Course Director: Professor Stuart Scott
Professor Scott’s research is focused primarily on carbon capture and other processes for the abatement of CO2. This includes detailed investigations into specific technologies, with a large effort on processes which are based on gasification, combustion and thermochemical cycles, as well as more general process and reactor modelling and sustainability assessment. Recent work has looked at combined gasification and metal oxygen donor processes (often called chemical looping combustion), in which the oxygen for combustion comes from a solid oxygen carrier (usually a metal oxide) rather than air. Professor Scott's research in this area goes from the understanding and development of the materials, through to lab-scale testing and process modelling of the scaled up systems. He also works on the modelling of carbon abatement technologies, from the reactor scale through to the process flow sheet and the wider system scale. This has led to work on Lifecycle Assessment of Biofuels, including those which make use of novel biological systems (i.e. algae).
Professor Scott runs the ET-A2 course together with
Fiona completed her PhD in Chemistry at the University of Nottingham, under Professor Martyn Poliakoff before moving to a research position within the Chemical Industry where she worked for 9 years. She returned to academia in 2009, joining the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy before moving to the Department of Engineering in 2013 as an embedded researcher. She commenced her postdoctoral work on the ANAM project in 2015.
Fiona has a strong interest in practical technology transfer, driven by the interaction between universities and industry. This started with her PhD in Nottingham where she helped develop the first continuous flow supercritical fluids reactor. Fiona moved to an industrial position to help implement the full continuous phase supercritical plant in 2001. A move across to academia in 2009 commenced her involvement in the CNT fibre spinning process which was based in the Department of Materials Science and Technology at the University of Cambridge. Fiona helped implement the successful transfer of this technology to Tortech Nano Fibers Ltd who commissioned their process in 2011. Fiona transferred to the Department of Engineering as an embedded researcher in 2013 to work with Adam Boies research group, bringing together her knowledge of the fibre spinning process with their aerosol particle expertise and went on to join the ANAM project in 2015.
Since September 2021 she has been Course Manager for the MPhil in Energy Technologies.
Professor Epaminondas Mastorakos
Epaminondas ("Nondas") Mastorakos is Professor of Energy Technologies. He is also a Fellow of Fitzwilliam College. His research interests revolve around combustion, from both a fundamental and a practical viewpoint. He has experience with both experiments and computational fluid dynamics (CFD), especially in the fields of chemical mechanism reduction, turbulent reacting flow experimentation and modelling, ignition and extinction of flames, spray flames, gas turbine and diesel engine combustion, and combustion in porous media. He has also worked on atmospheric chemistry and dispersion of pollutants. He has over 80 archival publications, more than 80 conference papers, is the co-author of two books, he is Associate Editor of "Combustion and Flame", and holds patents on syngas production and radiant burners. He has acted as consultant to various industries in the engines and energy area, and is Research Coordinator for Combustion in the Rolls-Royce / Cambridge University Gas Turbine Partnership.
Professor Mastorakos is responsible for ET-A1 and ET-B1.
Stewart Cant is Professor of Computational Engineering. His work focuses on the simulation and modelling of turbulent combustion and two-phase flow. His research group has developed its own set of software tools for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) of combustion, which are being used to help improve the efficiency and reduce the environmental impact of combustion processes. Some of their tools for Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) are used as performance benchmarks for the latest High Performance Computer systems and software, in the UK and elsewhere. Recent achievements of the group include the largest (and most detailed) combustion DNS ever to be carried out on the UK national supercomputers, with a focus on turbulent partially-premixed flames. They have simulated auto-ignition in fuel sprays, with applications to combustion in Diesel engines and gas turbines. They are also simulating two-phase flows involving the break-up of liquid fuel into a spray of fine droplets. The results are being used to provide physical insight and detailed statistical data for the development of robust and reliable combustion models for industry. Professor Cant is a member of the EPSRC Strategic Advisory Team on Infrastructure, and has won the the Sugden Award (2000) and the Gaydon Prize (2004, 2008).
Professor Nedunchezhian Swaminathan
Professor Swaminathan is another combustion expert and his research is in predicting the characteristics, such as heat release rate distribution, pollutants formation, combustion instabilities, etc., of fuel-lean combustion in gas turbine and IC engine conditions.
Professor Swaminathan is Professor of Mechanical Engineering. He is also a Fellow and Director of Studies at Robinson College. His research is focused on carbon capture and storage, combustion modelling and physics, and the impact of combustion on the environment. His other interests include photography, gardening and carpentry.
Professor Swaminathan runs the Solar and Biomass core module in Renewable Energy ET-B3 together with
Professor in Nanomaterials and Aerosol Engineering
Professor Adam Boies is a Lecture and Professor r in the Energy, Fluid Mechanics and Turbomachinery Engineering Division at the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on characterizing the evolution, dynamics and impacts of gas-phase nanoparticles and gaseous pollutants. The applications of his research extend to air quality, transportation emissions and engineered nanoparticles. He is a lead investigator of transportation energy and emissions within the Energy Efficient Cities initiative (EECi) and the Centre for Sustainable Freight. He is also principle investigator of the EPSRC-funded Airport Environmental Investment toolkit that has developed applications for evaluation of emissions for UK airports.
University Lecturer in Energy, Transport and Urban Infrastructure.
Jon Cullen is a Lecturer in Energy, Transport and Urban Infrastructure. He is also a Fellow and Graduate Tutor at Fitzwilliam College. His research aims to characterise physical efficiency limits for energy devices and systems and provide a consistent framework for evaluating energy demand reduction options and emissions abatement strategies; this research makes use of in-depth analysis of energy systems and specialised integrative tools, while maintaining a broad awareness of the technical options to improve energy systems. He also works on novel material efficiency options for reducing demand for energy intensive materials as an alternative carbon abatement strategy for industry.
ET-B2 lectures on Renewable energy: wind, tide and hydro are a series of lectures given by a number of academic staff within the department.
Dr Bob Skelton will be giving lectures on the safety aspects of working in the energy sector.
Lecture courses are also given by post-doctoral teaching staff and we offer teaching assistance through PhD students and former alumni of the course.