Lancaster Environment Centre

What we can do for you

Lancaster Environment Centre supports growth and development of environmental businesses by providing access to extensive technical resources for new product development, corporate social responsibility programmes and management of environmental impacts. Our support is generally delivered in the form of research partnerships.

A Summary of Our Collaborative Work

Wave energy generation technology
Tidal device development
Low head hydro research
Fluid machinery
Environmental impact assessments
Virtual prototyping and Rapid Manufacture
Biofuels plant design projects

Energy in transport, life cycle assessment research
Energy policy and efficiency projects
Carbon management, including footprinting, research
Health impacts of energy from waste projects

We are seeking to develop new energy focused university research partnerships with business or industry. Our research partnerships are mutually beneficial and should lead to faster growth of your business. Our case studies page highlights the benefits of working with us.

Wave energy generation technology

With expertise in wave energy device development including surging wave devices, bobbing devices, power take off and optimization, LUREG have a long history of wet renewables research.

Exploiting Lancaster University’s strength in interdisciplinary working, the Engineering research can be complemented by seabed scour studies, environmental impact assessments, economic evaluations and social impact studies.

Tidal device development

Tidal research at Lancaster will now benefit from a refurbished and redesigned tidal flume rig, integral to the wave tank. Research will evaluate both vertical and horizontal devices, specializing in blade design and optimization.

Low head hydro research

The topic of a successful Joule Centre funded project, the Northwest Hydro Resource model, low head hydro is under increasing scrutiny at Lancaster. A holistic approach to mitigating the barriers to implementation of low- head devices incorporates; demand and economics studies, resource capacity evaluation, engineering options assessments and turbine design.

Fluid machinery

The Fluid Machinery Group at Lancaster have renowned expertise in all aspects on fluid dynamics, pumps, compressors, fans air and water motors wave and tidal power machines and turbines.

Environmental Impact Assessments

With a broad spectrum of environmental impact expertise across LEC, a number of renewable energy projects have drawn on this to assess the potential for and measure the actual impacts.

A key component of the low head Hydro Resource Model project, the Environmental Implications team are reviewing the currently ill defined requirements for environmental protection with regard to hydro schemes, particularly the in-stream requirements for aquatic flora and fauna which are often cited by developers as the most significant barrier to successful development of a scheme. The research will deliver the design of a monitoring system to identify impacts once systems have been installed and investigate environmental and biological effects of changing river flow.

Virtual prototyping and Rapid Manufacture

From CAD, 3D CAD, Virtual Prototyping to Rapid Manufacture the LPDU can provide an idea to product service suitable for any renewable energy product/technology development cycle.

Biofuels plant design projects

A partner on the Wesmar Bioenergy owned Integrated Bio Energy Facility project, LPDU provided engineering support in designing a batch biodiesel process utilising 3D CAD.

The Lancaster University Renewable Energy Group (LUREG)

LUREG is an interdisciplinary research group involved in a range of projects across wet renewables sectors. With expertise in renewable energy economics, generator control, hydrodynamic modeling and technology validation the team have worked on both international projects such as SuperGen Marine as well as regional projects including the North West Hydro Resource Model with local partners.

The team has over 30 years of experience testing and developing wet renewable technology with current facilities including a 10m wave tank with integral tidal flume as well as low head technology testing rigs.