The current fuel production and related industries are still heavily reliant on fossil fuels. BP's "Statistical Review of World Energy" published in 2014 states that the world has in reserves 892 billion tonnes of coal, 186 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, and 1688 billion barrels of crude oil. Although these represent huge reserves, taking into account today's level of extraction, would mean that coal would be exhausted in 113 years and natural gas and crude oil would be extracted by 2069 and 2067, respectively. In the meanwhile, the CO2 atmospheric concentration has increased from 270 ppm before the industrial revolution to 400 ppm today and its annual release is predicted to exceed 40GT/year by 2030. As the world population increases, breakthrough technologies tackling both fuel supply and carbon emission challenges are needed. The use of CO2 from, or captured in industrial processes, as a direct feedstock for chemical fuel production, are crucial for reducing green house gas emission and for sustainable fuel production with the existing resources. The aim of this project is to develop a breakthrough technology with integrated low cost bio-electrochemical processes to convert CO2 into liquid fuels for transportations, energy storage, heating and other applications. CO2 is firstly electrochemically reduced to formate with the electric energy from biomass and various wastes and other renewable sources by Bioelectrochemical systems (BES). The product then goes through a biotransformation SimCell reactor with microorganisms (Ralstonia) specialised in converting formate to medium chain alkanes using a Synthetic biology approach. The proposed technology will develop around the existing wastewater treatment facilities from for example, petroleum refineries and water industries, utilising the carbon source in wastewater, thus minimising the requirement to transport materials and use additional land. To tackle the grand challenges, a multidisciplinary team of five universities will work together to develop this groundbreaking technology. Our research targets two specific aspects on renewable low carbon fuel generation: 1) Use of biomass and wastewater as a source of energy and reducing power to synthesise chemicals from CO2. 2) Interface electrochemical and biological processes to achieve chemical energy-to-fuels transformation. To achieve the goal of this project, there are three major research challenges we need to tackle: 1. How to maximise the power output and energy from wastewater with Bioelectrochemical systems? 2. How to achieve CO2 conversion to medium chain alkanes through reduction to formate in Microbial electrolysis cells, and then SimCells? 3. Can we develop a viable, integrated, efficient and economic system combining bio-electrochemical and biological processes for sustainable liquid fuel production? To tackle these challenges, we need to maximise energy output from wastewater by using novel 3-D materials, to apply highly active electrochemical catalysts for CO2 reduction, to improve efficiency of SimCell reactor, and to integrate both processes and design a new system to convert CO2 to medium chain alkanes with high efficiency. In this study, rigorous LCA will be carried out to identify the optimum pathways for liquid biofuel production. We will also look at the policies on low carbon fuel production and explore the ways to influence low carbon fuel policies. Through the development of this innovative technology, we will bring positive impact on the UK's target for reducing CO2 emissions and increasing the use of renewable energy.

Cold sintering is an emerging technology that permits densification of ceramics, ceramic/polymer and ceramic/metal composites at temperatures as low as 100 degrees C. A transient liquid is added to the ceramic powder which is then pressed and heated. Particle-sliding, dissolution and re-precipitation result in densification and the low temperatures enable co-sintering with polymers, metals and dissimilar ceramics. Metallised-polymer printed circuit boards (e.g. FR4 PCBs) are the basis of modern electronics. The metallisation is partially etched away and the required functional and passive components are soldered into position using 'pick and place' technology. Ceramic components such as varistors, thermistors and patch antennas are manufactured separately at high temperatures (>1100 degrees C) and are assembled on the PCB. Here, we propose a radically different approach in which functional ceramics for the fabrication of components are directly deposited/integrated onto the PCB through a cold sintering process at <150 degrees C, reducing the need for energy intensive manufacturing of separate ceramic components. The overall aim is to develop a disruptive technology that reduces both the cost and energy involved in the fabrication of printed circuits for modern consumer electronics.

Accurate predictions of sea-level rise are critical if governments are to plan for the future in a warming world. For London and other low-lying parts of the UK, knowing when and by how much sea level will rise will determine when costly infrastructure like the Thames Barrier is upgraded. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has identified rapidly melting ice sheets as the main source of accelerating sea level rise and stated that collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet will cause sea-level to rise at rates much higher than currently predicted. Understanding the behaviour of glaciers flowing into the Amundsen Sea sector of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is key to the accuracy of such predictions. They represent one-third of the total discharge of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and are currently contributing to sea level rise at a significant and accelerating rate. It is widely understood that increased glacier melting in this region is driven by incursions of warm ocean water, called Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW). This warm water flows onto the continental shelf and beneath the floating parts of the glaciers where it melts the glacier ice. Measurements have shown that the temperature and volume of CDW in the Amundsen Sea has increased during the past decade, which has coincided with increased glacier melting and sea level rise. We also know that the arrival of CDW to the area is affected by the weather systems over the ocean which means that CDW is sensitive to changes in atmospheric conditions. Although the idea that warm water is driving glacier retreat is now firmly established, it is unclear (and a factor limiting our ability to predict future changes) how the volume and temperature of CDW has varied over longer timescales. The current generation of predictive ice sheet models assume that melting of the glaciers in the Amundsen Sea will be maintained or increase in future. However with only two decades of ocean temperature data from the Amundsen Sea it is difficult to confirm whether the models are accurate. Given the rate of ice loss in this area and the implications for sea defence planning worldwide, there is a fundamental need to understand the long-term history of CDW incursion and whether the ocean temperatures we see today are unique or have varied substantially in the past. This research will directly address this lack of knowledge by reconstructing ocean temperature in the Amundsen Sea over the past 25,000 years and its relationship to past ice sheet retreat. To achieve this we will apply two independent methods to reconstruct past ocean temperatures from well-dated marine sediment cores from the Amundsen Sea. The first method uses specific organic remains (from marine microbes that live in the surface waters) whilst the second method uses the chemical composition of calcareous shells found in the sediments. Using these different techniques we will be able to reconstruct surface, sub-surface and deep water temperatures and compare them to well-dated records of ice sheet retreat over the past 25,000 years. If our results show that past ice sheet retreats coincided with warm ocean temperatures, then we can quantify the relationship between incursions of CDW and ice sheet retreat. One implication of this could be that modern changes are part of a long term 'trajectory' that needs to be incorporated into predictive models. On the other hand, if the timing of ice sheet retreat did not coincide with the presence of warm water, or that incursions of CDW has varied substantially in the past then this would also have significant implications for future predictions. Ultimately our data will help underpin the next generation of ice sheet models and in turn, well-validated ice sheet models will be able to better predict future sea-level rise. Overall this project will deliver significant improvements in our understanding of the sensitivity of ice sheets to incursions of warm water.

Most of the world's large earthquakes happen on the plate boundary faults at subduction zones where two plates converge (e.g. Sumatra in 2004, 2005, and 2007; Chile in 2010). Because the parts of these faults that move during the earthquake lie underwater, they can also be the source of major tsunami. However, different subduction zones are subject to different sizes of earthquakes, and different patterns of earthquake rupture, so that the hazards vary significantly. In most cases rupture on the plate boundary faults is limited to a zone where the fault lies from ~30-40km up to ~5-15km beneath the seabed, but in some cases the fault rupture is thought to have been much more extensive and potentially to have reached the seabed. In other cases the faults are sometimes seen to move more gradually, without an earthquake. In other cases (e.g., Nankai margin offshore Japan), movement on the main plate boundary fault is affected by faults within the accretionary prism, that forms as sediment is scraped off the downgoing plate, and these faults may slip affecting the size of the tsunami waves generated. A final major problem with knowing these hazards at a given subduction zone is that the biggest earthquakes normally only occur every few hundred years, so that our records of the effects are very incomplete. These different fault behaviours depend on the physical properties of the faults themselves, controlled by the seabed sediments adjacent to the subduction zone, and factors such as the presence of fluids within the fault. One way to determine these properties, and presence of fluids, is to drill into the fault zone and directly take samples or measurements of the rock properties using 'logging' technology; this has been done in several places round the world, but even with the most modern technology (riser drilling), it is only possible in the shallower parts of faults, and generates a set of observations effectively at a single location. Drilling at a number of different places on subduction zones together with associated seismic experiments (that bounce sound waves off structures within the earth) show that these properties are very variable, within a single region, and between regions. This reinforces that the combination of drilling (providing local detailed information) and seismic data (providing regional information) should be the primary method for assessing fault properties and their hazard potential: the technique employed in this project. We aim to better understand the behaviour of subduction zone faults by combining seismic and drilling data from several subduction zones around the world. We have chosen regions which have contrasting thicknesses of sediments, and where known fault activity and type and size of resulting earthquakes vary. We will use the drilling data to increase our ability to interpret the properties and fluid content of the fault zones from seismic data at the same location. Then using the seismic interpretations to extend our knowledge of the fault zones over much broader regions, we will investigate variations both down and along the plate boundary fault. We will use the same methods to investigate the relationship between the main plate boundary fault and smaller faults within the accretionary prism. We will then extend our analysis to regions where seismic data have been collected, but which have not yet been drilled, including margins offshore Sumatra and New Zealand. The results generated by the project will allow drilling on these new margins (Sumatra and New Zealand) to be targeted more effectively, thus obtaining new samples and measurements from the sections of these subduction systems with greatest significance for earthquake generation. Ultimately we will relate the interpretations of the state of the plate boundary faults to the known earthquake behaviour and tsunami history, aiming to improve assessments of the hazards at other locations where the long-term behaviour is not known.

It is estimated that 5% of the world's population lives on land which is less than 5 metres above current sea level, in communities that are vulnerable to the impacts of sea level rise, either from direct loss of land, or increased flood risk. Society more broadly may be impacted by disruption to key infrastructure which is located on the coast e.g. power stations, and by the movement of displaced communities. The Antarctic ice sheet is the largest potential contributor to future sea level rise and projections of Antarctic ice sheet change in the future also have the largest range of estimates. This makes it difficult to accurately determine the risks of future sea level rise. Because sea level rise from Antarctic ice loss is not evenly distributed across the oceans, retreat of the Antarctic Ice Sheet will disproportionately affect coastlines that are furthest away, such as those in Europe and North America. In this proposal we will improve projections of Antarctic ice sheet change by reconstructing how the ice sheet changed during past warm intervals during the mid-Pliocene (approximately 3 million years ago). The mid-Pliocene is the last geological interval when atmospheric CO2 was similar to present day. The proposal will focus on reconstructing the amplitudes of mid-Pliocene sea level change between colder glacial stages and warmer interglacial states. We will use these data as a constraint for two types of ice sheet models. Recent work has used Pliocene interglacial sea level maxima as a constraint for Antarctic ice sheet models and has led to much higher projections of future sea level rise from Antarctica under anthropogenic warming. However, subsequent work has suggested that it may not be possible to accurately determine absolute Pliocene sea level maxima, such that the value of using these data has been questioned. The main source of uncertainty on these estimates comes from attempts to quantify them relative to a modern-day reference (i.e. as metres above present). An alternative approach that we will propose and one that can greatly improve past sea level estimates is to focus on the Pliocene glacial-interglacial sea level amplitude. We will reconstruct the glacial-interglacial sea level amplitude for 3 intervals in the mid-Pliocene using analysis of sediments recovered from the drilling of ocean sediment cores. Specifically, we will measure the geochemical composition (the isotopes of oxygen, magnesium and calcium) of calcite microorganisms (benthic foraminifera) to reconstruct past ice volume. In the absence of a modern-day reference we will simulate both the Pliocene glacial (cooler climate intervals) and interglacial (warmer climate intervals) extent of the Antarctic and Northern Hemisphere Ice Sheets (principally the Greenland Ice Sheet) and compare this with the sea level data that we will produce. We will then be able to determine what was the magnitude of Antarctic ice sheet melt during the past. Combining two groups based in the UK and US, the ice sheet models used will include the Penn State Ice Sheet Model (PSU-ISM) and the BISICLES ice sheet model. The treatment of the grounding line physics (the point at which grounded ice becomes floating ice shelf) is very different in these two models. The PSU-ISM requires additional processes (ice shelf hydrofracture and ice cliff failure) to simulate Antarctic retreat that was consistent with Pliocene sea level maxima. By using the BISICLES model, which has much higher resolution at the grounding line, we will be able to test whether these processes are needed to simulate ice retreat consistent with our measured Pliocene sea level amplitudes. Finally, we will use what we learn to produce a new set of future sea level estimates that are constrained using the palaeoclimate data. These will have tighter constraints than previous future sea level projections, enabling a more accurate estimate of the risk of future sea level rise from Antarctica.