SPARC 2019 Fake news & home truths : Salford postgraduate annual research conference book of abstracts

Welcome to the Book of Abstracts for the 2019 SPARC conference. This year we not only celebrate the work of our PGRs but also our first ever Doctoral School Best Supervisor awards, which makes this year’s conference extra special. Once again we have received a tremendous contribution from our postgraduate research community; with over 90 presenters, the conference truly showcases a vibrant, innovative and collaborative PGR community at Salford. These abstracts provide a taster of the inspiring, relevant and impactful research in progress, and provide delegates with a reference point for networking and initiating critical debate. Find an abstract that interests you, and say “Hello” to the author. Who knows what might result from your conversation? With such wide-ranging topics being showcased, we encourage you to take up this great opportunity to engage with researchers working in different subject areas from your own. To meet global challenges, high impact research needs interdisciplinary collaboration. This is recognised and rewarded by all major research funders. Engaging with the work of others and forging collaborations across subject areas is an essential skill for the next generation of researchers. Even better, our free ice cream van means that you can have those conversations while enjoying a refreshing ice lolly

Recent development of integrating CO2 hydrogenation into methanol with ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) as potential source of green energy

ABSTRACTRenewable energies have gained momentum in energy transition agenda based on the benefit of lower emissions of carbon and its compounds. Many technologies have been developed at different technology readiness levels addressing climate change impact with reduced emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO2. Herein the perspective article, we have reviewed CO2 capture technologies, such as absorption, adsorption, membrane separation, cryogenic separation and separation via hydrate formation, with further focus on the possibility of utilising ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) power to generate green hydrogen and produce low carbon fuels. The potential of OTEC generated hydrogen to produce methanol was explored using a simulation exercise utilising a scenario from a real-life offshore gas production facility. By varying the catalysts and reaction conditions, the findings showed encouraging results of CO2 conversion of ≥50% and product yield of ≥80%. Considering single path reaction with 90%, 95% and 99% of recycling, the highest prediction of methanol production coupled with CO2 hydrogenation process was 276.59 metric tonnes per day (MTPD). In addition, based on the assumption of 13.5 million standard cubic feet per day (MMSCFD) of CO2 produced, 204 MW of OTEC power is required to convert approximately 97.82 MTPD of hydrogen for methanol production making it potentially an industrially viable process