Hydrological summary for the United Kingdom: June 2013

The monthly summary of hydrological conditions in the United Kingdom is compiled as part of the National Hydrological Monitoring Programme (a joint CEH and BGS enterprise). The report features contemporary data for rainfall, river flow, reservoir and groundwater levels in the form of maps and graphs. A commentary is provided on the status of the nation’s water resources and any notable hydrological events during the month. The National River Flow and National Groundwater Level Archives help provide an historical context for these contemporary assessments. Financial support for the production of the Hydrological Summaries is provided by Defra, the Environment Agency, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, the Rivers Agency in Northern Ireland and the Office of Water Services

Hydrological summary for the United Kingdom: May 2013

The monthly summary of hydrological conditions in the United Kingdom is compiled as part of the National Hydrological Monitoring Programme (a joint CEH and BGS enterprise). The report features contemporary data for rainfall, river flow, reservoir and groundwater levels in the form of maps and graphs. A commentary is provided on the status of the nation’s water resources and any notable hydrological events during the month. The National River Flow and National Groundwater Level Archives help provide an historical context for these contemporary assessments. Financial support for the production of the Hydrological Summaries is provided by Defra, the Environment Agency, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, the Rivers Agency in Northern Ireland and the Office of Water Services

Hydrological summary for the United Kingdom: August 2013

The monthly summary of hydrological conditions in the United Kingdom is compiled as part of the National Hydrological Monitoring Programme (a joint CEH and BGS enterprise). The report features contemporary data for rainfall, river flow, reservoir and groundwater levels in the form of maps and graphs. A commentary is provided on the status of the nation’s water resources and any notable hydrological events during the month. The National River Flow and National Groundwater Level Archives help provide an historical context for these contemporary assessments. Financial support for the production of the Hydrological Summaries is provided by Defra, the Environment Agency, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, the Rivers Agency in Northern Ireland and the Office of Water Services

Advanced Modalizing De Dicto and De Re

Lewis’ (1968, 1986) analysis of modality faces a problem in that it appears to confer unintended truth values to certain modal claims about the pluriverse: e.g. ‘It is possible that there are many worlds’ is false when we expect truth. This is the problem of advanced modalizing. Divers (1999, 2002) presents a principled solution to this problem by treating modal modifiers as semantically redundant in some such cases. However, this semantic move does not deal adequately with advanced de re modal claims. Here, we motivate and detail a comprehensive semantics (a la Lewis 1968) for advanced modalizing de dicto and de re. The generalized semantic feature of the initial solution is not redundancy but absence from counterpart-theoretic translations of world-constrictions

Engine combustion and emission performance of furan fuels in comparison to conventional automotive fuels

The thesis investigates biofuel and biodiesel testing with fossil diesel. Initially, 2- methylfuran (MF) and diesel fuel blends were tested under various operating conditions with a final load experiment assessing MF and 2-methyltetrahydrofuran (MTHF). Novel tests were completed with various MF blends assessing the in-cylinder performance as well as the gaseous and particulate emissions. This testing included individually varying the injection pressure, exhaust gas recirculation and combustion phasing. All experiments used a four-cylinder 2.2l compression ignition (CI) engine. The initial investigation assessed the suitability of an MF/diesel blend, highlighting reduced particle matter (PM) when compared to diesel. Further tests evaluated three different MF/diesel blends (5, 15 and 25% MF b/v) under different conditions at 5 bar IMEP load. As the MF percentage increased, the oxides of nitrogen (NOx), unburnt hydrocarbons (UHC) and carbon monoxide (CO) increased while the concentration, mass and surface area of accumulation and nucleation mode particles reduced. In comparison to diesel, it was found that the 25% MF blend attained on average NOx, UHC and CO increases of 21%, 64% and 39%, respectively. Overall particle concentration, diameter, surface area and mass reduced by 61%, 18%, 65% and 62%, respectively. Hot exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) was used to reduce combustion sensitivity. The 25% MF testing with hot EGR found the UHC and CO formation to be on average 12% and 22% lower than the diesel cold EGR results while still attaining significantly reduced particulate results. Load testing (1.4-9 bar BMEP) was completed using three biofuels/diesel blends. These biofuels were MF, MTHF and biodiesel. They were mixed at a ratio of 25% biofuel, 75% i diesel b/v. MF combustion was sensitive at the 1.4 and 3 BMEP loads. The biodiesel and MTHF blends performed similarly to diesel, with a slightly longer ignition delay. At the higher loads, the furan blends attained reduced NOx, CO and UHC values over diesel while also reducing PM values. Throughout the load range, it was found that in comparison to diesel, the 25% MF blend attained an increase of UHC and CO by 26% and 55% with NOx reducing by 6%. The average particulate concentration and diameter reduced by 62% and 37%. The 25% MTHF blend was found to, on average reduce NOx, CO and UHC by 25%, 5% and 32%, respectively. The particle concentration and diameter reduced by 5% and 16%. The increased gaseous emissions outweighed the reduced PM of the MF/diesel blends, highlighting the challenges of using MF within a CI engine. MTHF provided comparable combustion results to diesel while providing improved NOx, CO, UHC and PM characteristics

Hydrological summary for the United Kingdom: March 2014

The monthly summary of hydrological conditions in the United Kingdom is compiled as part of the National Hydrological Monitoring Programme (a joint CEH and BGS enterprise). The report features contemporary data for rainfall, river flow, reservoir and groundwater levels in the form of maps and graphs. A commentary is provided on the status of the nation’s water resources and any notable hydrological events during the month. The National River Flow and National Groundwater Level Archives help provide an historical context for these contemporary assessments. Financial support for the production of the Hydrological Summaries is provided by Defra, the Environment Agency, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, the Rivers Agency in Northern Ireland and the Office of Water Services

Hydrological summary for the United Kingdom: September 2014

The monthly summary of hydrological conditions in the United Kingdom is compiled as part of the National Hydrological Monitoring Programme (a joint CEH and BGS enterprise). The report features contemporary data for rainfall, river flow, reservoir and groundwater levels in the form of maps and graphs. A commentary is provided on the status of the nation’s water resources and any notable hydrological events during the month. The National River Flow and National Groundwater Level Archives help provide an historical context for these contemporary assessments. Financial support for the production of the Hydrological Summaries is provided by Defra, the Environment Agency, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, the Rivers Agency in Northern Ireland and the Office of Water Services