Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

The offshore oil industry needs to know how to design tensioned pipes (or 'risers') that go from the oil rig at the sea surface down to the sea bed, a vertical distance that may be much more than 1000m. One of the problems is that over this length ocean currents can cause the risers to vibrate like guitar strings. Vibrations can lead to metal fatigue and can also cause adjacent risers in an array to clash into each other. Both fatigue failures and clashing can have potentially disastrous consequences. Knowing how far apart the risers should be in order to avoid clashing is an issue of considerable importance, since their spacing has huge cost implications for any offshore installation in deep water.Vibrations of risers are generated by two or three different mechanisms which produce excitation of different structural modes, and the response consists of a combination of modes, rather like those that make up the pattern of vibrations of a guitar string. The most important mechanisms that cause risers to vibrate are vortex shedding and wake galloping. The first of these is associated with the periodic shedding of vortices of alternating directions of rotation. Wake galloping refers to the motion of one body downstream of another, generated by the non-uniformity of the flow in the wake. The maximum amplitude of vibrations caused by vortex shedding alone is not much more than one diameter, but in a riser this can occur in high modes and the resulting large bending stresses can drastically reduce fatigue life. Wake galloping on the other hand can cause excursions of many diameters at much lower frequencies, and tends to excite the riser's lowest modes of oscillation. Almost all of what is known about these two processes comes from experiments in which one or other has been studied under simpler conditions. An approach that has been followed before is to study the motion of a stiff cylinder mounted on an elastic system which fixes its single natural frequency (representing one of the multiple natural frequencies of a riser). The problem with this is that in practice vortex-induced vibrations and wake galloping resonate with two distinct natural frequencies of a riser. Moreover, these two fluid mechanisms interact. Vortex-induced vibrations have a major effect on drag, and thus on the instability of one riser in the wake of another. The motion of a riser undergoing wake galloping affects its relative incident flow speed, which in turn determines the frequency and amplitude of vortex-induced vibrations.In this project we plan to build an experiment that will for the first time allow us systematically to study the response of a cylinder which is excited by these two processes simultaneously. To do this, the downstream cylinder has to be mounted on a compound elastic system that has two natural frequencies in each direction: in-line with, and transverse to the incident current. The experiment has several adventurous features and so we shall take care to ensure that, in conditions in which the system is restricted to a single natural frequency, we can reproduce earlier measurements. In subsequent tests we shall investigate a range of cases where the cylinder is undergoing vortex-induced vibration at one frequency at the same time as wake galloping at another. The results will help us to understand the interaction between them, and will provide unique benchmarking data for several groups around the world who are developing software to predict the response of risers to these flow-induced forces and assess fatigue damage and the probability of clashing.

bp is aiming to be a very different company by 2030, and our ambition is to be a net zero company by 2050 or sooner and to help the world get to net zero. A key component of becoming an integrated energy company surrounds low carbon electricity and energy, and within that, creating a distinct position in hydrogen, including aiming for a 10% market share in core markets. The **HYDRI** project, led by bp, aims to develop stand-off gas sensing devices critical to the safe roll-out of hydrogen as a widely used energy source in domestic, industrial, and transportation sectors. It harnesses the UK's world-leading expertise in single-photon detector arrays and quantum-sensor technology products. The HYDRI consortium comprises internationally recognised UK organisations at the forefront of the innovative and high technology sectors they serve, who are extremely well placed to deliver the state-of-the-art modules required for these devices. The consortium is led by a globally recognised end-user of the technology who will steer the performance of the project and carry out extensive testing in a range of high-value application scenarios. Finally, the project benefits from the expertise of the UK's leading academic and research technology organisation, who are performing critical system modelling, design, and integration activities throughout this exciting project.

Tackling the current world energy crisis is recognised as a top priority for both developed and developing nations. Alternative energy sources are therefore urgently sought in response to both diminishing world oil reserves and increasing environmental concerns over global climate change. To be truly viable such alternative energy sources must be sustainable, that is have the ability to meet 21st century energy needs without compromising those of future generations. While a number of sustainable technologies are currently receiving heavy investment, the most easily implemented and low cost solutions for transportation needs are those based upon biomass derived fuels. Spearheading such renewable fuels is biodiesel - a biodegradable, non toxic fuel synthesised from animal fats or plant oils extracted from cereal or non-food crops. We recently developed a range of first-generation solid acid and base catalysts that respectively remove undesired free fatty acid (FFA) impurities, and transform naturally occurring triglycerides found within plant oils into clean biodiesel. Here we propose to achieve a step-change in both catalyst, and overall process efficiency, through a combination of new synthetic materials chemistry and reactor technologies, in combination with computer-aided catalyst and process design. Our goal is the delivery of second-generation mesostructured solid acids and bases, optimised for efficient diffusion and reaction of bulky triglycerides and FFAs, and an intensified process allowing tandem esterification and transesterification of plant oil. Together these new green chemical technologies offer vastly streamlined biodiesel production, with associated annual energy savings of 5.5 billion kWh and a reduction in CO2 emissions by 2.4 million tonnes per annum at current production rates.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.