Modern specialty chemicals are advanced multi-component systems that can contain immiscible fluids (e.g., water and organics), active ingredients, and several agents (e.g., surfactants) used to stabilise the product, extend its shelf lifetime, facilitate the application by the End Users, and deliver the active ingredients to the target. The formulation of such products is a demanding activity carried out via extensive trial and error experimental campaigns. Because personal experience is an important aspect of the process and even subtle changes in composition (e.g., in salt content) strongly affect performance, formulation is often perceived as an art, rather than a reproducible science. Further, new active ingredients are often introduced to the market while new regulations periodically limit the usage of existing chemical products towards reducing the environmental impact. Therefore, it is desirable to develop predictive capabilities to relate the composition of a product to the performance of its active ingredient. SusAgriChem seeks to develop such predictive capabilities via a molecular-level understanding of competitive interfacial effects. SusAgriChem focuses on the agri-chemical sector, one of the Eight Great Technologies identified by the UK government; indeed, food production is the largest single manufacturing sector in the UK. Reducing the amount of herbicide wasted is one of the Sustainable Development Goals as it will help achieve sustainable agriculture. SusAgriChem will exploit three enormous opportunities: (1) reduce the environmental impact of herbicides supporting the introduction of new environmentally friendly formulations, with an estimated cost in research and development of approximately $500M per new active ingredient; (2) improve the adhesion of emulsion droplets on weed leaves from the current 5% of the applied product to 10%, which would halve the environmental impact; this will be achieved without compromising the stability of the emulsion, the ability of the active ingredient to penetrate the leaves, and the ease of application of the product at the point of use; (3) revolutionise the formulation of new products, which will enable the specialty chemicals sector to remain at the cutting edge, creating new highly skilled jobs, which is extremely important in the current socio economic landscape - the specialty chemicals sector being essential for the UK economy, where in 2016 it contributed £12.1B, employing 99,000 people, especially in the after Covid-19 era. SusAgriChem seeks to change the current state of the art, by implementing a multi-disciplinary fundamental research project in close synergy between academia and industry. The partnership between UCL and Innospec will allow us to (1) develop fundamental science that will benefit the academic community at large; (2) apply the fundamental research to the development of new products; and (3) positively impact the formulation of other products (e.g., inkjet printing) in which surface active compounds are used to optimise multiple competing properties. To enhance the impact of the fundamental research conducted, this project will train two Ph.D. students in the multi-disciplinary activities related to formulation. The partnership with industry will enable the two post-doctoral researchers to develop transferable skills including entrepreneurial insights and commercial acumen. The results will be published in peer-reviewed journal articles, presented at international conferences, and used in our undergraduate and post-graduate teaching. The results will also be disseminated to the wide public, including pre-university students, via our outreach programmes and via the publication of dissemination material that targets primary schools.

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.

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.

Over recent years the need to reduce both fuel consumption and emissions of carbon dioxide has become an increasing preoccupation, as well as ever stringent emission legislation. Intensive research performed by the automotive industry and academia is in progress, centred on ways to reduce exhaust emissions from IC engines on the one hand, and fuel efficient vehicles on the other. Fast progress in meeting future emission and fuel economy regulations has been hampered by the commonly accepted trade-offs between reduction in exhaust emissions and improvements in fuel economy, as well as by the customers demand for better torque output and driveability.A novel poppet valve 2-stroke controlled auto-ignition combustion engine has been proposed by Brunel and Brighton Universities. The purpose of this proposal is to penetrate and understand the key in-cylinder phenomena and processes involved in the newly proposed poppet valve 2-stroke auto-ignition combustion engine. This will enable the assessment of its potential for leapfrog improvements in performance, fuel economy, and exhaust emissions, as compared to current gasoline engines. Such a programme demands leading-edge expertise in engine technology, computational fluid dynamics, autoignition chemical kinetics, chemically selective in-cylinder diagnostics, and industrial practice. The proposed programme involves four universities supported by relevant industrial companies, taking a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of the underlying processes and technologies for the next generation of gasoline engines. It is the first time that a novel and detailed methodology has been proposed to achieve significantly extended and better controlled auto-ignition combustion operation in the current poppet valved engine without the pitfalls of the traditional crankcase scavenged ported two-stroke engines. The single cylinder poppet valve 2-stroke camless engine offers the ideal research tool to experiment with the proposed methodology. In addition, new and novel experimental techniques, such as the high-speed in-cylinder residual gas mapping and in-cylinder temperature imaging, are to be developed and applied to obtain the much-needed better understanding of underlying physical and chemical processes involved in the new combustion engine. This is complemented by the development and application of sophisticated chemistry CFD engine simulation with the state-of-the-art autoignition combustion prediction capability and refined fuel spray and evaporation models. Such a systematic and comprehensive programme of exploration and research on CAI combustion for achieving superior 2-stroke part-load fuel economy and emissions is imperative for the future development of a new frontier gasoline engine with leapfrog improvements in performance, fuel economy, and exhaust emissions.

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.