Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals

 

Design and evaluation of rainwater harvesting systems for commercial buildings in the UK

Anyi Tong

With the purpose of reducing carbon emissions from the built environment, living building solutions have potential in achieving net-zero. This project focuses on understanding the impacts rainwater harvesting systems (RWHS) can have on meeting net-zero water goals. My project aims to find the optimal RWHS storage tank size design for commercial buildings and evaluate their environmental and economic impacts. A model was built in Python to characterise system behaviour and find the optimal storage tank design by analysing different techno-economic parameters, especially water-saving efficiency. Moreover, the environmental impacts were analysed by using the life cycle assessment in OpenLCA.

Supervisors:

• Dr Salvador Acha, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London
• Dr Rupert Myers, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London

 

Exploration of Aggregating Management of Solar Projects in Urban Industrial Environment

Arthur Pereira

Decarbonization targets have been driving the implementation of localized energy in urban areas. Incorporating businesses in this development has been faced with challenges more pronoun with the pandemic. This project explores opportunities that can arise from aggregating power purchase agreement in an urban industrial park to help promote solar PV. To do this analysis a model representing buildings in the Park Royal, London was constructed to simulate the aggregation and redistribution of the solar generation between various present buildings in the area.

Supervisors:

• Dr Koen van Dam, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London
• Maria Yliruka, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London

 

Designing the optimal municipal bio-waste strategy: Redevelopment project in Old Oak and Park Royal

Blanca Alvarez Lopez

With waste rising proportionally to macro-global trends, innovative and holistic management schemes must be implemented to contribute to the climate challenge and eradicate linear economies. In this project, the cutting-edge sustainable community being developed in Old Oak and Park Royal (London, UK) is selected for examining biowaste EfW opportunities. The economic and environmental performance of different collection, treatment and valorization strategies was evaluated to conclude with a variety of scenarios. Aided by GIS analytical tools, route optimization was performed and the viability of decentralised treatment options was assessed to minimise travel distances and their impacts.

Supervisors:

• Dr Koen van Dam, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London
• Maria Yliruka, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London

 

Analysing the effects of battery pack degradation on EV charging costs using a semi-empirical model

Daniel Trenins

The project firstly focuses on creating a battery pack degradation model within Matlab and Simulink, which allows to analyse the effects of different thermal conditions on the rate of battery pack capacity loss. After running the model, the simulation outputs are used to conduct a techno-economic analysis of the different scenarios using the concept of the Levelised Cost of Charging to evaluate the effects battery pack degradation could have on EV ownership across Great Britain. Additionally, this project aims to establish how the LCOC will change depending on the level of degradation of the battery pack.

Supervisors:

• Dr Billy Wu, Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London
• Jingyi Chen, Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London

 

A life cycle analysis of storage batteries for PV water pumping systems in Sub-Saharan remote areas

Fatima Hermosin Acasuso

The number of photovoltaic water pumping systems (PVWPS) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are increasing as PV panels get cheaper. In order to absorb solar energy intermittency, these PVWPS are usually accompanied by water tanks, which allow water access at any time. However, it was found that other storage technologies, such as batteries, can significantly decrease the life cycle cost of PVWPS. Since batteries can cause serious environmental damages, this thesis aims to define the most sustainable storage technology for PVWPS in SSA. In addition, other pathways will be proposed to ensure a green and safe growth of the battery industry in the region.

Supervisors:

• Dr Judith Cherni, Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London
• Dr Vincent Reinbold, Université Paris-Saclay
• Dr Loic Queval, CenraleSupelec
• Dr Simon Meunier, KU Leuven

 

The Role of Natural Gas in Achieving Energy Security and a Just Transition in Nigeria's Power Sector

Imran Mohamed Marwa

Nigeria lacks ample power infrastructure and a reliable electricity supply. In a power-driven 21st century, this greatly impacts the country’s development, standard of living and economic performance. This energy insufficiency causes a lot of individuals and businesses to invest in self-generation using petrol or diesel generators, which contributes quantities of emissions. A resource-rich country like Nigeria with plentiful gas reserves as well as considerable renewables (solar and hydropower) potential, is in great position to bridge the energy gap. This thesis explores how much the abundant natural gas resource can reconcile the power undersupply and reduce GHG emissions.

Supervisors:

• Dr Diaz-Chavez, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London

 

Health co-benefits of climate change mitigation: an interdisciplinary model for policy development

Livio Caputo

The UK’s target to become a net-zero carbon economy by 2050 will require an accelerated adoption of Low Carbon Technologies (LCT) such as rooftop solar PV and electric vehicles. The growth of connections of LCT to low-voltage (LV) networks will require Distributed Network Operators to implement cost-effective solutions to increase the visibility of LV networks. This project aimed to increase the visibility of low-voltage networks by developing an approach which applies data analytics, low-voltage modelling and satellite images. Specific objectives were to identify electrical circuits which contain solar PV systems and estimate their contribution during the PV System peak hours.

Supervisors:

• Dr Audrey de Nazelle, Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London

 

Evaluating Economic Potential of Offshore Wind in South Africa

Sebastian Kern

South Africa is currently facing an energy crisis. With an old and unreliable fleet of coal power plants, rolling blackouts are the norm. Due to this and international pressures towards decarbonisation, South Africa needs to find a cost-effective and sustainable solution. Although the country has a large technical potential of >500 GW for offshore wind, the technology is an innovation in the South African market and faces substantial cost and logistics penalties. However, with the right set of policies and sufficient support from local actors, offshore wind can help address the energy crisis. To design effective policy, South Africa can benefit from lessons learned in the UK and Germany.

Supervisors:

• Dr Malte Jansen, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London
• Dr Mark Workman, Energy Futures Lab, Imperial College London