Conor Walsh

Decarbonizing the UK energy system and the implications for UK shipping

Background: The current UK energy system relies heavily on shipped imports of fossil fuels. As climate change policies drive energy system decarbonization, fuel imports are likely to change. Results: Based upon future energy scenarios devised by the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change and a set of contrasting trading assumptions, this article explores the impact of energy system decarbonization upon freight work and CO2 emissions arising from fuel shipping. While oil and oil products are currently the most important contributors to both freight work and shipping CO2 emissions, by 2050 biofuels and biomass will become dominant energy commodities. Conclusion: The distance over which fuel travels is important and the greatest reductions in absolute CO2 emissions are achieved when fuel is sourced close to the UK.

Technologies for the high seas: meeting the climate challenge

Background: Progress toward decarbonizing shipping has been slow compared with other sectors. To explore the scope for an urgent step-change cut in CO2, this paper presents results from a participatory technology roadmapping exercise. Results: Combining existing incremental and novel technologies with slow-steaming can deliver reductions in CO2 of over 50% even in the short term for existing ships. However, roadmaps for three vessel types illustrate barriers to change including the sectors complexity, infrastructure lock-in and a need for tailored market and vessel-specific roadmaps to support decision-making. Conclusions: Through technology and engineering, the outlook for the shipping sector to significantly cut its CO2 emissions, even in the short term, is promising. Nevertheless, the scale of change requires support to demonstrate how the long-term low-carbon vision offers enough benefit to overcome necessary short-term investment.

Cost effective greenhouse gas reductions in the steel industry from an Organic Rankine Cycle

Large quantities of low grade heat (LGH) are genera ted within many process industries, and the recovery of LGH is a potentially significan t means of improving process efficiency, but it is often difficult to find an ap propriate internal heat load. One alternative is to use appropriate technologies to c onvert the low grade heat to electricity for use on site. This paper describes the environme ntal and techno-economic evaluation of a case study examining the potential application of an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) to generate electricity from LGH from the stacks of a coke oven used in steel production. 21 MW of LGH was available for recovery at the plant and resource accounting and lifecycle analysis methods were used to evaluate the environmental and economic benefits of the operation of an ORC. The r esults showed that between 1 and 3% of the CO 2 emitted directly through the production of coke wo uld be offset by installation of an ORC, with lifecycle environmenta l impacts of coke production reduced by less than 1%, although this was sufficie nt to offset over 10,000 t CO 2 annually. However, the amount of electricity gener ated was sufficient to replace all currently imported electricity and economic analysi s indicated a relatively attractive discounted payback period of between 3 and 6 years, suggesting this may be a commercially viable option, which could present a r elatively cost effective method of achieving greenhouse gas savings in the process ind ustries.

A Search for developmental gene sequences in the genomes of filamentous fungi

There is now a sufficient number of filamentous fungal genomes in the public databases to warrant at least initial comparisons with animal and plant genomes. Our interest lies in the control of multicellular morphogenesis, which is a feature of filamentous ascomycetes and basidiomycetes. Search of a representative collection of filamentous fungal genomes with gene sequences generally considered to be essential and highly conserved components of normal development in animals failed to reveal any homologies. We conclude that fungal and animal lineages diverged from their common opisthokont line well before the emergence of any multicellular arrangement, and that the unique cell biology of filamentous fungi has caused control of multicellular development in fungi to evolve in a radically different fashion from that in animals and plants.

The impact of climate change on UK energy demand

The impacts of climate change on the energy system are diverse; this article focuses on the potential effects on UK energy demand and the ramifications for national infrastructure building on the findings of the UK’s 2012 Climate Change Risk Assessment. It reviews the available literature, where it exists, on the relationships among current energy demand, weather and climate change, and the implications for these relationships due to mitigation plans and potential adaptation responses. The review highlights the mechanisms by which future climate change, in particular changes in mean and extreme temperature, could affect the annual amount of UK energy demand and the seasonal, daily and spatial variation of the impacts. Published literature quantifying the effects of climate change on UK energy demand is limited; thus, where evidence is not available, information on the current relationship between weather and demand is combined with expert judgement to highlight potential demand responses to a changing cli...