Oct 2 2008
Derbyshire-based Advanced Composites Group Ltd (ACG), part of the Composites Division of Umeco plc, is to play a major role in two ground-breaking research and development projects into turbine generators that could have significant impacts on energy efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions. The projects, worth over £2m, could lead to a recruitment drive offering exciting job opportunities for local and regional communities.
The first project is centred on improving the processes used to manufacture components for tidal turbine generators and improving overall operating efficiencies, while the purpose of the second project is to develop composite materials for power generating gas turbine applications.
Nigel Blatherwick, ACG Commercial Director, stated: “ACG is proud to be involved in these exciting and challenging research projects and to apply its expertise in an effort to reduce the environmental impact of emerging power generation programmes.” Furthermore, “in addition to our recent, successful recruitment drive and significant increase in operating profit, the Group continues to look to the future and is likely to offer further rewarding employment opportunities for the region in its drive to become ‘a world class composites solution provider’.”
As the Lead Partner in a project examining ‘New Materials and Methods for Energy Efficient Tidal Turbines’ (NEW-MMEETT), ACG and its partners will investigate optimising energy efficiency and return on investment. This will be achieved through the development of new carbon and glass fibre reinforced resin systems optimised to counter fatigue effects, which will then allow for reductions in the design allowables and, with the application of state-of-the-art aerospace technologies, to the design of more efficient tidal turbines. Aviation Enterprises Ltd, Materials Engineering Research Laboratory Ltd, and the University of Bristol, all prominent industrial leaders in their own right, are partnering ACG in this venture.
The second project, which will be led by Rolls-Royce plc, with ACG, Swansea University and the University of Birmingham as joint partners, will focus on the research and development of ‘Advanced Ceramic Matrix Composites for Energy Generating Gas Turbine Applications’. The project will develop a high temperature oxide/oxide-ceramic matrix composite for use in power generating gas turbine applications. This will provide a step change in temperature capability, thereby enabling higher operating temperatures, improving engine efficiency and reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
ACG’s projects are two out of a total of sixteen that are to receive investment of over £10 million from the Technology Strategy Board and Engineering and the Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), while the estimated total of all the projects currently in planning in the UK is in excess of £20 million.