Facilities

We have a programme of continued investment in facilities and infrastructure ensuring that our staff and students benefit from state-of-the-art, high quality equipment and laboratories.

- Several large, pilot scale experimental reactors, e.g. 4m high x 0.5m diameter pulverised coal combustor (>£2m EPSRC/EU support), 3m high x 0.5m diameter pulverised biomass combustor (£0.7m of EU support), 5m high x 0.25m diameter circulating fluidised bed combustor; 2m high x 0.5m corrosion reactor for 24h/7d (£0.5m of EU support) operation. All the reactors are fully instrumented with full emissions monitoring.

- Fully instrumented engine test bed dynamometers for transient emissions testing with standard and fast response gaseous emissions analysis equipment (Horiba), two TEOMS for transient particle mass measurements. SMPS, ELPI and Cambustion particle size analysers. Three transient engine test bed dynamometers. Dilution tunnel. Two instrumented test cars (£4.2m of JIF and SRIF support with ITS).

- Emissions testing laboratory for solid fuel stoves and boilers. Fully instrumented (as above, plus FTIR gas analyser and Dekati PM10/PM2.5 impactors). Testing of developing world cookstoves in accordance with the Water Boiling Test. Emissions testing of wood and multifuel heating stoves in accordance with Ecodesign regulations, and associated fuel analysis. Investigations of the physical and optical properties of soot particles and the fundamental chemical mechanisms of soot formation from different feedstocks.

- Gas Turbine combustors (GTCs) & high intensity burners for Low NOx Combustion, Rapid fuel and air mixing techniques for ultra-low NOx emissions from gaseous and liquid fuelled GTCs. Atmospheric pressure high temperature combustion test rigs (0.5 MW). Full heated emissions measurement system.

- High performance computing of £8m University investment over the period 2009-2017.

- Tribology and tribochemistry research; engine test beds, engine friction measurement systems, motored camshaft rigs, and bench-top reciprocating, rotating, fretting and tribocorrosion tribometers, AC, DC & noise electrochemical corrosion monitoring, scanning reference electrode and impingement rigs.

- Two unique, EPSRC funded, high temperature and pressure fan-stirred bombs with optical access for laser based diagnostics and controlled turbulence characteristics related to fundamental combustion in engines. Three optical access single cylinder research engines. Two rapid compression machines. LDA, PIV, CARS and PLIF diagnostics for imaging and determination of molecular concentrations in flames.

- State-of-the-art suite of analytical instrumentation, for example: pyrolysis-GC-MS, TGA and DTA thermal analysis, GC-MS, GC-MS-MS, Triple quadruple GC-MS, FTIR microscopy with thermal stage, TGA-MS (Funded with £0.5m of EPSRC funding). In addition, we have recently been awarded £0.49k of SRIF4 equipment funding to further enhance our advanced analytical capabilities.The Instrumented City (IC) is a suite of research facilities dedicated to transport and environment issues. The facility has been supported by two major infrastructure awards (JIF and SRIF2) totalling in excess of £3m. The IC boasts an extensive range of state-of-the-art traffic, vehicle emission, meteorological, noise and air pollution monitoring instrumentation. The IC is a NERC national facility.

- The University of Leeds Driving Simulator (UoLDS) is one of most advanced worldwide in a research environment and allows research into driver behaviour to be performed in accurately controlled and repeatable laboratory conditions. (SRIF awards of £0.65m).

- The £1.1m Sorby Environmental Fluid Dynamics Laboratory is one of the leading environmental fluid dynamics laboratories in Europe. The laboratory is currently dedicated to measuring the multi-phase flow properties of the low permeability lithologies that typically act as seals to the movement of petroleum (and CO2) in the subsurface. The laboratory is currently sponsored by BG, BP, Chevron, Exxonmobil, Perenco, Petrobras, Shell, Statoilhydro, and Total.

- The Highly Instrumented Reactor for Atmospheric Chemistry (HIRAC) allows the study of the degradation of individual species under simulated conditions with specifically controlled temperature and pressure. The HIRAC chamber is a 2 m3 stainless steel vessel enables a wide range of kinetic experiments.

- Industry standard, state-of-the-art software is available for coupled flow – geomechanical – seismic modeling to monitor and predict CO2 flows in geological structures.

- We have also been short-listed for 2 Royal Society Wolfson Foundation Laboratory grants [1] Establishment of an Interdisciplinary CO2 Capture Laboratory Research Facility (£800k) and [ii] CO2 Sequestration Laboratory (£300k). These will greatly increase our experimental capabilities in carbon capture and storage.

- We are partners with Sheffield University in a joint initiative – the Low Carbon Combustion Centre based at Beighton Sheffield. The Centre includes a range of pilot scale facilities including, 350kW fluidized bed combustor (ex-CRE), 60kW Rolls Royce Artouste Auxilliary Power gas turbine engine facility, 1m x 3m Rotary kiln gasifier, Solid oxide fuel cell, 500kw oxy-furnace.

- The UKCCRSC Pilot-Scale Advanced Capture Technology (PACT) facilities at Beighton in Sheffield are an integral part of the Centre's activities and an example of the extended capabilities that a UK-wide centre can support. The Centre is funding commissioning and operating support for UKCCRSC-PACT for next 5 years (2012-2017), costing £810k, and is also offering support worth up to £630k for UKCCSRC members and other academics to undertake new research activities using UKCCSRC-PACT facilities, to complement £2.9M funding from DECC to move and set up equipment provided by RWE Npower.