environmental

All Change: Equitably Decarbonising India’s Transportation Sector

Nicola Wilkinson

Grant awarded: £124,000.00

Funder: Research Council, Innovate UK (RA) – Research, British Academy

Project Lead: Andrew Mitchell

As a rapidly growing and urbanised economy, the number of vehicles in India is expanding exponentially, and due to the reliance of these vehicles on fossil fuels, the local road transport sector contributes a significant percentage of the vehicular pollution and carbon dioxide and related emissions that make most of India’s cities among the most smog-laden globally. However, many of India’s poorest rely on the use of high emitting vehicles for making their livelihoods, so while the call to decarbonise the transport sector in India is an urgent policy priority, it is nevertheless fraught with complex tensions and challenges at both local and national scales.

To further our understanding of the multiple challenges involved in facilitating a just transition in the decarbonisation of the Delhi road transport sector, a British Academy research grant supported researchers from IESD at DMU in partnership with colleagues at the TERI School of Advanced Studies in New Delhi to conduct a rapid academic and policy review to explore the issues involved in designing and implementing such a policy.

The research grant supported four key objectives, these being: To explore and map the understanding/ perception/ expectation of just transition by different stakeholders (e.g., policy makers, employees, communities, businesses,
service providers, users and beneficiaries etc.) in relation to decarbonisation of the transport sector in India; To evaluate the impacts of a just transition from a socio-economic and environmental perspective using Delhi as a case study;

To suggest just transition options for decarbonisation pathways in the transport sector in the country, which is inclusive, sustainable and futuristic (considering the growth of the transport sector in future); and, To undertake
a Developmental Evaluation of learnings from the research for strategic deployment of lessons to future work.

The study adopted a mixed methodology, including a detailed review of the academic, policy and grey literatures, as well as key informant interviews, a stakeholders’ engagement workshop and a structured survey involving wide range of stakeholders.

Although this project has not yet concluded, initial findings are that from a just transition perspective, employment and livelihood considerations are a major dimension of any such transition. However, coal is a significant component
of India’s national energy mix, and a potent political influence in part due to being a major employer of Indian workers, so decarbonisation already poses a critical threat to the country’s existing economic and energy security infrastructure.
Additionally, a switch to electrification of vehicles poses its own challenges, not least due to battery and rare earth minerals imports, infrastructure, as well as purchase costs and the additional burden this places on people and their
livelihoods.

Finally, the analyses carried out to date endorse an incremental rather than radical approach to a decarbonisation agenda, and this has been articulated by key stakeholders as reflecting a three phased Reduction, Shift, and Improvement protocol. Reduction refers to the policy process change of reducing current emissions by integrating cleaner transport solutions, shift implied transitioning to wider modes of clean transportation, focusing on both reducing private vehicular pollution, and improving public transport penetration, and finally informing improved technologies by focusing in developing integrated technological solutions.

A further consideration in an emphasis on a just transition requires that special consideration is given to the different needs, challenges and opportunities found between those urban populations and their more rural and peri-urban
counterparts, as it is becoming clearer that there cannot be a one-size-fits all transition process that is both meaningful and just.


The DMU project team comprises Prof Subhes Bhattacharyya, Dr Andrew Mitchell, and two PhD research candidates Daniel Kerr and John Rowlatt, and the TERI SAS team is made up of Dr Gopal K Sarangi, Dr Sukanya Das, and research assistants Nupur Ahuja, Nehal Gautam, and Naman Agarwal. The project is funded for five months and concluded in March 2022.

Improving environmental performance of solid fuel heating system

Monica Chudasama

Grant Awarded: £57,739.88

Funder: Innovate-UK, Defra-Small Business Research Initiative (2023)

Key researchers: Abhishek Tiwary, Neil Brown and Dani Harmanto

This Innovate-UK funded project developed an integrated solution to reduce pollutants resulting from domestic wood burning in indoor space (mainly particulate matter, PM and volatile organic carbons VOCs). The main highlight of our research is that it offers stove makers means of retrofitting current technology with minimal modification requirements. The project’s key objectives were to conduct the feasibility of two improvements to existing wood stoves, respectively for better heat distribution in the combustion chamber and heat recovery from the flue.

Throughout, the approach incorporated seamless co-operation with two UK solid fuel stove makers (sharing real-world experience and features of their products currently circulating in the market). While so doing, the technical design is meant to be adaptable to ensure future evolution of its beta-version to accommodate for lateral developments in sensor-based automation to improve its operability.

The following are the most significant outcomes of this project:

Solar-powered Mobility-as-a-Service for Africa (Solar MaaS)

Nicola Wilkinson

Dr Rupert Gammon, De Montfort University and OX Global Ltd

Wealth creation in emerging markets may be catalysed through a symbiotic relationship between solar energy and electric vehicles. This project combines international development, solar-powered minigrids and electric vehicles with learning from OX Global’s pilot of mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) in Rwanda using its purpose-designed electric truck.

RAEng Industrial Fellowships 2021

Enabling hybrid autonomous non-conventional system for cleaner indoor environment

Nicola Wilkinson

Dr Abhishek Tiwary

ENHANCE: Environmental legislation is pushing the space-heating market away from fossil fuels, while Covid-19 has made us keenly aware of the benefits of clean air. This project will conceptualise and develop a novel air warming and sanitising system, combining complementary capacities in ultraviolet (UVC) technology, air pollution control and heating. It will potentially impact in transforming the future of indoor air warming and cleaning simultaneously.

Funded by: Royal Academy of Engineering Industrial Fellowship

Efficacy evaluation of a UVGI treatment unit in mitigating aerosol exposure in lifts and enclosed waiting spaces at a transport hub in Leicester

Monica Chudasama

Grant awarded: £24,988.75

PI: Ahbishek Tiwary

Funder: UKRI

This is a proof-of-concept study towards developing a methodological capacity to assess the efficacy of an innovative air treatment unit (henceforth the EnHANCE system) in enclosed spaces. It is motivated by its potential deployment in public transport microenvironments such as lounge, lifts and stairways to simultaneously control pathogens and improve the air quality. The first part of the project mainly focused on developing a measurement protocol for the EnHANCE system (and systems like it). It involved performance testing of the system through an inlet-outlet monitoring scheme in controlled lab environment under three different ventilation scenarios (closed room, closed room with in-flow through a vent, open room with a cross-flow); two identical portable equipment were used for monitoring air pollutants – particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), total volatile organic carbon (TVOC, including benzene, toluene) and the microenvironment (temperature and humidity).

In the next step, the performance of the system for reduction in virus loading was evaluated in a controlled virology lab. Human coronavirus (HCoV)-OC43 and mouse norovirus 1 (MNV-1) were used as model enveloped and non-enveloped viruses; aerosolised air samples were collected on the upstream and downstream locations in a control chamber, and their infectivity (TCID50) and viral genomes (qPCR) was measured.

The project demonstrated that the EnHANCE system can offer a robust, continuous intervention for simultaneously reducing both air pollution and pathogen loading, with PM2.5 reduction potential of over 97% and TVOC of up to 95%. Based on the efficacy evaluations, the system is deemed suitable for its deployment in a transport environment to reduce exposure in a constrained space, such as waiting lounge and lifts. We reckon full-scale deployment of the EnHANCE system in such locations would serve two-fold purpose – first, provide a control measure in any future pandemic preparation; second, offer an active health intervention at public transport facilities, specifically alleviating the health risk posed from air pollution and pathogen exposure to vulnerable population, who tend to use these facilities more frequently.

Funder: TRANSITION-BioAirNet Discovery & Innovation grant, co-funded by the UKRI TRANSITION Clean Air Network (ref. NE/V002449/1, led by the University of Birmingham) and BioAirNet (ref. NE/V002171/1, led by Cranfield University) (2023)

Key researchers: Abhishek Tiwary, Andrew Reeves (School of Engineering and Sustainable Development), Maitreyi Shivkumar (School of Pharmacy)

EnvironMENTAL – Reducing the impact of major environmental challenges on mental health

Nicola Wilkinson

The environMENTAL project will investigate how some of the greatest global environmental challenges, climate change, urbanisation and psychosocial stress caused by the COVID-19-pandemic affect mental health over the lifespan. It will identify their underlying molecular mechanisms and develop preventions and early interventions. Leveraging cohort data of over 1.5 million European citizens and patients enriched with deep phenotyping data from large scale behavioural neuroimaging cohorts, we will identify brain mechanisms related to environmental adversity underlying
symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress and substance abuse.

By linking population and patient data via geo-location to spatiotemporal environmental data derived from remote sensing satellites, climate models, regional-socioeconomic data and digital health applications, our interdisciplinary
team will develop a neurocognitive model of multimodal environmental signatures related to transdiagnostic symptom
groups that are characterised by EnvironMENTAL – Reducing the impact of major environmental challenges on mental health shared brain mechanisms.

We will uncover the molecular basis underlying these mechanisms using multi-modal -omics analyses, brain organoids and virtual brain simulations, thus providing an integrated perspective for each individual across the lifespan and spectrum of functioning. The insight gained will be applied to developing risk biomarkers and stratification markers. We will then screen for pharmacological compounds targeting the molecular mechanisms discovered.
We will also reduce symptom development and progression using virtual reality interventions based on the adverse environmental features developed in close collaboration withstakeholders.

Overall, this project will lead to objective biomarkers and evidence-based pharmacologic and VR-based interventions that will significantly prevent and improve outcomes of environmentally- related mental illnesses, and empower EU citizens to manage better their mental health and well-being.

Upcycled Plastic Prosthetics

Nicola Wilkinson
Dr Karthikeyan Kandan and Dr Farukh Farukh

Plastic pollution has become one of the most pressing environmental issues, for example, around one million plastic water bottles are bought every minute yet only 9% are recycled, with the rest leaking into landfill or the ocean.

Furthermore, as of August 23, 2021, the total excess plastic waste generated during the pandemic is calculated as 4.4 to 15.1 million tons due to COVID 19 pandemic. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 650 million people worldwide are disabled. Which equates to approximately 10% of the world’s population. Of those people, 80% currently live in LMICs that are often at various stages of economic development depending on active conflict or post conflict
state. Diabetes and traffic accidents are two of the biggest causes of lower-limb amputation – both of which are continuously on the rise.

In LMICs, fewer than 3% of persons with disabilities have access to required rehabilitation services. Without access to the rehabilitation they require, those with disability may become entrenched in a cycle of poverty. Upcycling of recycled plastics and offering affordable prosthesis are two major global issues that we need to tackle. The De Montfort University’s research team led by Dr Kandan developed ARM (Accessible Recycled Material) developed a prosthetic limb that was cost effective yet comfortable and durable for amputee patients. The new design spins recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the building blocks of plastic bottles, into yarns 10 times stronger than bulk plastic.

These yarns were “knitted” into a three-dimensional net-shape preform which exactly matches the patient’s stump. By applying pressure and heat, those preforms were precisely converted into a patient- specific solid yet porous socket which keeps the patient cooler, particularly crucial in the case of diabetic amputees, who often sweat a lot and also for the amputees living in tropical climate. The ARM prosthetic limbs enable a more exact fit around the patient’s stump and reduces the risk of infection because of its breathable design. This is a feature that neither carbon or glass fibre sockets – currently the best designs available – can boast.

ARM prosthetic innovation tackling two problems: turning excess plastic bottle waste into prosthesis for patients in underserved areas. The ARM prosthetic socket technologies provide physical solutions for fabricating fit-for purpose
prosthetic socket which are: accessible, comfortable, reduce fabrication time (days to hours), able to accommodate aging (crucial for limb-deficient child), while also being able 10 to manufacture using local materials and resources.

The research team led by Dr Kandan have won the RAE’s Frontiers Follow-On Funding for a project to further develop Upcycled Plastic Prosthetic limbs for amputees residing in lower and middle-income countries (LMICs).

The principal aim for the project team is to engage in developmental collaborative research between the UK and LMICs to scale-up and translate the success of Accessible Recycled Materials (ARM) Prosthetic Socket (PS) technologies with Majicast – a device to obtain accurate contours of a patient’s residual limbs for achieving tailor made fit that increases comfort and dramatically reduces socket fabrication time.

The ambitious two-year project will engage in networking and collaborative developmental research to consolidate ARM PS technologies with Majicast to engage in patient specific large-scale trials of ARM PSs with Indian amputees
to gather the evidence-base for user-acceptance. At present, large-scale trials have been conducted with Indian amputees.

The project team actively engaged with wider audiences such as academics, NGOs and general public and presented the outcome of the project at the following key events: The project team organised a special symposium entitled ‘Prosthetics for Low-and-Middle- Income Countries (LMICs): Challenges and Opportunities’ at the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics (ISPO) 18th World Congress, 1-4 November 2021.

The project team successfully showcased Upcycled Plastic Prosthetics at Dubai Expo 2020 on the 27th of January 2022. This event was organised by the UK’s Department for International Trade at the UK pavilion at Dubai Expo
2020.

Integrating environmental technology solutions for developing a circular economy for olive mill waste system

Monica Chudasama

Grant awarded: £79,964.00

PI: Abhishek Tiwary

Funder: RA Eng

Adopting a systems approach, this UK-Jordan capacity-building project aims to develop a scalable environmental technology solution for sustainable management of olive mill waste in Jordan. This is a collaboration between DMU and three Jordanian universities –  Al Balqa Applied University, University of Jordan and Jordan University of Science & Technology. The project has three parallel strands –

Strand1: Environmental technology integration and scaling-up

Strand2: Technology optimization and resource/Energy recovery

Strand3: Techno-economic feasibility and knowledge transfer.

Funder: Royal Academy of Engineering, International Science Partnerships Fund (2023-24)

Key researchers: Abhishek Tiwary (School of Engineering and Sustainable Development), Katherine Huddersman (School of Pharmacy)