Course Overview

Course Title: Net Zero-Carbon Fuels

Relevant SDGs: SDG 7- Clean and Affordable Energy, SDG 13-Climate Action

Credit(s): 2 credits (32 hours)

Course Description:

As nations bind together to tackle global climate change, one of the urgent needs is the energy sector’s transition from being fossil-fuel reliant to embracing sustainable carbon-free solutions. Through a multi-national collaboration, this course aims to introduce a redefined perspective of fuel utilisation for the power and transportation sectors, placing emphasis on alternative fuels derived from renewable resources that are essential contributors to the goals of carbon neutrality. Some of the low or zero-carbon fuels such as hydrogen, ammonia, biofuels and emerging low carbon fuels adaptable to current or new energy systems will be explored in the context of production, utilisation, economics and sustainability. The impacts of future fuels on the environment, resource availability and social well-being need to be holistically considered and supported by diverse solutions, in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals of Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG 7) and other related SDGs as put forth by the United Nations. From this course, the students will grasp the broad concept of alternative fuel production, application and challenges faced in moving towards a net zero-carbon society.   

Academic Team

• Dr. Cheng Tung Chong, Associate Professor, China-UK Low Carbon College
• Dr. Agustin Valera-Medina, Professor, Cardiff University, ValeraMedinaA1@cardiff.ac.uk
• Dr. Ng Jo-Han, Associate Professor, University of Southampton Malaysia, J.Ng@soton.ac.uk
• Dr. Aiduan Borrion, Associate Professor, University College London, a.borrion@ucl.ac.uk

What skills will students get?

Upon completion of the course, the students will be able to:

1. Describe the roles of alternative fuels for power and transportation sectors in the context of carbon neutrality in China and relate to the sustainable development goals.
2. Describe the production process, potential application and limitations of alternative fuels in the context of power and transportation sectors.
3. Assess the impact of alternative fuel usage on the local resources, society and nation in alignment of the sustainable development goals

Each student will receive an E-certificate from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The credits (2) are transferable depending on the credit arrangements policy of the student’s university.

Mode of Teaching

Teaching mode: Synchronous

Type: Online lecture + Group discussion + Group project

Grading

1. Attendance: 20%;
2. Assignments: 40%;
3. Group Presentation: 40%

Course-specific Restrictions

1. Full-time undergraduate students of all disciplines from universities around the world are welcome.
2. Participants are required to attain a passing mark of ≥60, attend 70% of the course live online (including the final day presentation) to be eligible for the graduating E-certificate.
3. Refer to the detailed schedule attached to ensure your availability for the course before registering.
4. Limited slots are available. Participants will receive a confirmation email if the registration is successful.

Class Schedule

Instructors

Agustin Valera-Medina

Agustin Valera-Medina is a Professor at the Cardiff School of Engineering, U.K. He has participated as PI/Co-I in 29 industrial projects with multinationals including PEMEX, Rolls-Royce, Siemens, Ricardo, Airbus, and BP, attracting approximately £11.2M in research. He has published 181 papers (h-index 26), 48 of these specifically concerning ammonia for power. He has supervised 28 PhD students, 9 on ammonia-combustion related topics. Prof. Valera-Medina led Cardiff’s contribution to the Innovate-UK “Decoupled Green Energy” Project (2015–2018) overseen by Siemens and in partnership with STFC and the University of Oxford, which aimed to demonstrate the use of green ammonia produced from wind energy. He is currently PI of the project SAFE-AGT (EP/T009314/1, £1.9M) to demonstrate the use of ammonia as an efficient gas turbine fuel. He leads the combustion work package of the H2020 project FLEXnCONFU (884157), a €12.7M project conceived to demonstrate ammonia power in large turbine engines. He is also PI and co-I of projects related to ammonia for transportation, propulsion, and heat/cooling (including OceanRefuel, MariNH3, Dock2Dock, Ammonia Optimization, Ammburn, etc.). 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 supported the preparation of two Royal Society Policy Briefings on “Green Ammonia”. He is currently chair of the "Combustion and Emissions" working group of the Ammonia Energy Association, and co-Director of the Green Ammonia Working Group UK. He is the main author of the book 'Techno-economic challenges of ammonia as energy vector' (Elsevier).

Dr. Jo-Han Ng

Dr. Jo-Han Ng is an Associate Professor and currently the Head of Research at the University of Southampton Malaysia, after relinquishing his previous duties as the Head of Academic Quality & Innovation, Director of the Foundation Programme and Head of Quality Assurance. He obtained his Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering (First-class Honours) and PhD from the University of Nottingham. His research interests cover renewable fuel productions, chemical kinetics of transesterification reaction, combustion reaction mechanisms, biodiesel lubricity, CFD simulation of diesel engines, and energy-water-food nexus for sustainability. As such, he considers himself a Green Engineer (or Greengineer as he would like to call it) as they link to green technologies. He also serves as an Associate Editor for Carbon Neutrality (Springer) and two other journals. He is also a Fellow of the Advance Higher Education Academy (UK) and previously served the faculty by providing training to new academics as the USMC Leader of Postgraduate Certificate for Academic Practice. Dr. Ng has published over 80 original peer-reviewed research articles (h-index 22), involved in 18 research grant/industrial projects and won 33 awards including from SEAMEO (ASEAN), Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), TORAY Foundation (Malaysia), World Federation of Scientists (Switzerland), Autoliv (Sweden-USA) and Elsevier (Netherlands). 

Dr. Aiduan Borrion

Dr. Aiduan Borrion is an Associate Professor and Co-Director of the UCL Circular Economy Lab. She leads the Resources and Sustainability research group. Dr Borrion is an expert in developing quantitative sustainability methods and tools to support decision making in technology development and business innovation. She is currently leading sustainability and circular economy research in both UK- and EU-funded projects. Dr Borrion runs an internationally renowned short course entitled “Conducting a Life Cycle Assessment: from Theory to Practical Application”, and regularly deliver LCA trainings to organisations, both large and SMEs. Alongside her research and teaching, Dr Borrion regularly provides advice on ISO compliant LCAs and net zero strategies to external organisations.

Dr. Chong Cheng Tung

Dr. Chong Cheng Tung is an Associate Professor at the China-UK Low Carbon College, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, and a PhD in the field of Energy & Fuels from University of Cambridge, UK. He has published over 150 SCI papers with h-index of 44 and over 6000 citations, 5 highly cited papers and two research books. He is listed as the Top 2% researcher in the world (since 2020) in the Stanford University’s Scientist List. He has participated in over 15 research projects as PI/Co-PI related to the area of fuel and energy, gas turbine, biomass and waste valorization. Dr. Chong has won over 30 research awards, among them are Royal Society-Newton Advanced Fellowship, PYRO ASIA Young Researcher Award and ASEAN Science Diplomat Award. His innovation “Catalytic Microwave Pyrolysis Technology for Climate Positive Environment, CLYMATE+” was listed as the finalist of the global Omnipreneurship Awards 2020: Sustainability Branch. He has served as the editorial board member of FUELS (MDPI), guest editors of ENERGY (Elsevier), Journal of Biotechnology (Elsevier) and Jurnal Teknologi, and review editor of Frontiers in Energy Research. He serves as the board member of the 6th and 7th International Conference on Low Carbon Asia, a Scientific Committee Member of 1st Symposium on Ammonia Energy

Course website

http://netzerocarbon.sjtu.edu.cn/

Course Contact

Prof. Agustin Valera-Medina: ValeraMedinaA1@cardiff.ac.uk

Dr. Ng Jo-Han: J.Ng@soton.ac.uk

Dr. Chong Cheng Tung: ctchong@sjtu.edu.cn

Dr. Aiduan Borrion: a.borrion@ucl.ac.uk