03.11.2011
The contribution that environment, marine and energy based research in UCC is making to the development of a “green economy” in Ireland was the subject of the 2011 Environmental Research Institute (ERI) Research Open Day which took place on October 18th in UCC.
Delegates at the event, entitled “Research at ERI: Fuelling the Green Economy”, heard senior researchers from the Institute discuss the commercial opportunities that are now arising from UCC research on bioenergy, smart buildings, aquaculture, forestry, marine renewables, waste treatment and atmospheric pollution.
The event was opened by Professor Anita Maguire, Vice-President of Research and Innovation at UCC who commented that the focus on the green economy was particularly timely given the current economic downturn in Ireland and across the world, and that green industries and technologies could be a means of addressing the multiple challenges of economic recession, climate change, environmental degradation, rising fuel prices and energy security. The keynote speaker for the event, Dr Paul Butler from Enterprise Ireland, considered how Ireland can best prepare for a low-energy future and indicated that there may no single “magic bullet” for moving to a low carbon economy but that it will be a series of integrated different technologies such as electric vehicles and supergrids along with energy generation from wind, solar, bioenergy and wave power.
In the Marine research session the potential of clams as a future economically viableaquaculture species for Ireland was discussed by Ms Maud Cross. Mr Jeremy Gault emphasised that marine renewable needed to be integrated with other marine activities to unlock their potential while Dr Andy Wheeler discussed the possibility of finding compounds with potential biomedically related applications in the recently discovered Moytirra hydrothermal vent field on the mid-Atlantic ridge. In the Energy Session, Dr Denis Flynn and Mr Ken Bruton discussed how wireless sensors and fault detection systems could help us dramatically improve energy use in buildings and Dr Jerry Murphy presented research on the viability of using biogas generated from grass and slurry to fuel cars in Ireland. Delegates at the open day also heard how common pondweed has the potential to be used to remediate water contaminated with heavy metals and hazardous compounds (Dr Marcel Jansen) and how wood ash could be re-used as a fertiliser in Irish forests (Professor John O’Halloran).
The prize for the best research poster (amongst 26 entries) at the Open Day went to Ms. Jovanna Arndt (supervised by Dr John Wenger, Dept of Chemistry & ERI) for her research on “Characterisation of Single Particles from Domestic Solid Fuel Combustion in Cork Harbour, Ireland Using Aerosol Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry”. The poster can be viewed at the link below.
http://www.ucc.ie/en/eri/newsandevents/bodytext-140689-en.html
All the presentations at the 2011 ERI Research Open Day will be hosted on the ERI website in the near future (http://eri.ucc.ie).
Picture Professor Anita Maguire, Vice-President of Research and Innovation, UCC opening the 2011 Environmental Research Institute Open Day