They achieve this by fundamental and applied research and development of novel, efficient and low to net carbon processes for the exploitation of underestimated waste streams for energy generation, chemicals and value added materials, upgrading them by novel pre-treatments and thermochemical/ biochemical processing (mainly carbonization, pyrolysis, gasification and clean combustion as well as anaerobic digestion) for sustainable energy, chemicals and materials production in residential and industrial sectors.
The B&W Challenge Group draws together substantial applied Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering and Mechanical Engineering expertise from the University of Hull and an inter- and multi-disciplinary pool of partners from industry and national and international academia such as KTH, QMU, ICL, AUTh, UCU, UCY, HMU, EUC, Petronas, Aston, UoS and research institutes (CPERI/CERTH, MAICH, BDC). The group develops industrial problem-solving solutions for the benefit of the society to the challenges facing the waste to energy and problematic waste upgrading sectors for industrial, transportation and residential sector.
Dr Martin Taylor - Lecturer in Chemical Engineering
The B&W Challenge group focusses also on the pre-treatment of biomass and other waste, re-designing of processes, fitting carbon capture to energy from waste/biomass plants and designing low carbon thermal/ thermochemical treatments including pyrolysis, gasification and biochemical conversion of lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks for syngas, H2 production and chars, pyrolysis products, biogas and other value added materials and chemicals. Research activity aims to improve efficiencies at all stages of industrial bio waste-to-energy production from investigation of biomass feedstock pre-treatments, through development of thermochemical and biochemical reactors for bioenergy production to manufacture of high-value chemical bi-products such as biochar.
One of the group’s projects, led by Dr Skoulou, has been to convert biomass waste into value-added feedstock for solid biofuels and green energy production. The exploitation of alternative, green fuels, such as the lignocellulosic (woody and herbaceous) biomass waste in energy production, offers the advantages of:
- improved waste management,
- resource efficiency,
- reduced dependence on imported energy and
- increased renewables usage in power production.
Low carbon thermochemical processes such as pyrolysis and gasification, in combination with exploitation of biomass waste can reduce the carbon footprint of the energy production sector and offer an additional source of income to farmers and agro industries.