established programmes to produce more energy from waste and reduce landfill.
Almost all cities had set targets for reducing CO2 emissions although quite a few would not commit to an actual target, figure or timescale, rendering them meaningless; reduction targets varied from just 10% to 80%. Edinburgh was one of those with a deadline, setting a target of reducing carbon emissions by 40% by 2020 and to achieve a zero carbon economy by 2050.
In most cities, adaptation policies lagged behind the mitigation plans. With flooding a key threat in many urban areas - both now and in the future - the team showed that many cities were still unprepared to cope with extremes of weather patterns. Although many had flood protection schemes in place, few had assessed whether they were actually effective.
Dr Heidrich adds: "What this research highlights more than anything is the huge variations in the state of readiness for climate change across the UK, and the method of assessing the preparedness of cities can easily be applied to cities in other countries.
"Although cities of all sizes across the UK acknowledge climate change is a threat, there is considerable spread of measures in place and huge inconsistency in policy between areas and against national and international targets.
"Local Authorities are pivotal to the implementation of global climate policy so it is essential that we embed adaptation and mitigation strategies within the urban planning framework."
1 August 2013
Our civil engineers are making a star appearance this summer as part of the city's annual Monument Movies series.
Playing every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday between now and September, Phil James, senior lecturer in Geomatics, Professor of Climate Change Systems Hayley Fowler and PhD student Neil Harris are part of a short film looking at the role of Social Media in academic research.
Focusing on the data collected last year during the "#toonflood", the team discusses how the public played a key role in collecting real-time data that has since been analysed and used by our research teams to predict future flooding events and inform future planning.
The film is one of three that has been produced by the University to help promote the British Science Festival which is being held in Newcastle from September 7th to 12th.
As part of this, Professor Fowler will deliver the Charles Darwin Award Lecture at the Festival on Wednesday 11 September, 2pm, Northern Stage entitled: What is happening to our weather?
17 July 2013
Following the success of the GNSS and Network RTK course a new two day course is being developed for October 2013, High Precision GNSS using Post Processing. The two day course will be delivered by the team who lead our existing Geodesy and Surveying courses. They have years of experience at delivering this type of training, working with different organisations, such as the Ordnance Survey, to develop highly relevant courses.
The new course is ideal for practitioners who are already familiar with basic GNSS and Network RTK, and provides a highly relevant follow-on course for delegates who have attended the three-day GNSS and Network RTK course.
For delegates booking on both courses, GNSS and Network RTK and High Precision GNSS using Post Processing, which are running back to back the week beginning 24 October 2013, there is a discount of £125.
17 July 2013
The School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences seeks to ensure that as graduates seek chartered status and review their development needs there are relevant learning activities to help them progress towards chartered status. Many of the School's short CPD courses are accredited by professional bodies, as either CPD or as part of an accredited Masters programme. The latest such endorsement is from the Geological Society, which now endorses five of our courses:
More courses are currently under consideration and so we hope to announce more shortly.
1 July 2013
Two of our Professors - Hayley Fowler and Chris Kilsby - have contributed to a video produced by Northumbrian Water Ltd, resulting from collaboration with various agencies in both the public and private sectors. The School of Civil Engineering provides research into modelling the company's networks and rainfall runoff during extreme rainfall events, and combining these with various climate change and changing weather pattern scenarios.
More information is in the University's press release, and the video Flood Force - Finding Solutions in Good Company is available on youtube at youtu.be/mJOiRQWYY_I.
20 June 2013
A multi-disciplinary team from Newcastle University, including members of Civil Engineering (Stephanie Glendinning, Peter Gosling, Jean Hall, Claire Walsh, Eleanor Swain, Ben Bridgens, Oliver Heidrich and Mark Powell) have been awarded the Newcastle University, Best Environmental Initiative (2013), for creating a café entirely from waste. The team of engineers, plus members of the School of Architecture Planning and Landscape, Centre for Urban and Regional Development, School of Arts and Cultures, School of Mechanical and Systems Engineering and Newcastle Institute for Research on Sustainability, worked on the project for three months. This culminated in a café where members of the public, as well as staff and students from Newcastle University, were requested to exchange coffee for conversations about recycling and waste reuse.
Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the U-café project has been carried out by postgraduate Architecture and a Civil Engineering student as part of a linked research project. The project connects research directly with teaching and develops a sense of responsibility amongst young designers to use and source sustainable materials. As well as collecting the waste material, the students engineered the basic building components so the café can be easily dismantled and moved to a new location.
Each building component was labelled with a QR code which linked directly to the project website so visitors to the café could explore in more detail the materials used and how the structure was scavenged and pieced together. The café was planned as a venue for 'customers' to take ownership of design and engineering ideas, making these directly relevant to life in the city. The U-Café ideas was to incorporate these social and cultural needs from the beginning, by designing and engineering with people.
16 June 2013
A "cold snap" 116 million years ago triggered a similar marine ecosystem crisis to the ones witnessed in the past as a result of global warming, according to research published in Nature Geoscience.
The international study involving experts from the universities of Newcastle, UK, Cologne, Frankfurt and GEOMAR-Kiel, confirms the link between global cooling and a crash in the marine ecosystem during the mid-Cretaceous greenhouse period.
The research team highlight in this study how global climate is intrinsically linked to processes taking place in the earth's interior at million year time scales. These processes can modify ecospace for marine life, driving evolution.
Current research efforts tend to concentrate on global warming and the impact that a rise of a few degrees might have on past and present day ecosystems. This study shows that if global temperatures swing the other way by a similar amount, the result can be just as severe, at least for marine life.
However, the research team emphasise that the observed changes of the earth system in the Cretaceous happened over millions of years, rather than decades or centennial, which cannot easily be related to our rapidly changing modern climate conditions.
"As always it's a question of fine balance and scale," explains Thomas Wagner, Professor of Earth Systems Science at Newcastle University, and one of the leaders of this study.
"All earth system processes are operating all the time and at different temporal and spatial scales; but when something upsets the balance - be it a large scale but long term natural phenomenon or a short and massive change to global greenhouse gases due to anthropogenic activity - there are multiple, potential knock-on effects on the whole system.
"The trick is to identify and quantify the initial drivers and consequences, which remains an ongoing challenge in climate research."
Source information: 'Atlantic cooling associated with a marine biotic crisis during the mid-Cretaceous period'. A McAnena, S Flogel, P Hofmann, JO Herrle, A Griesand, J Pross, HM Talbot, J Rethemeyer, K Wallmann and T Wagner. Nature Geoscience, DOI: 10.1038/NGEO1850.
See Newcastle University's Press Office website. Professor Wagner presents on our courses in Climate Change: Climate Change: Earth System, Future Scenarios and Threats and Climate Change: Vulnerability, Impacts and Adaptation.
10 October 2012
The School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences at Newcastle University is determined to ensure that a range of training is accessible to those engineers in full time employment; whether they are graduates seeking chartered status, those with new areas of responsibility mid-career, or those seeking an overview of the latest research to inform strategic decisions. To ensure that the School's expertise can be tapped by those requiring training, all eighteen of the School's Masters programmes may be studied part time. Some are available as flexible learning programmes, combining study on campus with distance learning. These are complemented by Masters modules that may be studied on a standalone basis, 60 short CPD courses and bespoke training at a client's site.
To make part time study a feasible and practical option for engineers, the School has structured its teaching so that Masters level training is taught in five day blocks. Masters projects are often completed within the student's workplace on a topic agreed between the University and employer. This has many benefits, such as shared expertise from both the University and employer, the research time spent on work based projects, and the strong links established.
A recent MSc student comments, "The MSc is challenging and industrially relevant. It was an essential prerequisite for my job and prepared me well for the rigours of consulting work."
The CPD courses form a flexible part of the School's training portfolio and are very popular, with over 400 delegates attending the short courses over the past 12 months. An increasing number of delegates are travelling from overseas; the distances travelled to attend these courses, which range from one to ten days, is surely an endorsement of their quality, relevance and value. Indeed some have then signed up for the full Masters programmes.
The School increases the accessibility of its training by delivering bespoke courses, and has a proven record, working with organisations such as the Environment Agency, Ordnance Survey, Fugro and Balfour Beatty to develop and deliver training, both on campus or at a client's site.
Paul Cruddace of the Ordnance Survey says that "Using a centre of excellence such as Newcastle University to develop and deliver a course sends an important message to our staff: personal development is taken seriously and they are provided with access to the best". These sentiments are echoed by the Environment Agency: "Having high profile and respected people delivering the courses develops both confidence and competence."
The School is keen to encourage engineers to consider part time or short courses and has found their contribution very valuable. Dr Anil Namdeo, who leads many of our Transport and Environment courses, comments "The mix of students and delegates, often from a range of organisations, and with different roles, leads to lively, productive discussions, which combined with the presenters' industrial experience, and close links with industry and government organisations, ensures that the training can be firmly placed in a range of real life work contexts."
For more information call 0191 222 7439 or visit www.ncl.ac.uk/ceg.
10 October 2012
The number of delegates attending the School's masters modules as standalone CPD courses is on the increase. The five day courses are proving attractive to delegates who are seeking to extend or update their knowledge and to develop new skills. An increasing number are travelling from overseas, from countries such as Kazakhstan, Libya, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Cameroon, Malaysia, India, Norway, Spain and Hong Kong. The distances these delegates are prepared to travel is surely an endorsement of the quality and relevance of the training, as is their desire to attend further courses at Newcastle, an increasing number are returning for further training or recommending the courses to colleagues.
The interest from overseas is across all subject areas, e.g. Joshua attended an Intelligent Transport Course:
Whereas Hiralal attended Real Time Flood Forecasting and Warning Systems:
The contribution of delegates from overseas is appreciated by both the presenters and other participants as the delegates' experience helps to set the topics discussed in real world, global settings.