Waste Heat Recovery from Underground Railways – Evaluating the Cooling Potential

The Bunhill Waste Heat Recovery (WHR) System is a first of its kind scheme that will recover waste energy from a ventilation shaft of the London Underground (LU) network. The system is based upon the installation of a heat recovery heat exchanger that consists of cooling coils and a reversible fan. The coils are connected to a heat pump that supplies low carbon thermal energy to the Bunhill Heat Network in the London Borough of Islington. One particularly important aspect of the Bunhill WHR system is its ability to operate in a way that not only provides heating to the local heat network, but can also simultaneously supply cooled air to the LU tunnels depending on the operation of the reversible fan. The current paper provides an analysis of the heating and cooling duties and their associated cost and carbon savings against conventional technologies based upon a mathematical model of the WHR system. The model is able to predict the condition of the coil surface according to air inlet parameters, and this is used to calculate the latent and sensible cooling loads, which are applied to simulate how the system impacts the local tunnel environment, with peak temperature reductions of up to 7.2 °C being estimated for adjacent stations in 2030. The results from these analyses are reported, together with recommendations for further development and future deployment of heat recovery from metro systems

Unchecked box Heat from Underground Energy London (Heat FUEL)

This paper aims to introduce a heat recovery scheme that will collect waste energy from the London Underground in Islington, London. The system is based on the installation of an air to water heat exchanger within a ventilation shaft of the London Underground. The heat captured is distributed to a heat pump, which upgrades it to a suitable temperature for reuse and provides low carbon energy to a local district heating network. This paper introduces some of the key aspects of the technical design of this novel urban heat recovery and delivery system. Its theoretical performance is evaluated and compared to the previous heating method used for the buildings supplied by the network. It also provides recommendations for the implementation of future installations for secondary heat recovery and reuse in cities

Opportunities for integrating underground railways into low carbon urban energy networks: A review

Cities demand vast amounts of energy for their everyday operation, resulting in significant degradation of energy in the form of heat in the urban environment. This leads to high cooling requirements in cities, while also presenting the opportunity to reuse such waste heat in order to provide low-carbon heating for buildings and processes. Among the many potential energy sources that could be exploited in urban areas, underground railway tunnels are particularly attractive, as the operation of the trains produce considerable amounts of heat throughout the year. This paper reviews how secondary energy sources in urban areas can be integrated into heating and cooling networks, with emphasis on underground rail tunnels. This involves investigating potential urban waste heat sources and the existing state-of-the-art technologies that could be applied to efficiently recover this secondary energy, as well as analyzing how district heating and cooling networks have been a key mechanism to allow for a smooth transition from current fossil fuel based to future low-carbon energy sources

Human rights and public education

This article attempts a contrast to the contribution by Hugh Starkey. Rather than his account of the inexorable rise of human rights discourse, and of the implementation of human rights standards, human rights are here presented as always and necessarily scandalous and highly contested. First, I explain why the UK has lagged so far behind its European neighbours in implementing citizenship education. Second, a comparison with France shows that the latest UK reforms bring us up to 1789. Third, the twentieth-century second-generation social and economic rights are still anathema in the UK. Fourth, the failure to come to terms with Empire and especially the slave trade means that the UK’s attitude to third-generation rights, especially the right of peoples to self-determination, is heavily compromised. Taking into account the points I raise, citizenship education in the UK might look very different

Effect of intragastric acid stability of fat emulsions on gastric emptying, plasma lipid profile and postpradial satiety

Fat is often included in common foods as an emulsion of dispersed oil droplets to enhance the organoleptic quality and stability. The intragastric acid stability of emulsified fat may impact on gastric emptying, satiety and plasma lipid absorption. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether, compared with an acid-unstable emulsion, an acid-stable fat emulsion would empty from the stomach more slowly, cause more rapid plasma lipid absorption and cause greater satiety. Eleven healthy male volunteers received on two separate occasions 500 ml of 15% (w/w) [13C]palmitate-enriched olive oil-in-water emulsion meals which were either stable or unstable in the acid gastric environment. MRI was used to measure gastric emptying and the intragastric oil fraction of the meals. Blood sampling was used to measure plasma lipids and visual analogue scales were used to assess satiety. The acid-unstable fat emulsion broke and rapidly layered in the stomach. Gastric emptying of meal volume was slower for the acid-stable fat emulsion (P,0·0001; two-way ANOVA). The rate of energy delivery of fat from the stomach to the duodenum was not different up to t ¼ 110 min. The acid-stable emulsion induced increased fullness (P,0·05), decreased hunger (P,0·0002), decreased appetite (P,0·0001) and increased the concentration of palmitic acid tracer in the chylomicron fraction (P,0·04). This shows that it is possible to delay gastric emptying and increase satiety by stabilising the intragastric distribution of fat emulsions against the gastric acid environment. This could have implications for the design of novel foods

The emergence of 'citizenship' in popular discourse:The case of Scotland

The 2014 Scottish Referendum gauged public opinion on the possibility of Scotland leaving the United Kingdom, raising significant questions about the legitimacy of claims to citizenship in the event of independence. Through a mixed methods survey, this study explored the ways in which citizenship emerged in popular discourse in the lead up to the Scottish referendum. Findings point to an emphasis in public discourse on a commitment to and participation in society, instead of the more traditional citizenship markers of ancestry, birthplace or residency. Data indicates a view of citizenship encompassing status and practice, while identity was framed in terms of more static notions of birthplace and ancestry. The salience of social participation was noticeably greater in respondents’ assessment of others’ potential Scottish citizenship than their own. Specifically, the study highlights the salience of relational aspects of citizenship in popular discourse, with an emphasis on social citizenship in preference to legal citizenship. The study constitutes a significant contribution to ongoing discussions about ‘participatory citizenship’ in the field of Citizenship studies, by providing much needed empirical data on social conceptualizations of citizenship

Understanding cycle tourism experiences at the Tour Down Under

Sport tourism experiences are subjective and emotional, laden with symbolic meaning. This study explores the experiences of participants who adopted the multiple roles of both an active participant and event spectator, within the parameters of one chosen sporting event. A professional cycling race event, the Tour Down Under in South Australia was chosen for this investigation, and 20 face-to-face individual interviews were conducted with cycle tourists. The three main themes emerging from the data were the interaction of people and temporary spaces on a sport tourism ‘stage’; the co-creation of authentic personal experiences and meanings; and identity reinforcement and the development of a sense of belonging. Consequently, a model for understanding sport event tourism experiences is proposed. The findings suggest that providing tourists with authentic and memorable experiences lies at the heart of what constitutes sport tourism. Whilst the results demonstrate that cycling events provide the individual with a sense of belonging or membership to a wider social group, they also illustrate that there is a continued need for more focused and nuanced approaches towards understanding sport tourism experiences that reflect the ever-increasing diversity and complexity of the interaction between sport, events and tourism

Severe consequences of habitat fragmentation on genetic diversity of an endangered Australian freshwater fish: A call for assisted gene flow

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Genetic diversity underpins the ability of populations to persist and adapt to environmental changes. Substantial empirical data show that genetic diversity rapidly deteriorates in small and isolated populations due to genetic drift, leading to reduction in adaptive potential and fitness and increase in inbreeding. Assisted gene flow (e.g. via translocations) can reverse these trends, but lack of data on fitness loss and fear of impairing population “uniqueness” often prevents managers from acting. Here, we use population genetic and riverscape genetic analyses and simulations to explore the consequences of extensive habitat loss and fragmentation on population genetic diversity and future population trajectories of an endangered Australian freshwater fish, Macquarie perch Macquaria australasica. Using guidelines to assess the risk of outbreeding depression under admixture, we develop recommendations for population management, identify populations requiring genetic rescue and/or genetic restoration and potential donor sources. We found that most remaining populations of Macquarie perch have low genetic diversity, and effective population sizes below the threshold required to retain adaptive potential. Our simulations showed that under management inaction, smaller populations of Macquarie perch will face inbreeding depression within a few decades, but regular small-scale translocations will rapidly rescue populations from inbreeding depression and increase adaptive potential through genetic restoration. Despite the lack of data on fitness loss, based on our genetic data for Macquarie perch populations, simulations and empirical results from other systems, we recommend regular and frequent translocations among remnant populations within catchments. These translocations will emulate the effect of historical gene flow and improve population persistence through decrease in demographic and genetic stochasticity. Increasing population genetic connectivity within each catchment will help to maintain large effective population sizes and maximize species adaptive potential. The approach proposed here could be readily applicable to genetic management of other threatened species to improve their adaptive potential