We have developed a laser-based instrument that can scan the lower atmosphere and measure the concentration of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. The technology is known as Differential Absorption LiDAR (DIAL) and its finely-tuned scanning laser detects the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases at a number of distances in a hemisphere to about 5 km. Immediate applications of the system range from measuring fugitive emissions from fracking wells in the shale gas industry, landfill emissions of methane, national compliance with the Kyoto Protocol, measuring changes in the global carbon cycle and observing the impact of Cap and Trade schemes of the type just passed in Californian legislation. The DIAL can be extended to measure other atmospheric compounds such as the aerosol loading of the air in megacities, something which is rising towards the top of many political agendas. Our DIAL fires an eye-safe laser into the atmosphere at a wavelength which is known to be absorbed by the gas of interest; the laser also fires a second beam (a reference beam) at a different wavelength that is not absorbed by the gas of interest. The difference in the backscatter return signals together with accurate time resolution is used to calculate the GHG concentration profile at ranges up to typically 5km. Our system produces profiles and maps of the concentration of the GHG of interest and, using our modelling software, we are able to pinpoint just where the GHG came from. Our DIAL has been in development for three years and we are at a point where we need to take it from a laboratory-based device to a field demonstrator. Our experience with the system at the moment is that it needs to be made more rugged before it could be taken to the field - the focussing telescope is attached to the outside of the telescope and it turns out that pressing on the skin of the telescope moves the laser beam in space and thus affects the sensitivity of the instrument; we plan to redesign the telescope so it is more rigid by inclusion of an exoskeleton. The laser itself was built for a different, lab-based environment and we used it as proof-of-concept. We have designs to fit the more sensitive parts of the laser (the Optical Parametric Oscillator (which tunes the laser) and the receiver) into single machined blocks to help reduce thermal and vibration effects. Once we have ruggedised the system, we will undertake field trials at a landfill and shale gas (fracking) site in cooperation with our project partners. Our Business Opportunity is to offer the system as a whole - we would manufacture the telescope and its laser/detector system and we would offer a data processing option to customers of the telescope.

Shale gas has the potential to transform the UK's future energy security. With imports currently accounting for 50% of its domestic gas requirements, projected to rise to roughly 80% by 2035, the big question is 'Are there enough shale gas resources to effectively replace the declining North Sea and Irish Sea gas production, and for how long?' The largest unknown is the potential gas reserves (i.e. recoverable resources) that would be commercially viable to be produced in the UK. There have been a number of differing in-place estimates for the Upper Bowland Shale in the northern England Carboniferous, ranging from 164-447 tcf suggested by Andrews (2013), to 8-19 tcf quoted by Uguna et al. (2017). In the absence of flow test data, reliable recoverable reserves estimates could not have been published. There has been a single well test carried out by Cuadrilla in Lancashire, the results of which have not yet been made public. The industry, the scientific community, the government, and environmental scientists, have been starved of modern borehole electric log, core and well test data with which to assess both resource potential and the associated environmental impact. This is about to change, with drilling planned to take place during the course of the proposed study in Cheshire, Lancashire, North Yorkshire, and North Nottinghamshire. This research project will focus on the Carboniferous (Bowland Shale) basins of the East Midlands, Lancashire, Cheshire, and Yorkshire. The vision is of a multidisciplinary approach to solving problems in the main research focus areas set out in Challenge 2 of the NERC call. We will bring together key researchers from several institutions around the UK, working on UK shale science from the micro-pore (<10 nm) to the basin scale. Key aspects of shale mineralogy, petrology, geochemistry, stratigraphy, rock mechanics, gas generation and adsorption and fluid flow in low porosity rocks will be combined into a holistic basin-scale model to generate a better scientifically-grounded set of estimates. Key sensitivities related to input parameters will be tested, and more importantly, compared/contrasted with available production data from the planned wells . The outcome of this 4-year project will be a more scientifically defendable assessment of the location and magnitude of UK shale resources, guided by an improved understanding of the shale properties and fluid flow through the shale, before, during and following hydraulic fracturing to ascertain whether shale gas has the potential to have a marked impact on energy security in the UK for several decades into the future. This project will critically inform the key stakeholders (Government, Industry, Academia, and the general public) of UK shale potential, and will provide input to discussions on future UK energy strategy. Collaboration with those projects funded within the other Challenges in this programme will allow us to assess whether or not this resource can be accessed in a commercially viable and environmentally responsible way. References Andrews, I.J. 2013. The Carboniferous Bowland Shale: Geology and resource estimate. British Geological Survey for the Department of Energy and Climate Change, London, UK. Uguna, C., Snape, C., Vane, C., V. Moss-Hayes, V., Whitelaw, P., Stevens, L., Meredith, W. and Carr, A. 2017. Convergence of shale gas reserve estimates from a high pressure water pyrolysis procedure and gas adsorption measurements. 28th International Meeting on Organic Geochemistry, 17-22 September 2017, Florence, Italy.

The production, storage, distribution and conversion of hydrogen is a rapidly emerging candidate to help decarbonise the economy. Here we focus on its role to support the integration of offshore renewable energy (ORE), a topic of increasing importance to the UK given the falling costs of offshore wind generation (with prices expected to drop to 25% of 2017 by 2023) and Government ambition. Indeed, the latest BEIS scenarios include more than 120 GW of offshore wind, and even up to 233GW in some scenarios. This brings with it significant challenges to the electricity infrastructure in terms of our ability to on-shore and integrate these variable energy flows, across a wide range of timeframes. Current ORE plants composed of fixed offshore wind structures are sited relatively close to land in shallow water and use systems of offshore cables and substations to transform the electricity produced, transmit it to the shore and connect to the grid. However, in order to exploit the full renewable energy potential and requirements for the 2050 net zero target, offshore wind farms will need to be sited further offshore and in deeper waters. This brings possibilities into consideration in which transporting the energy to shore via an alternative vector such as hydrogen could become the most attractive route. Hence we consider both on-shore and off-shore hydrogen generation. Not only can hydrogen be an effective means to integrate offshore wind, but it is also increasingly emerging as an attractive low carbon energy carrier to support the de-carbonisation of hard to address sectors such as industrial heat, chemicals, trucks, heavy duty vehicles, shipping, and trains. This is increasingly recognised globally, with significant national commitments to hydrogen in France, China, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Portugal, Australia and Spain in the last three years alone, along with the recent launch of a European hydrogen strategy, and the inclusion of hydrogen at scale in the November 2020 UK Government Green plan. Most of the focus of these national strategies is on the production of 'green' hydrogen using electrolysis, driven by renewable electricity. However, there remains interest in some countries, the UK being one example, in 'blue' hydrogen, which is hydrogen made from fossil fuels coupled with carbon capture and storage and hence a low carbon rather than zero carbon hydrogen. Today, 96% of hydrogen globally is produced from unabated fossil fuels, with 6% of global natural gas, and 2% of coal, consumption going to hydrogen production, primarily for petrochemicals, contributing around 830 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year. Currently green hydrogen is the most expensive form of hydrogen, with around 60-80% of the cost coming from the cost of the electrical power input. A critical factor that influences this is the efficiency of the electrolyser itself, and in turn the generator used to convert the green hydrogen back into power when needed. In this work we focus on the concept of a reversible electrolyser, which is a single machine that can both produce power in fuel cell mode, and produce hydrogen in electrolyser mode. Electrolysers and fuel cells fall into one of two categories: low-temperature (70-120C) and high temperature (600-850C). While low temperature electrolyser and fuel cell systems are already commercially available, their relatively low combined round-trip efficiency (around 40%) means that the reversible solid oxide cell (rSOC), which can operate at high temperatures (600-900C) is of growing interest. It can achieve an electrolyser efficiency of up to 95%, power generation efficiency of up to 65%, and hence a round-trip efficiency of around 60% at ambient pressure using products now approaching commercial availability. This project considers the development and application of this new technology to the case of ORE integration using hydrogen.