̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Andy Woods

Video analysis of Iceland 2010 eruption could improve volcanic ash forecasts for aviation safety

cmm201 — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 14:29:33 +0000

When Eyjafjallajökull erupted in 2010, it ejected roughly 250 million tonnes of volcanic ash into the atmosphere: much of which was blown over Europe and into flight paths. With planes grounded, millions of air passengers were left stranded.

Forecasts of how ash will spread in the aftermath of an explosive eruption can help reduce impacts to aviation by informing decisions to shut down areas of airspace. But these forecasts require knowledge of what is happening at the volcano, information that often can’t be obtained directly and must instead be estimated.

In the new study, the researchers split a 17-minute film into time segments to understand how the Eyjafjallajökull ash cloud grew upwards and outwards as the eruption ensued.

“No one has previously observed the shape and speed of wind-blown ash clouds directly,” said Professor Andy Woods, lead author of the study from Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences and Institute for Energy and Environmental Flows. Their new video analysis method was reported in Nature Communications Earth and Environment.

By comparing characteristics of the ash cloud, such as its shape and speed, at time intervals through the video, the researchers were able to calculate the amount of ash spewed from the volcano.

That rate of ash flow, called eruption rate, is an important metric for forecasting ash cloud extent, said Woods. “ ̽��ֱ��eruption rate determines how much ash goes up into the atmosphere, how high the ash cloud will go, how long the plume will stay buoyant, how quickly the ash will start falling to the ground and the area over which ash will land.”

Generally, the higher the ash plume, the wider the ash will be dispersed, and the smaller the ash particles are, the longer they stay buoyant. This dispersal can also depend on weather conditions, particularly the wind direction.

Volcanoes across the world are increasingly monitored via video, using webcams or high-resolution cameras. Woods thinks that, if high frame rate video observations can be accessed during an eruption, then this real-time information could be fed into ash cloud forecasts that more realistically reflect changing eruption conditions.

During the 17-minute footage of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption, the researchers observed that the eruption rate dropped by about half. “It’s amazing that you can learn eruption rate from a video, that’s something that we’ve previously only been able to calculate after an eruption has happened,” said Woods. “It’s important to know the changing eruption rate because that could impact the ash cloud dispersal downwind.”

It’s usually challenging for volcanologists to take continuous measurements of ash clouds whilst an eruption is happening. "Instead, much of our understanding of how ash clouds spread in the atmosphere is based on scaled-down lab models,” said Dr Nicola Mingotti, a researcher in Woods’ group and co-author of this study. These experiments are performed in water tanks, by releasing particle-laden or dyed saline solutions and analysing footage of the plume as it dissipates.

Woods and his collaborators have been running lab experiments like these for several years, most recently trying to understand how eruption plumes are dragged along by the wind. But it’s a big bonus to have video measurements from a real eruption, said Woods, and the real observations agree closely with what they’ve been observing in the lab. “Demonstrating our lab experiments are realistic is really important, both for making sure we understand how ash plumes work and that we forecast their movements effectively.”

Reference:
Mingotti, N, and Woods, A W (2024). Video-based measurements of the entrainment, speed and mass flux in a wind-blown eruption column. Communications Earth & Environment (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s43247-024-01402-x

Video footage of Iceland’s 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption is providing researchers from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge with rare, up-close observations of volcanic ash clouds — information that could help better forecast how far explosive eruptions disperse their hazardous ash particles.

Árni Friðriksson

Eruption at Eyjafjallajökull April 17, 2010.

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Developing solutions for the energy transition

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 14:28:37 +0000

Solutions are being developed at Cambridge that can be implemented, grown to scale, and used to accelerate the rapid transition to a net zero and then zero emissions economy.

Offshore carbon storage deployment and research needs to scale up for UK to deliver net zero pledge, says report

sc604 — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 23:20:17 +0000

Published by the Royal Society and led by ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge researchers, Locked Away – Geological Carbon Storage explores the latest evidence and technical considerations for permanently storing CO2 by pumping it into deep saline aquifers or depleted oil and gas fields offshore.

Alongside sustained reductions in carbon emissions, international bodies and the UK’s Committee on Climate Change identified carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a critical technology in most possible routes to achieving net zero.

However, the levels of CCS deployment globally have been slow and, globally, are ‘well below those anticipated to be needed to limit global warming to 1.5°C, or 2°C’, the report warns.

“Geological carbon storage will be an essential part of our long-term energy transition, both in storing emissions from hard-to-decarbonise industries, and for longer-term removal of CO2 through direct air capture,” said Professor Andy Woods from Cambridge’s Institute for Energy and Environmental Flows (IEEF), chair of the report’s working group.

“ ̽��ֱ��UK’s access to potential storage sites in its offshore waters, along with a strong industrial base and regulatory and assurance environment, mean this could be an important industry.

“But thousands of wells are likely to be needed globally, and each new subsurface reservoir can take years to develop to ensure its suitability.”

Scaling up

̽��ֱ��policy briefing considers the latest geoscience evidence and lessons from current and planned CCS projects that could inform policymakers if they pursue geological carbon storage.

It also looks at the challenges of scaling up CCS, including outstanding research and policy questions relating to transport, storage, monitoring, sustainable business models and incentives.

̽��ֱ��IPCC special report on global warming of 1.5°C and research by the International Energy Agency suggest that 7-8 gigatonnes of CO2 will need to be stored globally each year by 2050 to keep warming below 1.5°C: this represents over 20% of present global annual fossil fuel and industrial emissions (roughly 34 gigatonnes of CO2 per year).

By 2100, cumulative storage of between 350-1200 gigatonnes of CO2 is likely to be needed to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

For the UK to deliver on its net zero carbon emissions pledge, it needs to develop new wells – and the associated injection, transport and storage infrastructure – capable of storing about 75-175 megatonnes of CO2 every year by 2050, according to the UK North Sea Transition Authority.

With CO2 injection rates currently constrained by pressurisation limits, and a 5-7 year timeframe to deploy a new reservoir, the report’s expert working group estimates this will require the equivalent of around one new carbon storage system, capable of injecting 4-5 megatonnes of CO2 per year, being added each year to 2050.

Sustained investment

To date, the upfront capital costs, lack of sufficient and predictable incentives to support operating costs, and concerns over the social acceptability in many jurisdictions have contributed to a global under-deployment of CCS.

̽��ֱ��Global CCS Institute’s 2021 survey lists 27 CCS projects as being operational, capturing 36.6 megatonnes of CO2 per year, with a further 62 projects listed as either in construction or advanced development. If successfully deployed, the combined capture potential would be 86.4 megatonnes of CO2 per year.

A UK target of delivering CCS in four industrial clusters, set under the previous government, aims to capture and store around 20-30 megatonnes of CO2 each year. With Phase 1 sites, in the East Coast Cluster (Teesside plus Humber) and HyNet in the Northwest, targeting delivery in the middle of this decade.

Scaling up required capacity, the report says, demands an enormous and continued global investment each year to 2050 to build the injection wells, transport networks, monitoring technologies, and a skilled workforce, to install hundreds of new wells each year.

“We have technology to store and monitor carbon in this way,” said Woods.

“But as deployment of these technologies rolls out, there will likely be many new challenges, especially since each storage reservoir has its own unique geological structure and setting.

“So we need to continue to invest in research, and the policy and regulatory frameworks that are required to scale up safely and at pace.”

In particular, the report highlights the need to understand the storage capacity and properties of different geological formations; the critical pressures which might cause seal rocks to fail and leak; different monitoring strategies for detecting CO2 leaks, new understanding of some of the geochemical processes; and the potential to increase capacity in old wells.

There is also a need to for ongoing effective public dialogue to highlight the importance of carbon storage in mitigating climate change, and to understand and address the concerns of communities and citizens.

Adapted from a story by the Royal Society.

For more information on energy-related research in Cambridge, please visit Energy IRC, which brings together Cambridge’s research knowledge and expertise, in collaboration with global partners, to create solutions for a sustainable and resilient energy landscape for generations to come.

̽��ֱ��UK will need to step up research and deployment of new offshore carbon storage wells if it is to achieve the capacity required to deliver its net zero emissions plans, a new report says.

Geological carbon storage will be an essential part of our long-term energy transition, both in storing emissions from hard-to-decarbonise industries, and for longer-term removal of CO2 through direct air capture

Andy Woods

Daniela Paola Alchapar via Unsplash

Rock abstract

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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BP Institute to be renamed the Institute for Energy and Environmental Flows (IEEF), ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Oct 2022 10:22:31 +0000

̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge has decided to rename the BP Institute. It will now be called the Institute for Energy and Environmental Flows (IEEF). This decision has been made to better reflect the scope of the Institute’s research and its focus on energy transition. By changing its name the Institute hopes to prevent misunderstandings about its research work, promote further interdisciplinary collaboration, and facilitate more diverse fundraising externally.

Professor Andy Woods, Director of the IEEF, said:

“The researchers in the Institute are working to develop the scientific and technical solutions we need to support the energy transition, from enabling superfast battery charging systems and improving the performance of wind turbines, to the decarbonisation of heating systems and improving the efficiency and safety of carbon storage techniques. This name change reflects the breadth of research carried out at the IEEF, as we continue to build a low-carbon economy.”

̽��ֱ��IEEF’s research projects now cover a wide range of technologies that support both the energy transition and environmental sustainability:

a. modelling decarbonisation of buildings (for example, St John’s College, Cambridge);

b. investigating heat transfer to enable superfast battery charging and research into optimising the power generated from arrays of wind turbines;

c. investigating the fluid mechanics of carbon storage in deep saline aquifers, a key strand of the IPCC strategy to reach the 1.5C target;

d. new models for bubble release from electrolysers to improve their efficiency, a key challenge for the use of hydrogen to store energy;

e. models for the dispersal of particles through the ocean to better understand the environmental impact of deep-sea mining.

̽��ֱ��proposed name also emphasises the independence of the Institute’s research: the Institute publishes more than 50 papers a year in leading international journals.

̽��ֱ��IEEF will continue to receive funding from BP for projects that address shared goals related to the energy transition, but as with any project no partner is able to direct research. As part of this commitment to tackling climate change, the ̽��ֱ�� engages with carefully chosen partners across the energy sector whose specialist skills, expertise and access to global markets can help significantly accelerate toward Net Zero. Collaboration with our energy sector partners accelerates global energy transition in a number of ways, including:

Access to expertise across a global energy distribution network, which delivers power to the mobile phone in your pocket, or the electric car charging on the street.

Experience across a diverse range of engineering, chemical and technical disciplines which provides the ̽��ֱ�� with the global scale required to realise the tangible outcome of our research.

Professor Andy Neely, Senior Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Enterprise and Business Relations), said:

“ ̽��ֱ��decision to rename the Institute was made to better reflect the research carried out at the IEEF and be clear about its independence.

“Presently, the world’s energy system is dominated by fossil fuels, and while an energy transition is urgent, it is not possible at the pace and scale required without the current industry’s involvement and willingness to transition. Working with carefully chosen partners from the energy sector on energy transition projects is necessary to develop replacements at a scale that can generate the energy the world needs without a sudden disruption to the global economy that would plunge billions of people into darkness and disrupt vital networks of trade and humanitarian support.”

̽��ֱ��change of name better reflects the scope of the Institute’s research which for several years has been focused on the energy transition and environmental sustainability. ̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge will continue to work with carefully selected partners from across the energy sector on research to support the global energy transition.

Yes

Fluid mechanics and the energy transition

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Oct 2022 09:24:46 +0000

Decarbonisation of the energy system is the greatest challenge we face. At Cambridge’s Institute for Energy and Environmental Flows, world-leading researchers in fluid mechanics, thermodynamics and surface science are working to develop the solutions we need to replace fossil fuels and protect our planet.

Coronavirus pandemic: making safer emergency hospitals

lw355 — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 08:50:22 +0000

Simple, low-cost ventilation designs and configuration of wards can reduce the dispersal of airborne virus in emergency COVID-19 hospitals, say Cambridge researchers.

Size matters: if you are a bubble of volcanic gas

sc604 — Mon, 06 Aug 2018 11:13:18 +0000

A team of scientists, including a volcanologist and mathematician from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, discovered the phenomenon through detailed observations of gas emissions from Kīlauea volcano in Hawaii.

At many volcanoes around the world, gas emissions are monitored routinely to help with forecasting eruptions. Changes in the output or proportions of different gases - such as carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide – can herald shifts in the activity of a volcano. Volcanologists have considered that these chemical changes reflect the rise and fall of magma in the Earth’s crust but the new research reveals that the composition of volcanic gases depends also on the size of the gas bubbles rising up to the surface.

Until the latest spectacular eruption opened up fissures on the flank of the volcano, Kīlauea held a vast lava lake in its summit crater. ̽��ֱ��behaviour of this lava lake alternated between phases of fiery ‘spattering’ powered by large gas bubbles bursting through the magma, and more gentle gas release, accompanied by slow and steady motion of the lava.

In the past, volcanic gases have been sampled directly from steaming vents and openings called fumaroles. But this is not possible for the emissions from a lava lake, 200 metres across, and at the bottom of a steep-sided crater. Instead, the team used an infrared spectrometer, which is employed for routine volcano monitoring by co-authors of the study, Jeff Sutton and Tamar Elias from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (US Geological Survey).

̽��ֱ��device was located on the edge of the crater, pointed at the lava lake, and recorded gas compositions in the atmosphere every few seconds. ̽��ֱ��emissions of carbon- and sulphur-bearing gases were measured during both the vigorous and mild phases of activity.

Each individual measurement was used to compute the temperature of the volcanic gas. What immediately struck the scientists was that the gas temperatures ranged from 1150 degrees Celsius – the temperature of the lava – down to around 900 degrees Celsius. “At this temperature, the lava would freeze,” said lead author Dr Clive Oppenheimer, from Cambridge’s Department of Geography. “At first, we couldn’t understand how the gases could emerge much colder than the molten lava sloshing in the lake.”

̽��ֱ��clue to this puzzle came from the variation in calculated gas temperatures – they were high when the lava lake was placid, and low when it was bubbling furiously. “We realised it could be because of the size of the gas bubbles,” said co-author Professor Andy Woods, Director of Cambridge’s BP Institute. “Larger bubbles rise faster through the magma and expand rapidly as the pressure reduces, just like bubbles rising in a glass of fizzy drink; the gas cools down because of the expansion.” Larger bubbles form when smaller bubbles bump into each other and merge.

Woods and Oppenheimer developed a mathematical model to account for the process, which showed a very good fit with the observations.

But there was yet another surprising finding from the gas observations from Hawaii. As well as being cooler, the emissions from the large gas bubbles were more oxidised than expected – they had higher proportions of carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide.

̽��ֱ��chemical balance of volcanic gases such as carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide (or sulphur dioxide and hydrogen sulphide) is generally thought to be controlled by the chemistry of the surrounding liquid magma but what the new findings showed is that when bubbles get large enough, most of the gas inside follows its own chemical pathway as the gas cools.

̽��ֱ��ratio of carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide when the lava lake was in its most energetic state was six times higher than during the most stable phase. ̽��ֱ��scientists suggest this effect should be taken into account when gas measurements are being used to forecast major changes in volcanic activity.

“Gas measurements are critical to our monitoring and hazard assessment; refining our understanding of how magma behaves beneath the volcano allows us to better interpret our observations,” said co-author Tamar Elias from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

And there is another implication of this discovery – not for eruptions today but for the evolution of the Earth’s atmosphere billions of years ago. “Volcanic emissions in Earth’s deep past may have made the atmosphere more oxidising than we thought,” said co-author Bruno Scaillet. “A more oxygen-rich atmosphere would have facilitated the emergence and viability of life on land, by generating an ozone layer, which shields against harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun.”

Reference:
Clive Oppenheimer et al “Influence of eruptive style on volcanic gas emission chemistry and temperature” Nature Geoscience (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41561-018-0194-5

Inset image: Clive Oppenheimer in Hawaii. Credit: Clive Oppenheimer

̽��ֱ��chemical composition of gases emitted from volcanoes – which are used to monitor changes in volcanic activity – can change depending on the size of gas bubbles rising to the surface, and relate to the way in which they erupt. ̽��ֱ��results, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, could be used to improve the forecasting of threats posed by certain volcanoes.

At first, we couldn’t understand how the gases could emerge much colder than the molten lava sloshing in the lake.

Clive Oppenheimer

Kīlauea eruption, 2018

Yes

BP Institute for Multiphase Flow

lw355 — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 15:10:59 +0000

Endowed by a £22 million donation from BP, the BP Institute for Multiphase Flow (BPI) was created in 2000 with the explicit intent of hosting research teams from five departments within the ̽��ֱ��: Applied Maths and Theoretical Physics, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Earth Sciences and Engineering.

Today, a multidisciplinary team of almost 40 academics and students is working to understand how gases and fluids move. Multiphase flow is an area of great interest to BP as it underpins all parts of its business: from enhancing oil recovery to delivering it to customers, and from refining hydrocarbons to investing in a low carbon future.

For the BPI, engagement with BP enriches research in a very practical sense, as Professor Andy Woods, Director, explained: ‘Our close working relationship with BP gives us in-depth exposure to technical challenges in the industry as well as unparalleled access to field data that would be impossible for us to collect. This means that we can frame research directions that are fundamentally interesting to us as academics and can also solve problems that are of relevance to the industry.’

Currently, a large pan-Institute project is analysing the interactions between fluids and solids in oil fields to understand the physical chemistry that controls how much oil can be recovered as a function of the salinity of the water used to pump it from the well. Other projects vary from analysing the molecular basis of how lubricants work to understanding how volcanoes erupt, and from addressing questions about the long-term storage of CO₂ in redundant oil wells to determining how you can control heat transfer in buildings through natural convection. This latter research theme led in 2006 to the spin-out company E-Stack, which was set up to commercialise a low energy ventilation system that uses natural convection to keep the interior temperature of buildings buffered from exterior changes.

Professor Woods sees the link between basic research and industrial applications as key to research at BPI. ‘We determine our own research programme and our prime interest is in answering fundamental questions about flow. But we’re also looking at how this impacts on ‘real world’ applications because this in turn informs a whole new set of fundamental questions and, if we’re lucky, the development of unforeseen applications.’

For more information, please contact Professor Andy Woods (andy@bpi.cam.ac.uk) or visit www.bpi.cam.ac.uk/

Understanding flow – whether it’s of oil, air, lubricants, lava, seawater or CO2 – lies at the heart of Cambridge’s BP Institute.

Our prime interest is in answering fundamental questions about flow. But we’re also looking at how this impacts on ‘real world’ applications because this in turn informs a whole new set of fundamental questions and, if we’re lucky, the development of unforeseen applications.

Professor Andy Woods

̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

BP Institute

Energy giant BP looks to its engagement with universities like Cambridge to help stay connected to cutting-edge research in science and technology.

‘As head of BP’s research and technology portfolio, my job is to ensure that BP has the technology it needs to contribute to the world’s future energy demands,’ said David Eyton, BP Group Head of Research & Technology and Executive Sponsor for Cambridge. ‘As part of this, we work closely with a handful of excellent academic centres like Cambridge to keep us plugged into the fast-changing world of science and technology.’

BP’s relationship with the ̽��ֱ��, which stretches back through the past century, was recently formalised by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). ‘ ̽��ֱ��MoU,’ David Eyton explained, ‘embraces all of our current interactions with Cambridge at a strategic level – from research activities, through policy development and training, to recruitment – as well as laying the groundwork for mutual support and development so that the relationship can fulfil its greatest potential.’ These interactions are being overseen by Andy Leonard in his role as BP’s Vice-President for Cambridge.

Valuing research

BP’s annual spend for 2009 across the ̽��ֱ�� is £3.6 million, of which approximately £1 million is funding technical research and the remainder is principally funding endowments and scholarships.

̽��ֱ��company’s main channels of engagement are the BP Institute for Multiphase Flow, established in 2000 with a £22 million endowment from BP, and Judge Business School through the Centre for India and Global Business and the Cambridge Centre for Energy Studies. BP has also had long and fruitful collaborations elsewhere in the ̽��ֱ��, especially with the Bullard Laboratories within the Department of Earth Sciences.

Several areas of applied research activities in Cambridge have brought world-class expertise to bear on practical issues that have reaped immediate benefits for BP, from exploration through to fuels and lubricants. But BP also views fundamental research as strategically important: ‘Although fundamental research can take years from invention to commercialisation, it also has the potential to yield something truly significant,’ said Eyton. ‘ ̽��ֱ�� ̽��ֱ�� has a fabulous track record of creating important knowledge and that is one of the reasons we are investing in Cambridge. As a business, we have to stay competitive and invest in areas that we believe will benefit our shareholders.’

Recruiting the best

Recruitment is very much part of the strategic relationship with Cambridge. ‘ ̽��ֱ��people we recruit today could have a profound impact on the company over many decades,’ explained Andy Leonard, ‘so we need to ensure that the highest quality students are exposed to the range of employment opportunities within BP.’ Also of importance, partly from a recruiting perspective, is the large number of scholarship programmes BP runs for research students, mainly in collaboration with the Cambridge Commonwealth and Overseas Trusts. This year, BP has made job offers to 20 graduates and 17 interns in Cambridge, as well as partially funding 49 research scholarships.

Recognising opportunities

‘ ̽��ֱ��key to success in strategic relationships is to create situations where there is genuine mutuality,’ said Eyton. ‘We want the relationship with Cambridge to achieve its greatest potential and to progress the strategic aims of the ̽��ֱ�� and BP.’ ̽��ֱ��company is also keen to support the strengthening of links between universities such as Cambridge, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Tsinghua ̽��ֱ�� in Beijing, predominantly with regard to finding new forms of low carbon energy and moving towards a more sustainable energy landscape in the world.

‘I am a big believer in investing in places like Cambridge that have a proven record of success,’ explained Eyton. ‘I also think that we have even more to discover in terms of opportunities for productive interactions. I’m delighted to say that we are on this journey.’

For more information about BP, please visit www.bp.com/

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