Sustainable Energy Research Team

SERT is a research unit that aims to promote sustainability through high quality research and publications, currently the team is actively involved in broad and highly topical research areas, including:

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

The team is using LCA to determine the life time environmental impacts and benefits of a number of different products and systems. These include micro and large-scale wind, nuclear, solar thermal, solar PV, ground source heat pumps and combined heat and power systems. The benefits and shortcomings of the use of different bio-energy systems is explored using LCA, comparing the use of domestic and imported fuel, the impact of land use changes, including the resultant potential lack of land for food crops. The team is also examining the use of LCA in policy making and governance, together with its use and success in the practice of sustainable procurement.

Microgeneration

A variety of microgeneration options are being assessed by the research team, using thermodynamic (energy & exergy) analysis, LCA and economic cost-benefit analysis techniques. This three-part appraisal will provide a multi-disciplinary perspective in the assessments. The technologies under consideration include micro-wind, solar thermal, solar PV, ground source heat pumps and combined heat and power systems. The work is funded by the EPSRC-led SUPERGEN consortium on Highly Distributed Power Systems and HiDef.

Embodied energy and carbon

The embodied energy and carbon of over 200 materials was benchmarked and summarised into the Inventory of Carbon & Energy (ICE). ICE has been used to assess the energy and carbon impact of constructing new buildings in both the domestic and non-domestic building sectors. An ICE Housing Model is currently being developed, it will enable the embodied energy and carbon impact of a specific domestic building to be modelled and benchmarked against the status quo.

Thermodynamic analysis and energy demand reduction in industry

The objective of this work is to determine the energy demand reductions achievable across the whole industrial sector within the UK. The theoretical potential is determined, as well as the economic and technical constraints upon such potential. A major part of the work involves the construction of an energy database for the industrial sector, incorporating detailed bottom-up studies of important manufacturing subsectors. These studies encompass energy and exergy analysis to determine the thermodynamic potential for improvement. Additionally technologies are identified that can reduce emissions from the current baseline. The work is being funded by the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) and forms part of the broader Energy Demand Reduction theme.

Bioenergy

The impact of various bioenergy production routes is examined using CCT. Differing LCA methodological approaches, including allocation issues and system expansion, are analysed. In addition, a regional assessment is being made of resource availability, environmental performance and socio-economic benefits and costs. This involves the evaluation of crop production, conversion technology analyses, and Lifecycle Assessment from 'cradle to grave' of bioenergy systems. The study will determine the suitability of exploiting bioenergy within the region and its effects towards the UK's renewable energy commitments. The work is funded by the BBS RC and previously by the UKERC, GWR and the Environment Agency.

Environmental footprinting

Environmental or 'ecological' footprints are a simple, yet useful measure of the resources consumed and the wastes produced by a given population, under existing technology. Footprints vary between countries at different stages of economic development and varying geographic characteristics. The current work has assessed the determinants of environmental footprints using dimensional analysis to show the relative significance of each factor.

Environmental economics

The Supergen Consortium developed energy scenarios that span from 1996 until 2050. Within these scenarios, specifically 'Business as Usual', 'Low Carbon', and 'Deep Green', almost every conceivable source of energy is listed both renewable and non-renewable and central or distributed. It is our role to undergo a Cost-Benefit Analysis of the each scenario as a whole, so in the end the one with the greatest Net Present Value (NPV) is singled out - indicating the economic costs of the different scenarios.

Over a period of some 15-20 years, the international community has been grappling with the task of defining the concept of 'sustainable development'. It came to prominence as a result of the so-called Brundtland report, published in 1987 under the title Our Common Future.

The report was the outcome of four years of study and debate by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), who argued that the time had come to couple economy and ecology so that the wider community would take responsibility for both the causes and consequences of environmental damage. It viewed sustainable development as balancing the 'three pillars' of economic and social development with environmental protection.

This new paradigm was given an even higher profile in the context of the 2002 Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development, which adopted the strapline 'people, planet, prosperity'. It defined sustainable development as 'meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'. [Extract from Hammond 2006, Natural Resources Forum 30]

2011 publications

• Whittaker, C., Adams, P., McManus, M.C Securing a Bioenergy Supply: UK and US in Perspectives on Biofuels: Potential Benefits and Possible Pitfalls. American Society of Chemistry Publications, USA. (In press)
• Hetherington, A.C., McManus, M.C. & Gray, D.A. (2011) Comparison of allocation and impact assessment methodologies on the life cycle assessment of rape and sunflower seed oils. Life Cycle Management, 2011. August 28-31st, Berlin. Germany
• McManus, M.C. (2011). An environmental assessment of the production of biodiesel from waste oil : two case studies. World Renewable Energy Congress. Sweden, May 8 – 13
• Griffin, P.W., Hammond, G.P., Ng, R.K. and Norman, J.B., (2011). The Impact of UK Government Industrial Energy Efficiency RD&D (Research, Development and Demonstration) Programmes 24th International Conference on Efficiency, Cost, Optimisation, Simulation and Environmental Impact of Energy Systems (ECOS 2011) Novi Sad, Serbia.
• Hammond, G.P. and Norman, J.B., (In Press). Decomposition analysis of energy-related carbon emissions from UK manufacturing. Energy.
• McManus, M.C. (In Press) Environmental Consequences of the Use of Batteries in Low Carbon Systems: the Impact of Battery Production Applied Energy.
• Whittaker, C., McManus, M.C. & Hammond, G.P. (2011) Greenhouse gas reporting for biofuels: A comparison between the RED, RTFO and PAS2050 methodologies. Energy Policy. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2011.06.054
• Hammond, G.P., S.S. Ondo Akwe and S. Williams, 2011. 'Techno-economic appraisal of fossil-fuelled power generation systems with carbon dioxide capture and storage', Energy, available online 13 January [DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2010.12.012
• Adams, P.W.R., Hammond, G.P. McManus, M.C. and Mezzullo, W. G, 2011. Barriers to and drivers for UK bioenergy development. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews . 15 (2) pp 1217-1227
• Black, M.J. Whittaker, C. Hosseinid, S.A. Diaz-Chaveza, R. Woods, J & Murphy, R.J. (In Press) . Life Cycle Assessment and sustainability methodologies for assessing industrial crops, processes and end products Industrial Crops and Products
• Murphy, R. Woods, J. Black, M. & McManus, M. (In Press) Global developments in the competition for land from biofuels. Food Policy. doi:10.1016/j.foodpol.2010.11.014
• Cooper, S., Hammond, G.P. & McManus, M.C. (2011) Thermodynamic Analysis of Efficient Domestic Heating Systems 2nd International Conference on Microgeneration and Related Technologies. Glasgow. 4 – 6 April 2011
• McManus, M.C. (2011) Environmental Consequences of the Use of Batteries in Sustainable Systems: Battery Production. 2nd International Conference on Microgeneration and Related Technologies. Glasgow. 4 – 6 April 2011.
   

You can also download a full list of publications (PDF) dating back to pre- 2000.

General

• Department of Energy and Climate Change (formerly BERR)
• Department for Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)
• Communities and Local Government
• The Carbon Trust

LCA (Life Cycle Assessment)

• Product Ecology Results (PRE)
• CORRIM, Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials
• LCA resources from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
• European Commission's LCA data sets

Sustainable news

• Nature journal news
• ENDS (Environmental Data Services) report