MEET

Main research activities of the Centre for Mechanical Engineering and Energy Technology (MEET) are around thermodynamics, thermofluids, heat transfer, combustion, advanced control and monitoring, computing networking with applications in fuel cells, combustion engines, and other low carbon or non-carbon energy systems including various renewable energies. The centre is currently conducting four serious research projects which are financially supported by the EU and British Research Council. As the centre is looking forward to further expansion with the joining of several new associates shortly, more research projects will be started in above areas.

People

• Professor Jun Peng His research activities are mainly on sustainable energy technology, sustainable vehicle powertrains and vehicle energy efficiency technology, with both experimental investigation and numerical simulations including CFD modelling. Before joining the University of Bedfordshire in 2017, Prof Peng worked in the University of Sussex and acquired his industry experience as a senior powertrain development engineer at the Dunton Technical Centre of the Ford Motor Company between May 2003 and September 2004.
• Dr Tahmina Ajmal is a Senior Lecturer in Engineering. Before and after joining the University in 2010, she has carried out multi-disciplinary projects for developing low-cost water testing and monitoring technologies for use under various conditions. She has since been working on various aspects of water engineering including aquaculture.

Current Projects

• RIVER - The EU recently adopted rules requiring limits to carbon emissions and type-approval of internal combustion engines for Non-Road Mobile Machinery (Directive 97/68/EC, 01/2017). This set more stringent limits for emissions from inland waterway(IW)vessels. There is an urgent need for emission reduction due to stronger environmental standards aims. Replacing NWE’s ageing fleet with RIVER technology offers the potential for emission reduction. The objective of RIVER is to reduce or eliminate the pollutants from the polluting engines. It is expected that 6600 engines on existing vessels will need to be replaced in 2018-50 and 2400 new vessels will come into operation. RIVER aims to address these issues and to apply an Oxy-fuel combustion technology for Diesel engines that eliminates NOx (part of the GHG), and to capture, store all CO2 emissions and reduces fuel consumption by up to 15%. Partners experienced in CCS, Oxyfuel engine, treatment of CO2, Engine’s control and IWT. Partners will use the research into engine control from the Interreg 2 Seas project SCODECE and results on IWT from PROMINENT EU project to support their work in RIVER. This technology will then be tested, demonstrated and embedded on an existing vessel operating in the UK. A small-scale lab transforming CO2 into bio-solvent will be implemented and a feasibility study for a large vessel will be carried out during the project. EC funded (via Interreg NWE), over 1.9 Million Euro funding (University of Bedfordshire about 400K Euro), 10 partners and 5 associates, grant agreement no: Interreg NWE 553, 3 years, 2017 – 2020
• FCHCV - The key objectives of this project are to assess emission benefit and driving range of fuel cell hybrid vehicle technology after selecting proper component sizing. Two different hybrid vehicle architectures are considered: range-extender electric vehicle (REEV) and hybrid electric vehicle (HEV). Among commercial vehicles, light-duty commercial vehicle (e.g. delivery van), heavy goods vehicle (HGV) and bus are selected since different vehicle type would need a different system and component sizing. Two fuel cell type (PEMFC and DMFC) will be investigated to understand which fuel cell provides the best performance for each system and vehicle type. The outcome of this project would contribute accelerating the electrification of a commercial vehicle. Commercial vehicle OEMs would be able to meet the government policy by providing zero emission while offering enough driving ranges to the customer. In the end, government and council would be able to reduce emission from transportation while maintaining social benefit. Innovate UK funded, £250k funding (University of Bedfordshire £100K), another partner – AVL Powertrain UK, grant agreement no: 133618, 1 years, 2018 – 2019.
• REAMIT - Improving Resource Efficiency of Agribusiness Supply Chains by Minimising Waste Using Big Data and Internet of Things Sensors Interreg North-West Europe (2019- 2023). Funding source is Interreg North West Europe. Total project is for Euro 4.9M and contribution to University of Bedfordshire is Euro 1Million.
• Aquaculture 4.0 - Advancing Digital Precision Aquaculture in China (ADPAC) (March 2019 – February 2022) in collaboration with Chelsea Technology Group, Perceptive Engineering Limited and University of Surrey. Funding Source is Innovate UK with a total budget of £1Million, contribution to University of Bedfordshire is £223K.

Publications

Comprehensive publication lists can be found on individual staff members' web pages by following the respective links above.