Impact case study database

The particulate products market is worth GBP180,000,000,000 per year in the UK, and approximately GBP1,000,000,000,000 per year in emerging global markets. Over 80% of industrial feedstocks are moved, transported or processed in particulate form (powders, granules, pastes etc.). Particulate movement can affect the long term structural condition of silos for material storage, degrade the performance of machinery and processes and influence the material properties from heat flow through particle contact. All of this has significant cost impact on the manufacturing and flow processes where powders are used, from continuous manufacture of synthetic materials, to mixing of powders or dispensing of tablets in the pharmaceutical industries. Increased knowledge and understanding from ERPE’s improved modelling of the flow, compaction and movement of particulates has impacted an array of industry sectors including food, pharmaceutical, mining, construction, chemical energy storage and additive manufacturing. The impact summarised in Section 1 is expanded in A-D below. Industry descriptions of the ERPE impacts and outcomes achieved include ‘ best in class’, ‘ changing the way we look at DEM data’, ‘ enabled clients to model complex powders for the first time’, ‘ state of the art’, ‘ exceptional’ and ‘ ground breaking’.

(A) Particle-Analytics Ltd (2015) and Coarse-Graining disruptive technology

To capitalise on the developments enabled by the underpinning research on course graining [3.2, 3.3] and previous application capabilities of the DEM [3.5, 3.6], Particle Analytics Ltd was spun-out of the University of Edinburgh in February 2015 to exploit commercially their particle engineering data analysis software ‘IOTA’ [5.1]. This provides users with the ability to perform rigorous root cause analysis on the design of new systems or review existing systems by combining data science methodologies with engineering decision making [5.1]. The main benefits include the course graining analysis and measurement of: mixing and segregation analysis; residence time calculation; solid fraction; bulk density; contact and kinetic stress. Clients include early-adopting multi-national organisations such as Procter and Gamble, Astec Industries Inc, Johnson Matthey and Pfizer. More recently, Particle-Analytics Ltd have been collaborating with oil and gas engineering company Schlumberger to exploit new applications in sub-surface engineering [5.1]. The Chairman of Particle Analytics endorsed the importance of the ERPE research to the quality of the software, stating “We believe IOTA is the best in class predictive tool available in the market. This view is supported by various independent empirical data experiments and case studies, confirming that we can deliver a unique level of insight and discovery” [5.2].

The licensing of the coarse-graining algorithm methodologies to Particle Analytics Ltd for use in the IOTA Software has, as intended, yielded a disruptive technology which allows vast amounts of complex particle data to be “coarse-grained” and transformed from particle scale to bulk-industrial scale [5.3]. This provided new understanding of particulate flow processes and drove industrial innovation. The Chief Commercialisation Officer of Particle Analytics said, “ Particle's ground breaking coarse graining algorithm allows engineers and scientists to do proper root cause analysis on their designs to ensure they are fit for purpose and deliver long life extension. This allows engineers, such as in the Oil and Gas industry, to pinpoint failure modes in piping systems, caused by sand, which results in pipe erosion, at a cost to the industry of $2Bn per annum. Particle's front end interface capability provides for flexible developments of new models as yet undiscovered.” [5.3]

An example case study is Astec Industries, Inc. (USA) which manufactures more than 100 different products from rock crushing and screening plants to hot mix asphalt (HMA) facilities, concrete plants, milling machines, asphalt pavers, and material transfer vehicles. For their HMA equipment design and optimisation, they utilised the IOTA software designed by spin-out Particle Analytics, where the coarse-graining analysis has provided a more meaningful visualisation of the heat transfer in the complex and dynamic aggregate flow in a dryer. This resulted in the design, manufacture and supply of more efficient dryers to the road construction sector with significant fuel savings and future reduced carbon emissions [5.4]. The Head of Simulation and Modelling of Astec Industries USA confirmed that “ IOTA from Particle Analytics Ltd has changed the way we look at DEM data. We’ve used the coarse graining tools to gain better insight into particle behaviour in our equipment. It’s enabled us to maximize heat transfer across a range of operating conditions for our clients in the road construction industry” [5.4]

(B) EEPA modelling adopted within EDEM® software 2018 …and follow-ons

The EEPA contact modelling capability developed in [3.1, 3.4] was integrated into the commercial software EDEM® in 2018 [5.5]. EDEM® promoted the increased capabilities as ‘ More particles….faster with EDEM 2018’ across its multi-sector users, including pharmaceutical, equipment manufacturing and battery technology companies [5.5]. Altair Inc. is a Nasdaq (USA) registered global technology company that provides software and cloud solutions in the areas of data analysis, product development, and high-performance computing. They included the EEPA model in the Altair/EDEM® commercial particle simulation software in 2018. After acquiring EDEM® in 2019, the Chief Technology Officer of Altair endorsed, “The recent adoption of the EEPA model has allowed our clients to model their complex cohesive powders successfully for the first time. The applications are wide ranging including pharmaceutical, manufacturing, battery technology, automotive design and have directly contributed to the Company securing new clients. The success of EEPA model is a contributing factor to Altair’s decision to acquire EDEM® in 2019” [5.6].

(C) Development of a Digital Twin for modelling powder mixing and granulation

Funded by Innovate UK, in collaboration with Centre for Process Innovation Ltd (CPI) and industrial partners AstraZeneca, EDEM®, Johnson Matthey, Pfizer, PSE, and Procter & Gamble, the EEPA model within EDEM® was successfully used to develop an advanced Digital Twin of a twin-screw granulator for modelling powder mixing and granulation to optimise, in advance of process, the manufacture of pharmaceutical and other high value products [5.7]. Dr Graeme Cruickshank, Director of Formulation at CPI, said: ​“ These projects are exciting developments in the application of digital design methods to the development of formulated products and manufacturing process. The leveraging of UK expertise across industry, academic centres of excellence and highly-specialised technology suppliers has been key to the success of this project and providing state-of-the-art capability to help UK companies benefit from developments in digital manufacturing” [5.7].

(D) Uniaxial cohesive powders tester (UPT) – license, launch and reach

In addition to the numerical modelling- and simulation-driven impacts above, ERPE research in measurement, characterisation, prediction and test of particulates has underpinned the development of a uniaxial tester for cohesive powders [3.5, 3.6] and, in later EPSRC-funded collaborative research, developed a universal powder tester (UPT), with DuPont (Chemours) and Freeman Technology. The UPT was licensed in 2016 to Freeman Technology, the leading UK company operating in Europe, Asia and USA. The Freeman UPT Tester, is marketed on their website [5.8]. This UPT is now used to provide rapid, repeatable and accurate assessment of powder flowability for industrial powder handling applications worldwide. The UPT also overcame [5.8] many of the previous engineering and implementation constraints across many industry sectors including (i) the design and construction of a free-standing powder column; (ii) that ensured a uniform density and stress throughout the entire powder column, resulting in (iii) a user-friendly, dependable powder tester that is now used on a wide range of powders. The new UPT technology [5.8] developed a sleeve design that enabled the creation of a free-standing column of powder, and used a double-ended consolidation method to ensure uniform density and stress. The Operations Director at Freeman Technology stated "The uniaxial tester contributed significantly to the development of the Freeman Technology Uniaxial Powder Tester. This instrument is now installed at powder handling organisations in the USA, Europe and Asia where it is used to assist with product development and optimisation in applications as industrial chemicals, household goods and pharmaceuticals" [5.9].

An example case study is Chemours Inc (USA) which is a global chemical engineering company, employing around 7,000 staff across 37 manufacturing plants/laboratories, with a client base in 120 countries. Its work supplies the automotive, paints, plastics, electronics, construction, energy, and telecommunications industries. They use the UPT widely for quality control and product development of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) powder used in products such as paints, glazes, enamels, plastics, paper, fibres, foods, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. The lead Particle Technology Principal Consultant at Chemours USA, stated, “ Having conducted over 2,500 tests with the UPT, the reproducibility has been exceptional; more than 10 times better than its ‘competitor’ in measurement of unconfined yield stress. This high degree of reproducibility minimizes the need for replicate tests and allows confident detection of subtle differences in flowability that affect the value of millions of dollars’ worth of TiO2 pigment” [5.10].

Lift, processing, transportation, storage and disposal of unwanted fluids (i.e. trapped water and gas in the geological reservoirs) co-produced with oil is one of the most expensive, energy consuming and environmentally unfriendly activities in petroleum production. It is also a key factor limiting the quantity of oil recovered during production. The range of impacts resulting from the ERPE research resulted in not only in a world-first new technology that significantly reduced this co-produced residue but also delivered a series of multi-partner country economic, business and environmental impacts as follows.

(A) Development of a multi-country partnership supply chain for AICVs

The primary objective of the REVIVAL project was to develop an innovative low-cost, high-performance Autonomous Inflow Control Valve to enable increased recovery of oil by preventing breakthrough of water and gas into the oil well. ERPE research [3.4-3.6] underpinned this development and led to a multi country partnership to manufacture and commercially test the AICV technology including: InflowControl (Norway), HP Etch (Sweden), International Syalons (UK), Seal Engineering (Norway), RT Filter Technike (Germany), Norner (Norway) [5.1]. Today, ‘ InflowControl sources the AICV parts from suppliers in Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK and Switzerland, and assembles these parts in Norway to produce the AICV’ [5.2].

(B) World First Installation and Company Growth

InflowControl was a new start-up company in Norway. As a result of the ERPE modelling, the benefits of the technology were quantified, the technology was adopted and the world’s first installation of the AICV occurred in August 2015 [5.3]. InflowControl confirmed that, by November 2020, AICVs had been ‘ installed in over 100 wells worldwide’ [5.4] and the 2019-20 turnover for InflowControl from AICV technology and deployment had been circa USD17,000,000 [5.1].

(C) Economic Impact with International Reach

Each oil field may typically require 100 valves [5.2] and the AICV modelling designed and developed by the ERPE team demonstrated [3.4] the positive impact of the AICV on the oil production and recovery rates, allowing full economic justification and payback to be clearly provided for different reservoirs/customers [5.1, 5.5].

Provision of quantifiable evidence from the ERPE reservoir simulation model assisted in overcoming a major marketing barrier by allowing customers to model the additional cost/benefits offered by the novel AICV system for their oil fields [5.1]. The CEO of InflowControl has stated that the ‘ research helped to *identify and develop the best approach to model the performance of a well completed with AICVs in one or more reservoir simulator(s).*’ [5.1]. The modelling also demonstrated the ability of the AICV technology to improve the production and recovery rates, enabling more complete economic appraisal of reservoirs to a wider customer base [5.1]. This enabled InflowControl to grow substantial global reach:

- By late 2020 inflow client companies were installing the AICV in ‘ Canada, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Oman, Norway, Bahrain and China. The AICV® wells cover a large number of applications, onshore and offshore, carbonate and sand stone, new and retrofit, ultra-light, light, medium, heavy and extra heavy oil for gas, steam, CO₂ and/or water choking/shut-off’ [5.6]. Further, the technology has demonstrated significant increase in oil production of 38% on average [5.4]. In some cases, depending on the geology and other characteristics of the oil field the AICV can increase oil recovery from 50% to 80% [5.2].

- InflowControl reported operational cost savings for a client in the Middle East in 2020, for one field alone in the ‘first year’ of operation, of USD2,000,000, with a ‘water cut’ reduction of 68%, (due to reduced water handling costs). Oil recovery from the existing wells as a result of the AICV deployment was enhanced by 18% [5.7].

- Another major operator with one of the largest fields in the world had areas of the field that could not be recovered, due to an excessively high Gas Oil Ratio (GOR). After fitting AICVs in a well, the GOR ‘reduced by over 85%’, resulting in significantly enhanced oil recovery [5.8].

- In a Middle East AICV deployment, ‘ within the first 12 months of the well having been brought on line with the AICV retrofit completion, the operator earned a net gain of over 51 times the cost of the retrofit completion, including rig costs’ [5.9]

(D) Optimisation Modelling and Knowledge Exchange for AICV Deployment

The ERPE underpinning research [3.4-3.6] showed how the AICV technology and modelling could be deployed successfully while also ‘adding value’ when compared to existing passive valve control technologies and approaches. This evidence through reservoir simulation models supported the InflowControl marketing strategy and the additional cost/benefits offered by the novel AICV system. With [3.4-3.6] and an early consultancy project for Woodside Energy by ERPE [5.5], to assess the future potential of the AICV, the engineering design process was informed across the consortium partners, which was previously stated by the CEO of InflowControl as ‘ helping to identify and develop the best approach to model the performance of a well completed with AICVs in one or more reservoir simulator(s).’ [5.1]. The ERPE findings and partnership with InflowControl has also been disseminated widely through the international network called the ‘InflowControl Forum’ supporting knowledge exchange involving major oil and engineering companies such as Total, Chevron, Shell & Halliburton [5.10]

(E) Positive Environmental Impact

Water and gas trapped in the geological reservoirs, co-produced with oil, is one of the most expensive, energy consuming and environmentally unfriendly activities in the petroleum business. Over 75% of fluid produced from oil reservoirs today is dirty water. ERPE researchers were the first to quantify the long-term potential of AICV technology to restrict inflow of unwanted fluids (improving environmental outcomes) and enhance oil recovery. Based on the results from the REVIVAL project, the performance and the functionality of the AICV were compared to competing technologies. The significant advantage of this AICV compared to the passively controlled valves is that it can operate actively and, if necessary, close completely to prevent breakthrough of unwanted fluids. Enhancing oil recovery and reducing co-produced waste reduces significantly the direct environmental impacts and importantly also reduces the operational carbon footprint [5.1] through reduced unwanted water/gas handling with consequent economic cost savings. InflowControl reported in 2020 that, across the range of client projects with AICV installations, ‘the gas oil ratio (GOR) and/or water cut (WC) had been reduced significantly’ (by 89% on average) [5.4]. This has supported the environmental marketing aspects for InflowControl to their clients “ Environmental benefits are achieved by reducing gas and water production, which supports companies goals of being less carbon intensive within their total production operations” [5.11].

The strategic partnership with ERPE researchers and ensuing underpinning research led to a series of impacts through Artemis Intelligent Power Ltd (Artemis). This case study outlines and continues the significant impacts arising with Artemis during the REF 2021 period, 2014-2020, involving Artemis (the primary beneficiary of the underpinning research [3.1 – 3.5] relating to Digital Displacement pump technologies ‘DD®’ as detailed in the REF 2014 submission). The impacts with Artemis in this return period include the following.

(A) Digital Displacement Technology Transmissions Installed in Trains and Buses

During 2013-15 Artemis worked with leading engineering companies Ricardo and Bombardier on the project ‘Digital Displacement Rail Transmission with Flywheel Energy Storage’ which was supported by Innovate UK. Using the Artemis Digital Displacement pump-motors, based on [3.1, 3.2], the project demonstrated the recovery of braking energy from diesel multiple unit (DMU) rail cars, storage of the energy in advanced Ricardo flywheels and then its re-use to save diesel fuel during vehicle acceleration. Such energy recovery is commonplace in electric locomotives, but not diesel power units, and there are many rail routes where electrification is unlikely to be economically feasible in the foreseeable future. According to Ricardo this application “achieved a fuel saving of 10% and …means that the technology has a potential return on investment of inside five years.” [5.1].

In 2014, Artemis in joint partnership with Lothian Buses and Alexander Dennis, an international coach manufacturer, building on [3.5], developed a hybrid bus system using the DD® technology and achieved a 2-3 year return on investment, under similar passenger-route-miles conditions, without subsidy [5.2].

(B) Demonstrated Fuel Savings Leading to Lower Pollution and CO₂ Emissions

The hybrid bus system using DD® technology demonstrated fuel savings of 25% [5.2]. In June 2018, Artemis was awarded the top environment prize at the UK National Railway Innovation Awards for their fuel savings and emissions reductions, following their partnership project with Scotrail [5.3]. By 2020, Artemis had demonstrated through various joint partnerships (2015-2019), that using DD® technologies across diverse rail stock types [5.4], could lead to fuel savings and environmental benefits such as:

• Diesel locomotives (saving 2,500 to 5,000 litres of fuel annually; and 6T to 13T reduction in CO₂ emissions);

• Track maintenance vehicles (saving 7,000 litres of fuel annually per vehicle; approx. 20%);

• Diesel Class 170 Scotrail Turbotrain carriage vehicles (saving 9,000 litres of fuel annually per vehicle, 6.7%), during a 7-month in-service assessment.

In July 2015, Artemis and staff were awarded the prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award – the ‘premier award for UK innovation in engineering’ – for the invention and development of Digital Displacement technologies [5.5]. The award ‘identifies outstanding innovation with proven commercial success and tangible social benefit’. The judging panel selected Artemis for helping ‘to solve one of the most significant global challenges while demonstrating technical engineering excellence’ [5.6].

Dame Sue Ion DBE FREng, Chair of the judging panel, said “ The Artemis story is truly compelling…and has achieved a technical advance of global importance, and… facilitating the global goal of reducing CO₂ emissions. This is not simply evolutionary improvement but a complete step change, and one that took years of commitment to achieve. The Artemis Digital Displacement system is both an incredible piece of invention, and a brilliant example of detailed engineering design. It represents excellence in multiple facets of engineering, from control system technology to software and elegant mechanical design … Artemis has produced a unique, world-beating product and is realising significant commercial success as a result. As a UK SME, Artemis represents the very best of modern UK engineering with global significance.” [5.6]

(C) Digital Displacement® Pump in Full-size 16 Tonne Excavators (off-road market)

In 2016 Artemis entered the off-road arena by building on the Digital Displacement pumps research [3.2] for utilisation into a 16T excavator to demonstrate to major original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) the fuel economy and productivity benefits of the technology in the off-road machinery market, annually worth USD3.5 Billion.

Funded with support from Scottish Enterprise, the project replaced the existing pump with a tandem Digital Displacement pump. All modern excavators have a number of problems: the conventional mechanical pumps have substantial energy losses, as the valve systems waste fluid energy by throttling flow to control multiple axes. In 2017, Artemis reported that 70% of the engine shaft power of a modern excavator was lost as heat in the hydraulic system [5.7]. Using DD®, derived from the original underpinning ERPE research [3.1, 3.2], Artemis developed fine-control that unlocked the ability to convert engine power, delivered at the optimum operating point, into repeated linear motions. Comparative testing of the modified and standard excavators showed that when the modified excavator was operating in ‘efficiency mode’ a fuel saving of up to 21%, and a productivity improvement of 10%, was possible. In ‘productivity’ mode, a 28% productivity improvement was recorded with a 10% fuel saving [5.7].

(D) Company Support and New Jobs

Up to 2013, based on the technologies underpinned by the research reported, Artemis/MHI had accumulated a portfolio of 87 patent families and had secured support from Scottish Enterprise, Energy Saving Trust, Carbon Trust, Technology Strategy Board and the Department for Energy & Climate Change.

In October 2018, and building on [5.7], Artemis secured GBP11,000,000 investment from the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK, to help develop the next generation of ‘Digital Displacement’ hydraulic pumps and motors [5.8] to be used in off-road vehicles such as excavators, wheel loaders and material handling equipment. This was part of an overall GBP22,000,000 project, collaborating with global mobile hydraulics manufacturer Danfoss and Scottish firm Robbie Fluid Engineering [5.8].

In November 2018, it was announced that, building upon the potential of Artemis and Danfoss leading edge technologies and engineering capabilities, a new multi-million pound manufacturing plant would be established near Edinburgh [5.9]. Many key ERPE researchers had already been employed among Artemis 60 staff, either directly or through secondments. This facility will increase the people employed to 90 staff.

From January 2021, Artemis will be called Danfoss Scotland Digital Displacement Ltd. NOTE: Construction and completion of manufacturing plant has been delayed due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The multiple impacts arising from Reese and Borg’s research include:

(A) Open-source software which incorporates dsmcFoam+ code

Reese and Borg’s collaboration with ESI’s OpenCFD Ltd led to the incorporation of their engineering design calculations into the development of the unique dsmcFoam+ code to create a state-of-the-art simulation tool that is now embedded within the internationally used software package OpenFOAM [5.1]. The dsmcFoam+ code includes the research findings from [3.6] and uses complex engineering fluid dynamic simulation solvers designed by Reese [3.3], and Reese and Borg [3.4, 3.5], including unsteady, rarefied, reacting flows in complex-3D geometries within the OpenFOAM framework.

The Managing Director of OpenCFD Ltd, owners of ESI-OpenFOAM, stated “ There is a big need for rarefied gas dynamics modelling in the community” [5.1]. The Managing Director of ESI-OpenCFD also acknowledged the impact from Reese and Borg’s work as “ This DSMC software that you and Jason develop is used by some of our big clients in the silicon-wafer industry (e.g. Samsung and ASML), other consultancy businesses in the aerospace industry (e.g. Fluid Gravity Engineering Ltd) and many other academics around the world.” [5.1]

(B) Enabling the mass manufacture of the world’s most advanced microchips - ASML

ASML is a key user of the dsmcFoam+ design modelling software. A multinational company, based in 60 cities in 16 countries worldwide [5.2] and employing over 24,000 staff, it is a global innovation leader in technology for the microchip industry. It provides all of the major integrated circuit (IC) micro-fabricators with the hardware, software and services to use photolithography to mass-produce patterns on silicon [5.2]. The dsmcFoam+ code is essential for the optimal design of ASML’s Extreme Ultra Violet (EUV) photolithography machines that are at the heart of the world’s most advanced IC manufacturing systems. The EUV photolithography machines comprise 100,000 parts [5.2] and cost up to USD200,000,000 each, with the company selling 10 EUVs in the third quarter of 2020 [5.3]. ASML affirmed that the EUVs “ play a vital role in the manufacture of computer chips, mapping out their circuitry” [5.2]. After winning the coveted SEMI Americas award (July, 2020) for their EUV machine, which is designed using the dsmcFoam+ software, their Chief Technology Officer stated “ moving to the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wavelength of 13.5 nm represented a true paradigm shift, extending to all aspects of light generation, reflective optics, vacuum environment management, wafer stage alignment and a host of other fields” [5.4].

ASML acknowledged Borg’s impact on the development of dsmcFoam+ software and how this had benefitted ASML and their EUV machines, stating “ What we do increases the value and lowers the cost of a chip, which advances us all towards a smarter, more connected world” [5.2]. To enable the fabrication of ever-smaller features in ICs (below the 2nm logic node), lithography machines utilise the shorter EUV light source. Careful control and mixing of gas-flows is critical, however, to avoid temperature variations, wafer deformation and fracture. ASML confirmed “ The use of the software has enabled improved design thinking, related to rarefied gas flows, in sensitive regions of the EUV machine … The ground-breaking research software developed at UoE by Prof Jason Reese and yourself has allowed us to meet some of these scientific challenges in ASML, specifically of modelling non-conventional rarefied gas dynamic physics in complex 3D geometries” [5.2].

ASML supplies [5.5] to the world’s top three IC fabricators including Samsung, Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and their chips are used in Samsung S10 and iPhone X models (which had combined sales of over 50,000,000 in launch years). In the article ‘ EUV lithography: the brave new nanochip era’ [5.5], the advancements in the EUV machines, which were enabled by the new software, were described as “ Think of the old technology as a large paint brush, and a EUV light source as a fountain pen” and how these also supported Moore’s Law [5.5]. Moore’s Law states that as the continual reduction in the size of transistors doubles, about every two years, the number of transistors that can be made (per unit area) on a microchip doubles, while at the same time halving the cost of computing power. The ever-increasing component density makes extreme demands on wafer fabrication technology. ASML stated “ Providing highest-resolution lithography in high-volume manufacturing, ASML’s EUV machines are pushing Moore’s Law forward” [5.6]. This has impacted widely on society by enabling the rise of ever more affordable consumer, industry and business electronics including ubiquitous mobile communications, systems on chips, satellite navigation and medical electronics.

(C) Utilisation by Aerospace Industry and CERN

UK companies such as Fluid Gravity Engineering Ltd (FGE), who undertake space research modelling and aerospace consultancy for the European Space Agency have used dsmcFoam+. They described its use as having a “ substantial impact” on the company [5.7] via consultancy projects they delivered which “ enabled FGE to establish a capability in computing rarefied flows relating to high speed aerodynamics and aerothermodynamics as well as spacecraft propulsion”. FGE utilised since 2014 the early versions of the Borg and Reece dsmcFoam software in projects to model interactions with rarefied gases in the following European Space Agency projects [5.7]:

• plume impingement studies for Mars Phobos and Lunar regolith, supporting both engineering aspects of descent module soft landing and scientific analysis of regolith samples,

• plume expansion calculations for in-space satellite propulsion, assisting to define the contamination environment, forces and moments from the spacecraft’s control thruster,

• ENVISION Aerobraking scenarios: aerodynamic and aerothermodynamic calculations for a prospective Venus orbiter.

In October 2018 the Beam Gas Curtain project at CERN acknowledged the use of dsmcFoam+ to model continuous and molecular flows in an electron beam gun nozzle [5.8].

(D) Supporting Knowledge Networks and Advancing Reach

OpenFOAM is owned and operated by UK company ESI-OpenCFD Ltd [5.1] and has over 200,000 downloads per year with an approximate user-base of 25,000 advanced modellers [5.1]. Incorporating the dsmcFoam+ code into OpenFOAM made it accessible to tens of thousands of people around the world who download and use this software package. The dsmcFoam+, accessible downloads, has been promoted by the multi-institution online network for ‘ Micro and Nano Flows in Engineering’ funded by EPSRC [5.9]. This helped it to reach multi-institution researchers and international industry R&D staff working in this field to improve research capacity and engineering practice. UK and international universities and research institutes that utilise the dsmcFoam+ software to support fundamental and applied research projects include Warwick, Glasgow, Strathclyde, STFC Daresbury Lab, Xi’an Jiaotong and Beihang Universities in China [5.1, 5.9].

The underpinning ERPE research [3.1-3.4] led the key stages of the development and trials of the Environment and Health Monitoring System (EHMS) for advanced condition monitoring of critical assets [3.6]. This has resulted in multiple impacts across a range of sectors, including defence, marine, energy and transport. The resulting key impacts of the award-winning collaborations with industry are outlined as follows:

(A) Environment and Health Monitoring System (EHMS)

ERPE researchers have enjoyed a strategic collaborative research partnership with MacTaggart Scott Ltd since 2011. The industry-academic partnership received the 2017 Interface Award for Sustainable Partnership [5.1] and drove planning and support for additional research. This partnership led the development of EHMS.

MacTaggart Scott benefited from the research by having a world-first installation of EHMS on critical aircraft handling equipment on HMS Ocean, the UK’s helicopter carrier and Fleet Flagship of the Royal Navy. This gave the Royal Navy, for the first time, insight into how equipment such as aircraft handling systems are utilised in the field (at sea), while also providing access to previously inaccessible data on critical systems [5.2].

EHMS also provided new insight into the specific loading/duty cycles of the aircraft handling equipment for McTaggart Scott. This informed future bill-of-material (BOM) and factor-of-system (FoS) estimates in the design for reliability (DFR) process. EHMS also provided failure precursor analysis and optimised control of hydraulic systems in the aircraft handling system.[5.2]

In 2015 MacTaggart Scott were invited to present to the Australian Submarine Institute on the applications of the EHMS, and they stated in their summary “ Condition monitoring for outside pressure hull submarine equipment has historically been unachievable due to the need for environmentally capable, power efficient sensing technology with the capability to operate with little or no interaction with the internal submarine environment. Development of the EHMS system enables meaningful data on system performance and operating environment to be gathered throughout a vessel deployment, in a package that requires no pressure hull penetrations”, demonstrating the versatility and unique insights that EHMS can provide [5.3].

MacTaggart Scott described the prognostics research as “ ground breaking” [5.3] and confirmed that the development of the EHMS approach has led to international market growth for the company in Australia and North America [5.2].

**(B) Siemens Assetguard

Siemens Energy needed to replace their legacy Integrated Substation Condition Monitoring (ISCM) platform to take advantage of the advances in data acquisition, processing and advisory communications that new sensors, signal processing and data handling enabled. A Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) from 2013-2016 led to the design and development of Assetguard, a novel sensor technology and fusion based prognostics for the next generation of condition monitoring systems for assets on the grid.

In April 2015, during the early project trials of the EHMS and guided by Siemens collaborators, ERPE staff and doctoral trainees in the EPSRC CDT in Embedded Intelligence researched, designed, built and tested a sensor which could detect partial discharge or localised breakdown within voids in the insulation of high voltage electrical systems. These voids are often the first sign of a potential insulation failure and asset outage. ‘The system would allow operators to pinpoint and deal with the problem before it would have a chance to compromise power supply’ [5.4]. R&D Product Lifecycle Manager at Siemens, Scott Rowland, said, “ The motivation and ingenuity shown by these (EPSRC Doctoral) students was outstanding. The project highlighted the great rewards that can be provided by close collaboration between industry and local universities” [5.4].

The resultant development and outcomes stemming from the KTP resulted in Siemens achieving a 40% saving in total project development cost compared to that of its predecessor [5.5]. The modular design of the Assetguard platform also made it more amenable to customisation enabling improved access to international markets [5.5]. EHMS is now to be found [5.5] in Assetguard across several application domains denoted: Assetguard PDM (Partial Discharge Monitoring); Assetguard CBM (Circuit Breaker Monitoring); Assetguard GDM (SF₆ Gas Density Monitoring) and Assetguard MVC (Medium Voltage Circuit Breakers).

(C) Siemens UK investment, patents and partnership

The technical and commercial success of the Assetguard platform development led to Siemens investing an additional GBP1,000,000 into the UK [5.6] to support future research and development, jobs and innovation.

A patent (EP3621096A1) [3.5] also resulted from this research collaboration.

“The knowledge transfer partnership between Siemens and Heriot-Watt University has demonstrated how academia and industry can work together to successfully deliver a paradigm shift in technical capability and resultantly an enhanced service to the clients we serve. With this new technology platform we will continue to grow as a business, as we strive to not only meet but exceed our clients’ expectations.” – R&D Team Leader, Siemens [5.6]

(D) SLICE Marine

ERPE researchers collaborated with Denchi Power (UK company, part of the Denchi Group) in the academic and industrial HyFES consortium, which was supported by Innovate UK. EHMS was incorporated by Denchipower into their SLICEMARINE lithium-ion battery technology for marine propulsion and other applications.

The rapid commercialisation of SLICE arose from the results of in-field research and trials of EHMS. Sponsored by Innovate UK and EPSRC, the project measured three key performance indicators namely; energy performance, environmental metrics and asset health. It was installed on the MBNA Thames Clipper catamaran passenger vessel in London, resulting in a 75-80% reduction in fuel costs over their diesel engine propulsion system [5.7].

The asset management system also reduced operation and maintenance costs of the vessel by providing an advancement from time-based maintenance to predictive maintenance. MBNA vessel engineers and Denchi staff were also able to use the EHMS in SLICE to support autonomous propulsion that reduced noise and pollutant emissions in built-up residential areas adjacent to the Thames operations. The Chairman and Managing Director of Denchi Group Ltd stated, “ The Heriot-Watt team was instrumental to the success of the Hybrid Fusion Energy System (HyFES), demonstrating the power that a data driven approach has on determining the prognostics and asset integrity of any platform” [5.7]. This research and resultant impacts of the Thames Clipper vessel was awarded the British Renewable Energy Prize 2018 for Decarbonisation of Transport [5.8]

The impacts arising from the underpinning ERPE research are parallel increases in economic and environmental sustainability in strategic key rural industry sectors, both the whisky and aquaculture industries. A range of impacts have resulted - involving local, national and international platforms supporting business development and key policies and strategies of the circular economy. The key impacts are as follows:

(A) New Spinout Company: Horizon Proteins Ltd (HP)

ERPE staff decided in 2014 to commercialise the emerging process and develop the research further via a spinout company. Funding was secured through Scottish Enterprise’s elite High Growth Spinout Program (HGSP) to support the applied research transition. Horizon Protein Ltd (HP) was registered as a company in 2014 [5.1, 5.2] and full operations of the spin-out company commenced in 2016. ERPE staff and HP subsequently identified a route to economically separate the protein and Scottish Enterprise awarded GBP575,000 assistance [5.2], along with GBP138,000 industrial support, to refine the process in collaboration with distillers and aquafeed manufacturers [5.3]. At the announcement of the funding for HP, Eleanor Mitchell, Director of Commercialisation at Scottish Enterprise, said: " We are very excited to be supporting a project with the potential to not only create high value jobs in Scotland but to also provide such significant value-add to the iconic Scottish food and drink industries, salmon and whisky".

By adapting techniques more commonly applied to high-value pharmaceutical products, HP developed the unique, cost-effective separation and extraction process [5.3]. Ultimately, it has managed to transform a historically underused by-product and increased the sustainability of various distillery processes [5.3].

In June 2015, a key report into the Circular Economy involving a ‘Sector Study: Beer, Whisky and Fish’ by Zero Waste Scotland, Scottish Government, Scottish Environment Protection Agency and enterprise agencies, cited Horizon Proteins (HP) 24 times in the document. HP was described as a key example of a circular economy ‘ could offer a game-changing opportunity’ [5.4] coupling both whisky and salmon industries for the important ‘ meaningful contribution to rural economies’, with the ‘ pot ale by-product sector valued at GBP80,000,000 being a realistic market sector value’ [5.4]. The report further stated that HP is a ‘ key development’ and ‘ a bonus as pot ale is in less competition with the cattle feed markets than draff. It may also offer a potential solution for smaller or isolated distilleries: Horizon Proteins is developing a form of their technology designed to operate at smaller scales’.

In 2015 Horizon Proteins were invited by Scottish government to showcase their pioneering circular economy approach for the food and drink by-product sectors at the Milan Expo 2015 [5.5]. In 2016, HP was a case study cited in a Mayor of London report ‘Circular and Sharing Economy’, by Arup Associates, as an industry example of converting organic waste to proteins [5.6].

(B) Joint venture with Rothes CoRDe to build HPL Manufacturing Plant

Further key investment was raised in 2018, as a result of HP being engaged with the top two companies (Diageo and Pernod Ricard) producing more than 60% (by production volume) of Scottish whisky output. Funding of GBP4,000,000 was raised to support the construction of Horizon Proteins’ first manufacturing plant, as a joint venture with Rothes CoRDe Ltd, on their site in Rothes, Scotland [5.7]. Funders included SiccaDania Venture [5.8], Danish high-net-worth individuals and the Scottish Investment Bank.

(C) New Production Plant - £4m investment supporting rural economy and jobs

The construction process for this plant is underway (delayed due to COVID-19) and will initially be able to treat 200,000 tonnes of pot ale per annum to produce around 2,500 tonnes per annum (tpa) sustainable protein from pot ale, expanding in 2023 to full capacity of 1 Million tpa of pot ale and 12,000 tonnes tpa of sustainable protein. This plant has been designed to produce revenues of GBP 2.25 Million initially, rising to GBP 11.25 Million at full capacity.

EWOS Cargill have agreed to purchase all of the initial protein, with a specific Scottish salmon farming customer as the first key client [5.9]. The construction of this plant will create around 10 skilled jobs in the Speyside rural area associated with the plant, as well as supporting in-direct supply chain roles (transport etc.).

(D) Economic Added Value

The Horizon Proteins research project was designed from inception to maximise economic impact for rural areas and ERPE staff engaged key stakeholders from the whisky, aquaculture and feed industries as an advisory panel to guide direction. Researchers engaged with the whisky industry through the Scotch Whisky Research Institute (SWRI) and the major trade body the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA), to ensure that all distillers had an input. The three major aquafeed manufacturers in Scotland, EWOS Cargill, BioMar and Skretting, were all involved in the project during its development and all three offered to carry out commercial trials of the final product. Through this early engagement, ERPE and HP ensured that the commercial impact pathway of the developed process was maximised.

Extraction of this protein transforms the accessible value of these liquid waste by-products. They are worth around GBP 3/tonne as pot ale sold as syrup, but this increases to GBP 20/tonne, when reconstructed into the Horizon Proteins dried products, resulting in an over 600% increase [5.3].

(E) Environmental Benefits

The HP process enables a reduction in the chemical oxygen demand (COD) to treat the waste and reduces the needs for imported (non-UK sourced) aquafeed. The technology is now seen as a crucial element in the development of a circular bioeconomy and specifically ‘upcycling’ in Scotland [5.4]. The technology reduces environmental pollution, allows for re-use of water, lowers by-product processing costs and provides a sustainable source of protein for fish for a growing global population [5.1].

The multi-award winning NCEWS project [P1], supported by Innovate UK through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) designed an operational and planning decision support system (DSS) that embodied the functional, operational and compliance requirements of the SPEN distribution system. The ERPE team were able, through their underpinning research [3.1-3.4], to create advances in machine learning techniques that were integrated into SPEN’s information platform and used to support strategic network planning decisions. This has supported the critical pathway to enable decentralised energy networks for future dynamic low carbon renewable integration. The impacts include:

(A) Deployment and Integration of NCEWS within Utility Network Management Platform

The NCEWS project integrated metadata, network expertise and novel machine learning-based analysis that achieved [5.1] three primary aims:

(i) It backfilled missing asset data (especially cables) in the SPEN system, by applying machine learning (ML) to detect patterns from both existing assets and smart meter (SM) data. This provided critical new network information without the disruption and expense of physical inspection [5.1].

(ii) It leveraged large-scale real-time data available from the rollout of smart meters, while preserving the privacy of individual consumers. This allowed SPEN to detect areas of the network which are prone to voltage violations and potentially poor supply quality, and to simulate the benefits of new investments, for example new electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, under large numbers of scenarios [5.1].

(iii) ERPE research was able to identify the optimal strategic SM sparse deployment locations, providing the equivalent accuracy in voltage prediction of a 100% SM installation. It accelerated network monitoring and reduced the associated costs [5.1].

The impact was increased and assured through the integration of NCEWS with the SPEN Network Analysis and View (NAVI ) platform. It was rolled out and integrated as business-as-usual (BAU) across the company, to support real business and planning decisions. For example, when a network planner is unsure of the type of cable present in a particular location, he/she can inquire of the ML tool to provide a prediction that includes the degree of statistical confidence. This has allowed decisions to be taken that, hitherto, would have required physical verification (which is often expensive/unfeasible, as cables are buried underground, in complex locations) [5.1].

(B) Deferral of Network Renewal and Associated Cost Savings

The use of the ML systems has also led to significant economic impact [5.1]. A key benefit of predictions made by users of NCEWS is the potential to safely defer expensive network reinforcements [5.1]. Recent internal figures from SPEN show that in order to accommodate the rollout of EV charging, network reinforcements could be deferred, with savings of around GBP1,000,000,000 in the SPEN distribution area alone [5.1].

NCEWS uses real smart meter data across the network and helps to pinpoint critical sub-networks, where deferrals will result in cost savings. Examples of such cost-saving decisions include smarter selection of the placement of EV charging stations, distributed storage and demand-side response, and avoiding placement in areas of likely voltage/power violations. The NCEWS predictive tool, that uses real smart meter data across the company's network and helps pinpoint critical sub-networks, is now central to achieving these deferral savings [5.1].

(C) Enabling Digitalisation Strategy and Supporting Decarbonisation

NCEWS is now being integrated into a larger national roll-out and rebranded as NAVI as part of SP Energy Networks’ ‘RIIO-RD2’ plans with OFGEM [5.1]. In the SPEN Digitalisation Strategy 2019, the NCEWS project and outcomes was cited as a key project, ‘ *by reducing modelling design time by two thirds (67%)*’, ‘ automatic tracing of the network also means much larger geographical areas can be analysed…. leading to improved understanding supporting informed decision making regarding network reinforcement’ [5.2]

More significant impact for NCEWS was in the standardisation of data collection across other innovation projects relating to energy networks [5.2]. At the launch and introduction of the 2019 SPEN Digitisation Strategy, the CEO of SPEN stated that “ Improvements in control, automation, flexibility and demand side management are helping us create a more dynamic and active network," [5.3]

NCEWS is assisting SPEN to support the UK's decarbonisation agenda [5.1]. In some cases, where there is uncertainty whether a new investment project (e.g. building a new EV charging station) could lead to voltage/power violations, SPEN has had to err on the side of caution in the past, until the local network can be physically assessed and/or reinforced. With the aid of NCEWS, however, acting on real smart meter data, SPEN can make faster approval decisions, and faster approval/rollout of the decarbonisation investments [5.1].

(D) Consequent Funding and National Awards

The results of the NCEWS project enabled SPEN to leverage consequent funding for the PACE project, in collaboration with Transport Scotland and Scottish Government. PACE sought to accelerate and widen the installation of EV charging points across a weak area of the low voltage distribution network in Lanarkshire [5.1].

The ERPE and SPEN partnership, and the resulting development of the NCEWS, won national awards including the prestigious E&T 2019 Innovation of the Year Award [5.4].

Fiona Fulton, SPEN, Smart Grid Manager stated the significance of the project and relationship to their low-voltage (LV) network: "The NCEWS project with Heriot-Watt University was a real success, that met and exceeded our expectations. The information platform developed allows SPEN to automatically backfill missing asset data, as well as using advanced analytics to identify ‘at risk areas’ and potential voltage excursions in our LV distribution network. The project leverages the massive amounts of data made available by the smart meter rollout, and allows SPEN to be at the forefront of European innovation efforts in this key area. The ongoing Business-As-Usual rollout across SPEN will enable all parts of the business to benefit from its results, which is an outstanding result for a knowledge transfer project" [5.5]. The project resulted in several further awards, including

• 2019 IET's Information Technology Award [5.6].

• Top "outstanding" rating for a KTP project from InnovateUK [5.7],

• Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) "Rising Star" award for KTP Associate Maizura Mokhtar, [5.8]

Overall, the project positioned SPEN at the cutting edge of electrical network modernisation and importantly serves as a keystone in their acceleration of decarbonisation and incorporation of low carbon technologies. [5.1]

The significance of the underpinning ERPE research carried out at the University of Edinburgh to all of the pureLiFi products [3.1, 3.2], was described by pureLiFi’s Chief Technology Officer [5.1] as “ laying the foundations for pureLiFi’s Technology and helped us to develop and commercialise LiFi solutions” to be “ a key differentiator in the market”. Outputs [3.3, 3.4] helped pureLiFi to “ develop dimmable solutions…across a whole range… to maximise the data rate” [5.1], and [3.5, 3.6] led to a “ technique for improving power efficiency” [5.1]. This has resulted in the following major impacts:

(A) National and Global Investment in Commercialisation

Scottish Enterprise proof of concept funding led to the formation of the spin-out company pureLiFi Ltd, led by Prof Haas and staffed by research colleagues. Within pureLiFi, Haas serves as Chief Scientific Officer and, in the REF return period, pureLiFi has secured major external investment year-on-year from investors [5.2] to commercialise the technologies arising from the underpinning research. This involved securing approximately USD28,900,000 (as of Oct-2020) - involving USD1,9000,000 in 2015, USD9,000,000 in 2016 and USD18,000,000 in 2019, including international inward investment from Singapore investment company Temasek. pureLiFi has approximately 40 employees including software engineers, light communication engineers and design and innovation specialists.

(B) World Firsts in Innovative Products to Market

The original research by pureLiFi [3.1-3.4] has led to a series of new products [5.3] entering the market, including:

• The first ever commercial LiFi light communications product (Li-1st, Sept 2013) utilising ‘off the shelf’ LED technology;

• The first mobile wireless communications LiFi product (Li-Flame, Dec 2014), providing far superior data densities than those available from existing state of the art Wi-Fi; and

• The first high-speed LiFi pc and laptop dongle (LiFi-X, March 2016).

Further prototype products developed by pureLiFi [5.4] with industry partners included mobile devices embedded with a LiFi optical module (or Light Antenna) to deliver gigabit download speeds approximately 20 times faster than the current UK average.

(C) Business Growth and Key International and UK Partnerships

In 2016 Business Wire reported [5.5] that pureLiFi had recorded ‘ *year-on-year quarterly revenue increases of over 300%*’ since autumn (Q3, 2013) and significantly grown its international customer base around the world to support market mainstreaming. The company secured and led international partnerships with companies such as French lighting manufacturer Lucibel and Indian IT consultancy Wipro [5.4]. Other industry partnerships for new products and network systems development have included O2 Telefonica, Liberty Global, network infrastructure vendors such as Cisco, [5.4, 5.5] and Rolls Royce [5.5]. Both Cisco and Rolls Royce partnerships stemmed from Innovate UK funding.

The first LiFi LED commercial luminaire in the world to reach the market was jointly developed by Lucibel and pureLiFi in September 2016 [5.3, 5.6]. In Dec 2017 Christophe Jurczak, Lucibel Chief Scientific Officer stated in the industry Lucibel White Paper “ pureLiFi is Lucibel’s technical partner [5.6, p2]…The Technology has reached maturity.. and over 50 Lucibel clients have built projects with a large variety of use cases and [5.6,p1] ..implementing LiFi provides a powerful complement or alternative to Wi-Fi and 4G [5.6, p9]”.

The advantages of LiFi over conventional Wi-Fi include improved security of communications because of LiFi’s focused “line of sight” and that it does not travel through solid objects such as walls. In 2018 the second generation Lucibel-pureLiFi lighting luminaire was launched [5.3]. Applications for Lucibel client secure environments and pureLiFi partnerships included sectors such as Defence, Banks and R&D Centres. pureLiFi products are uniquely deployed in normally restricted RF zones including hospitals (e.g. MRI facilities), pre-kindergarden schools and EMI sensitive industrial facilities [5.6, p9].

By April 2020 more than 200 projects had been delivered in over 20 countries [5.7]. Further commercial exploitation has taken place with major companies such as:

• O2 Telefonica signed deal in August 2018 [5.7],

• BT Defence communications [5.7],

• Babcock Engineering [5.7] for conditioned based monitoring, and

• Disaster response communications with Nokia and Versizon [5.7].

Jeffery Schweitzer, Chief Innovation Architect, from Verizon commented “ pureLiFi demonstrated that LiFi solutions could perform under real life operations and enable critical communications during response missions in chaotic and disastrous environments.” The Solari Spa healthcare project [5.7-06] included both geofencing and geolocation services provided by the pureLiFi system. This led to “ enhanced operational efficiency” and offered “acute management of an individual user’s access to data” [5.7-04].

(D) Patents and New Global IEEE Standards

The intellectual property of pureLiFi arising from the underpinning research includes 34 registered patents and two registered trademarks [5.8]. To enable and support international standardisation and future growth of the LiFi sector the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) established a new Topic Interest Group (TIG) in 2016. This was followed by the IEEE 802.11bb international industry LiFi task force to develop the global standard. This includes major industry members such as Osram and Huawei. The international task group is led and chaired by a staff member of pureLiFi [5.9], formerly an ERPE researcher.

(E) Industry Awards to pureLiFi

The underpinning research leading to the developments in technology and growth of pureLiFi have been recognised by major industry awards [5.3, 5.10] including:

• Crystal Cabin 2018;

• Edison LightTrade Award 2017;

• Mobile World Congress 2017 ‘Cool Tech’ award;

• ‘Commended Innovation’, Institute Of Physics Business Innovation Awards 2017;

• Scottish Business Technology Company of the year 2015.

In October 2020 pureLiFi was listed as the ‘Most Innovative Company’ by Business Cloud’s Scotland Tech 50 rankings. ERPE research led by Haas established 'LiFi' as the universally adopted term for visual light communications.

(F) Public Engagement

Public visibility and engagement extends from LiFi being used for the first time in a secondary school classroom [5.11], International Science Festival 2014 (Tam Dalyell Prize) free public lecture and invited talks at many industry events. The 2015 TED Talk explaining the pureLiFi technology, function and capabilities has had 2,804,378 views (as of Nov, 2020) [5.12].

ERPE research, based at the University of Edinburgh’s Institute for Energy Systems, has underpinned a portfolio of key strategic measures and impacts to help drive progress in offshore renewable energies (ORE) in the UK and internationally in three continents. The ERPE research resulted in multi-million pound investments from ORE sector companies and government agencies to develop next generation technologies. The impacts include the following:

(A) International open-access tools to assist offshore renewables array deployment

The DTOcean project [P1] (led by ERPE) resulted in a EUR8,000,000 investment [5.1] by the EU Commission in DTOcean+ (led by Tecnalia based in Spain, with UoE as a leading partner) to support European countries and companies to accelerate the commercialisation, deployment and network integration of ORE technologies [5.1]. Building on [3.1] DTOcean+ has developed an extensive series of open-source engineering design tools [5.2] for the ORE sector. Two years into a three-year programme [5.2] ERPE researchers have led the development or co-produced 9 of the 12 online DTOcean+ tools now being used across the ORE sector worldwide [5.2], including: design and stage gate tools, machine characterisation, energy capture, energy transformation, energy delivery module and station keeping, marine logistics, energy yield and system reliability [5.2].

The underpinning ERPE research reported in [3.2] enabled industry partner Nortek, headquartered in Norway, to develop new products (CADP) and features to service the instrumentation needs of the ORE sector as it moves to array-scale deployments [5.3]. Nortek’s product portfolio includes wave, current and turbulence measurement systems for coastal and ocean use. The CADP system has been further developed, extending capability to allow the previously unachievable volumetric mapping of 3D turbulent flow fields in the field. This was successfully demonstrated on the west coast of the USA. Integrating data from the Nortek single-beam system [P2] into an acquired Met-ocean conditions database increased measurement resolution of velocity and turbulence, improving the ORE sector’s understanding of the operational environment. Nortek’s new products including their interfaces, software and re-configurability stem from the ERPE research and ‘ enable faster and finer current measurements over greater distances’ [5.3].

Sabella is a French SME and developer of tidal turbines. Since 2018, through participation in the EUR4,974,990 EU RealTide Project [P3] and in collaboration with Sellar, they have built upon the underpinning research in [P2], reported in [3.3]. In addition to using the ERPE research findings to refine the design of their blading systems [5.4a], the ERPE modelling of tidal energy sites was described by Sabella as “ an important enabling contribution…supporting strategic commercial goals…delivering global improvements to advanced sensor systems… and including the realisation of significant risk reductions” [5.4b].

They have implemented both within RealTide and in the ‘game-changing’ EUR45,000,000 industry TIGER project. Datasets obtained using this ERPE-led methodology has enabled the optimisation of the next generation of Sabella turbines reducing blade fabrication costs by 30% [5.4a].

In 2020 the Head of Innovation at SABELLA, said: “ This blade is the achievement of two years of engineering effort and [represents technical progress] in comparison with the previous design. In collaboration with the RealTide project partners, the shape and structure of the blade has been optimised to improve the performance and reduce the cost of fabrication” [5.4a].

(B) Formation of new spin-out companies, business markets and CO₂ reductions

The underpinning research and proof of concept work reported in [3.4] established the innovative C-GEN technology that is incorporated by the UK spin out company MOCEAN Energy into their state-of-the-art wave machines. They have launched two new wave technologies [5.5]: ‘Blue Star wave energy converter’, which powers off-grid subsea applications, such as propulsion and control system for to ROVs and autonomous underwater vehicles; and ‘Blue Horizon larger hinged-raft wave energy converter’, which connects to the onshore electricity network. MOCEAN Energy has secured GBP4,000,000 [5.5] to manufacture and deploy both devices in Orkney, also enabling new UK and international industry partnerships [5.6] with Blackfish Engineering, Industrial Systems and Controls, TechX and Sequentec.

The ERPE research [3.5] investigating the loss minimisation in electrical machines and its application to optimise the output from wind and tidal energy converters, led to the establishment of REOptimize Systems in 2018, based in the UK [5.7]. REOptimize is a novel system for optimisation of wind, tidal and hydro turbine control parameters. It uses machine learning techniques [3.5] combined with accurate component models, to find the control settings which globally optimise performance of the generation system at all operating points. In April 2019 the ‘ research formed the basis of the company winning Shell Springboard Regional Award’” [5.7].

The original research algorithms led to a further new software product called Autonomous Continuous Turbine Optimisation System (ACTOS). The ACTOS software platform can control the turbines to reduce emissions by as much as 135 tons of CO₂ per year per turbine (e.g. 2MW) [5.7], and could prevent the release of 2,700 tons of carbon over the 20 year turbine lifetime, doubling the net profit for a wind farm operator, while also reducing maintenance costs and turbine downtime [5.7]. This can make a critical difference to the commercial viability of individual wind farm developments [5.7].

ACTOS has been successfully deployed on turbines from 20kW to 250kW and is also being piloted for the utility-sized 2.3MW Siemens turbine [5.7]. The market sector ACTOS is targeting in the existing deployed (onshore and offshore) wind turbines is worth around GBP1,300,000,000 per annum. The ERPE underpinned impact has enabled the company to secure international commercial contracts in Italy and Germany [5.7].

(C) Establishment of strategic international investment in ORE R&D infrastructure

ERPE’s previous research appraisal of the need for, support necessary and development of international marine testing facilities [3.6] resulted in Ingram and Jeffrey becoming advisors to the Chilean government, enterprise bodies and academic institutions. Chile has 6,000km of coastline, facing some of the best wave energy resources. As a result of ERPE’s collaboration with CORFO, the Chilean economic development agency, a new USD20,000,000 Marine Energy Research and Innovation Centre (MERIC) was opened in Chile in June 2016. The Executive Director of MERIC described the impact of the ERPE research and support as being “ instrumental in supporting the formation and research agenda of the Chilean Marine Energy Research and Innovation Centre (MERIC)” [5.8]. Additionally, the ERPE/University of Edinburgh research has “ informed the shape and direction of MERIC’s research programme and supported the development of the Open Sea Lab and associated laboratory scale test programmes for the assessment of offshore renewable energy devices” [5.8].

In May 2017 the China-UK Low Carbon College (LCC) was established by Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) and the Shanghai Lin-gang Government [5.9], in partnership with the University of Edinburgh. ERPE researchers with colleagues in the Edinburgh Climate Change Institute (ECCI) advised on the formation of LCC research, training and test centres, including renewable energy and storage, carbon capture and low carbon technologies, and continue to help shape the research and training at the LCC. The LCC became China’s first dedicated centre [5.9] for expertise on carbon reduction and innovation, with 20,000m² of laboratories and training space, enabling international co-operation in research, policy support and innovation.

(D) Influencing low carbon policy and strategies.

As a result of the ERPE research on ORE and hybrid energy systems, and a strong collaborative interdisciplinary approach with ECCI and the UoE Centre for Contemporary Latin American Studies, in 2018 the Ecuadorian government requested support to develop an energy, transport and infrastructure strategy for the Galapagos Islands archipelago, a UNESCO ‘World Heritage Site’.

This interdisciplinary advisory project (2018-19) involving ERPE was cited by the Minister-President of the Galapagos region as a “ significant contributor to the development of the Galapagos 2040 Vision” [5.10] and was launched by the Vice President of Ecuador at COP25 in Madrid [5.10].