Can public fast-charging stations be profitable as EV adoption ramps up?
Student: Jorge Balanya Echecopar
Electric Vehicles (EVs) are considered one of the most promising technologies to tackle the issue of global warming, together with air quality, from the transportation sector. Therefore, we are seeing an increased interest in and adoption of EVs worldwide. However, the electrification of transport comes with some challenges that can act as barriers, hindering the growth of EV adoption. This project focuses on charging infrastructure, a key element to reduce range anxiety and enable long-distance trips. The aim is to assess the profitability of fast-charging stations in the context of highways, to check the viability of deploying a network and identify key issues to be considered.
Supervisors:
- Dr Marcello Contestabile, Centre for Environmental Policy
Assessing the potential of Smart Building Management Systems to improve buildings' performance
Student: Paulina Becerra
This project explores the concept of Smart Building Management Systems (SBMS). It assesses the potential of implementing Smart functionalities into existing buildings to make them adaptable to changing conditions (e.g. electricity prices and weather) while optimising energy utilisation and facilitating buildings' interconnection. A SBMS Roadmap for a fleet of retail stores was created with the purpose of presenting a long and short-term vision of the system in terms of technology, data analytics and control strategies. A selection of these smart strategies is also simulated to proof the potential economic, environmental and consumption impacts of the building.
Supervisors:
- Dr Salvador Acha, Department of Chemical Engineering
- Dr Romain Lambert, Department of Chemical Engineering
- Dr Niccolo Le Brun, Department of Chemical Engineering
Machine-learning based analysis of supermarket refrigeration units
Student: Ronan Dubois
Refrigeration is the single biggest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions from UK supermarkets. In addition, system failures can incur significant financial losses while also compromising food quality and putting customers' health at risk. Therefore, supermarkets must ensure their refrigeration units maintain a good performance standard at all times. This project investigated how machine learning techniques could be applied to real data collected from Sainsbury's supermarkets to assess the performance of their refrigeration systems, detect potential faults and quantify the benefits associated with predictive maintenance.
Supervisors:
- Dr Salvador Acha, Department of Chemical Engineering
- Dr Niccolo Le Brun, Department of Chemical Engineering
Techno-Economic Analysis of Electric Vans for Last Mile Deliveries in the Grocery Retail Industry
Student: Maximilian Hettler
In accordance with the global road transport electrification, the project partner Sainsbury's intends to electrify its delivery fleet. The goal of the project is to investigate whether electric vans are technically and economically capable of replacing conventional diesel vans within the company´s last mile delivery operations. For that purpose, an electric van trial period is monitored. A total cost of ownership comparison is conducted, the emission benefits quantified, and any operational considerations are reviewed. Furthermore, the sensitivity of the key input parameters are analysed in order to understand the impact of potential future scenarios surrounding the industry.
Supervisors:
- Dr Marc Stettler, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Dr Salvador Acha, Department of Chemical Engineering
Refrigeration Integrated Heating and Cooling Modelling and Optimisation
Student: Georgios Maouris
The greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets set by the UK government and the gradual phase-out of synthetic refrigerants forced by international and European regulations have led to an increase of CO2 refrigeration systems in the UK food retail industry. At the same time, an excellent opportunity for heat recovery arises with the growing number of CO2 refrigeration systems due to their high operating pressures. The aim of this project is to simulate different control solutions for the CO2 refrigeration systems and determine the optimal solution for providing heating and cooling to the supermarket in terms of costs and CO2 emissions.
Supervisors:
- Dr Salvador Acha, Department of Chemical Engineering
- Dr Emilio Sarabia, Department of Chemical Engineering
Optimal business case for provision of grid services through EVs with V2G capabilities
Student: Pragadeesh Meenakumar
By accessing the option to charge and discharge from a moving ES source such as a battery EV, it would allow for the provision of various grid-scale electricity services. V2G adds additional value that is unable to be provided by uni-directional smart charging, or V1G. The aim of this project is to optimise the revenue generated through the provision of these services, i.e. the business case, to the EV aggregator, through a linear optimisation model. The project looks at various scenarios in different future timescales of change in the UK electricity market and provides an outlook on the feasibility of V2G.
Supervisors:
- Professor Goran Strbac, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
- Dr Marko Aunedi, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Can Automotive OEMs Transition to EVs at the Pace Required to Mitigate Climate Change?
Student: Fabio Massimo Perotti
Rising concern about Global Warming has lead governments and organisations to evaluate electrification as an optimal solution to decarbonise the transport sector. However, electrifying part of the transport sector at the pace required to mitigate climate change faces several challenges. Due to high expectations on automotive OEMs, it is not well understood if they can actually keep up to the high goals set by governments and organisations. Consequently, by creating a techno-economic model and using transition theory the aim of the research is to answer and evaluate the question: Can Automotive OEMs Transition to EVs at the Pace Required to Mitigate Climate Change?
Supervisors:
- Dr Marcello Contestabile, Centre for Environmental Policy
V2G Business Models: Evaluating the Impact of Smart Charging and V2G on Distribution Grids
Student: Anthony Wang
The electric mobility transition represents a multidimensional growth opportunity for the power sector. Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, whereby electric vehicles exchange two-way power flows with the grid, has the potential to enhance this transition by offering system-wide benefits such as infrastructure cost savings, renewable energy integration, and new revenue streams. Though the economic benefits of V2G are well-documented, few studies consider the impact V2G will have on physical infrastructure. Hence, this project investigates the use of intelligent V2G scheduling algorithms to offer flexibility solutions and compares the cost of these solutions to traditional grid reinforcement.
Supervisors:
- Dr Koen van Dam, Department of Chemical Engineering
- Dr Marco Pantaleo, Department of Chemical Engineering
- Piotr Konopka, Navigant Consulting