Cardiff University
Cardiff University was instrumental in the success of Amburn Phase 1. The Cardiff team undertook laboratory testing of the burner design to understand how NOx and other product emissions (e.g., ammonia slip) can be minimised when using various fuel mixes of ammonia/hydrogen/propane. The university brought its patent-pending ammonia burner design to the project, and a deep understanding of ammonia combustion fundamentals.
Technical Overview – Academia
Stage 1 and 2 experiments (including demonstration) will be carried out using Cardiff University’s patented burner system. The boiler used for demonstration will be moved to CEAT for future research purposes. After the successful completion of Amburn Phase 2, a spin-out company, ‘Flammonia’ will be formed to distribute the demonstrated burner system for prospective customers of Flogas.
Dr Syed Mashruk
Syed is currently working as a Lecturer at Cardiff University’s School of Engineering. He has received his PhD from Cardiff University and his MSc and BEng with 1st class honours from Cranfield University and University of Hertfordshire, respectively. His PhD research was focused on NO formation and measurements using laser diagnostics in various fuel blends. His research is focused on experimental and numerical characterisation of alternative, low carbon fuels for power generation, as well as in aviation and transport industries. He specialises in advanced optical and laser diagnostics systems. He has authored and co-authored various journal/conference publications on the topic of ammonia as an alternative fuel.
‘Green ammonia is a promising alternative fuel. It can be distributed easily and stored inexpensively, using infrastructure that has been well established in the fertiliser sector. However, technical barriers in the combustion of ammonia have meant that ammonia boilers are not yet available on the market.’ Dr. Syed Mashruk PhD MSc BEng (hons.) – Lecturer, Cardiff University
Professor Agustin Valera-Medina
Prof. Agustin Valera-Medina works at Cardiff University, United Kingdom. His research interests include alternative fuels (Incl. ammonia), hydrodynamics, flame stabilization, fuel injection, heat transfer and combustion technologies. He has participated as Principal Investigator (PI) / Co-Investigator (CI) on 32 industrial projects with multi-nationals including GE, PEMEX, Rolls-Royce, Siemens, Alstom, Ricardo and EON, attracting ~£12.4M in research to Cardiff withing >£30M sponsored programs. He has published 215 peer reviewed papers (h-index 34). He has supervised 29 PhD students and 6 PDRAs since his appointment in 2012. He has won international conference awards including AIAA ‘Best Paper in Terrestrial Technologies’ in 2010 and 2013, and SDEWES SEE 2018, the latter for his research on ammonia / hydrogen humidified combustion. Dr Valera-Medina led Cardiff’s contribution to the Innovate-UK ‘Decoupled Green Energy’ Project (2015-2018) led by Siemens and in partnership with STFC and the University of Oxford, which aims to demonstrate the use of green ammonia produced from wind energy.
He has been part of various scientific boards, chairing sessions in international conferences and moderating large industrial panels on the topic of “Ammonia for Direct Use”. He is Committee member of the Combustion Institute British Section, and chairs the Combustion and Emissions Working Group of the AEA. Currently, he supports two Royal Society (UK) briefings on “Ammonia for Energy” and he is main author of the book “Techno-economic challenges of green ammonia as an energy vector”. He is co-Director of the new Net Zero Innovation Institute (NZII) at Cardiff University.