This proposal seeks funding for investigations into the structure and mechanical properties of carbon-nanostructures produced from natural biomass sources and by novel processing techniques. Carbon fibres produced by these routes are attractive since they are cheaper than those obtained by conventional routes (PAN or pitch-based), are derived from a renewable resource and since native cellulose is often already structured, it is an attractive precursor material. In addition to this, native sources of cellulose, such as bacterial, tunicate and derived sources from plant material in the form of whiskers, have fibre diameters in the nanometer range. This enables very slender fibres to be produced which can offer high stiffnesses and strengths. Other sources of nanofibres, such as from CNTs (carbon nanotubes) are expensive to produce, and as such there are significant advantages to the approaches we will investigate. The use of these materials for high performance composites will be investigated using non-contact methods and novel approaches to better understand the interface between materials. Low-cost approaches to the development of high-throughput methods of producing fibres will be addressed, with particular emphasis on enabling the enhancement of material properties from waste and cheaply generated biomass. Additional adventurous research will be conducted on the manipulation and deformation of the nanostructures using a FIB (Focussed Ion Beam) system. The project will fund a postdoctoral research associate for 4 years who will be based in the Materials Science Centre, School of Materials, University of Manchester. No systematic programme of research into the capability of these materials has been investigated in this manner and as such the impact will be both of mutual academic and industrial relevance. In terms of industrial involvement we have the support of five industrial companies (Borregaard - supplier; Technical Fibre Products / end user; Renishaw - technology and Lenzing - suppliers and technology).

Concerns about climate change and urban pollution have prompted a shift from our current over-reliance on energy derived from oil, coal and gas. Technological advances have made it easier to extract energy from "renewable " sources - solar, wind, tidal - however a defining feature of such sources is their intermittent nature, so they can only be reliably exploited if there are ways to store that energy. Electricity cannot be stored, but electricity can be used to drive electrochemical reactions which store the electrical energy as chemical energy. This is the basis of a battery - achieving efficient energy storage, using electrochemical means, is therefore one of the most prominent technological challenges facing the UK and, indeed, all advanced economies. Small scale devices based on lithium ion battery (LIB) technology have revolutionised power requirements for mobile devices over the last decade. In the current decade, a shift in energy storage methods for electric vehicles is underway with increasing interest (and sales) of LIB powered cars . The next challenge is to "scale up" the energy storage process to the scale of the electrical grid - can we develop large scale batteries which would enable us to store large amounts of electricity to power houses, schools and factories? The UK is blessed with ample (potential) wind, tidal and wave resources: although there are technical challenges involved in harnessing these resources, there is also a need to develop cheaper batteries which would not necessarily be based on LIB technology - because the batteries themselves would be stationary, so their mass and size becomes less important than their cost and lifetime. This proposal seeks to develop the basis of an alternative battery technology called the redox flow battery which is designed for large-scale storage. The proposal does not seek to develop a battery which would be ready to deploy at the end of the project, further optimisation and engineering studies would be required to achieve such a goal. Rather we seek to develop the fundamental scientific principles which could lead to better performing (in terms of energy, cost and lifetime) redox flow batteries - based on two advances we propose: one which develops a "membrane-free" flow battery, the other develops novel types of materials to be used as the battery membranes.

Energy storage in the form of rechargeable batteries is becoming increasingly important for a range of applications and devices including transportation and grid reserves. Alkaline earth metal-oxygen batteries using the earth abundant metals, such as calcium as the anode and calcium cations as the charge carrier present a low cost and easily raw material resourced high energy storage battery system. They offer much greater energy storage a than present day batteries, such as lithium ion, in addition to their abundance worldwide. In order to achieve progress in the field of calcium based batteries and their subsequent development, mechanistic understanding of the cell chemistry and the required materials, and cell structure, needs to be understood. To evaluated the feasibility of a battery system based upon calcium within the project we will construct Lab-scale test cells that will be tested under an oxygen atmosphere.

The University of Nottingham have developed a fluidized bed process for recycling carbon fibre composite materials. It's unique feature is that it is capable of processing contaminated and mixed waste from end-of-life components. In this project commercial applications for the carbon fibre recyclate will be developed. The recyclate processing route will be to make non-woven fabrics using technology already demonstrated by the Collaborating Partner and then develop end markets for this material.

The capture and management of ions in water systems are of widespread importance to society. One of the most prominent applications is water desalination, which is becoming an increasingly important technology due to population growth and climate change putting pressure on freshwater resources. In recent years, capacitive de-ionisation (CDI) has gained increasing attention as a potentially low-energy alternative to more common desalination methods such as reverse osmosis. CDI works by passing a saline solution through an electrochemical cell where the positive and negative salt ions are immobilized on the surfaces of oppositely-charged porous carbon electrodes. One of the advantages of CDI over other desalination methods is that following the initial ion capture step, the electrode can be regenerated by discharging into a separate effluent stock. In this step, some of the energy used for the ion capture is recovered, and furthermore, the efficient regeneration of the electrode reduces fouling. Despite the promise of CDI, its efficiency reduces at high salt concentrations. In this respect, it does not compete with other methods such as reverse osmosis for treatment of seawater. In recent years there have been considerable research efforts to extend the concentration range in which CDI is effective. Most development has focused on optimisation of materials and cell designs with considerable success, yet, surprisingly little consideration has been given to details of the the ion behaviour or the elementary processes taking place at each electrode. One of the primary considerations is to ensure that ionic charge is stored by ions being captured by the electrode, rather than being exchanged with those in the feed electrolyte (which does not reduce the salt concentration). This proposal seeks to develop a mechanistic understanding of CDI and apply this knowledge to control the ion storage mechanism to optimize the salt removal efficiency. This will be done through the use of detailed electrochemical analysis and the use of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), which allows us to "see" and count ions that are captured in the electrode, and correlate this with the electrochemical response and salt removal efficiency. We will investigate how the electrode pore size and electrolyte properties, such as concentration and the nature of the ions present, affect how they are captured. This information will then be used to inform and optimise the cell design and operational conditions (e.g., flow rate and cell voltage). Our proposed work is necessarily fundamental in nature with the key aim of improving the understanding of the underlying science of CDI, rather than fabrication of prototype CDI stacks. However, through our collaborations with academic and industrial partners, we aim to work with, and identify, scalable and commercially-relevant electrode materials.