Energy

The NCPST investigates plasma based technologies for new and improved energy production and storage.

About the Research Area

With environmental requirements there is a need to reduce carbon emissions and our reliance on fossil fuels. This alongside an increase in worldwide energy demand requires investing in clean sustainable energy solutions. We conduct fundamental research on developing energy related technologies. These include nuclear fusion energy production and sustainable energy storage options. Fusion energy has the potential to provide a sustainable solution to global energy needs and in particular provide a continuous baseload power supply which is sustainable, large-scale and environmentally responsible. The conditions required to induce a self-sustaining fusion reaction are almost unbelievably extreme: A temperature of millions of degrees must be produced. This is very challenging, but it seems to be getting closer to realisation. The NCPST is a member of the EUROfusion consortium and part of a large-scale international scientific experiment that is exploring the ability to produce commercial energy from fusion – ITER.

Alongside new sustainable energy sources, storage and transport solutions are equally important. With increasing employment of renewable energy sources e.g. wind and solar, there is a need for flexible storage solutions to handle discontinuous energy supply. Plasma technologies can be quickly and easily turned on and off and used to convert energy into fuels or chemicals. We research plasma gas conversion concepts e.g. CO_2 conversion into value-added chemicals and renewable fuels. The NCPST is a partner in the ITN PIONEER project on Plasma Catalysis for CO_2 Recycling.

Research Projects

Energy Publications

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Effects of Cu diffusion-doping on structural, optical, and magnetic properties of ZnO nanorod arrays grown by vapor phase transport method. Yílmaz, S; McGlynn, E; Bacaksiz, E; Özcan, Ş; Byrne, D; Henry, M.O; Chellappan, R.K. Journal of Applied Physics 2012

Length versus radius relationship for ZnO nanowires grown via vapor phase transport. Saunders, R.B; Garry, S; Byrne, D; Henry, M.O; Mcglynn, E. Crystal Growth and Design 2012

Raman Spectroscopy and its Application in the Characterization of Semiconductor Devices. McNally, P.J. Nanomaterials: Processing and Characterization with Lasers 2012

Temporal and frequency analysis of power signatures for common household appliances. Meehan, P; Phelan, S; McArdle, C; Daniels, S. IET Conference Publications 2012

Smart energy management for off-grid hybrid sites in telecoms. Phelan, S; Meehan, P; Krishnamurthy, S; Daniels, S. IET Conference Publications 2012

Impurity transport studies using fast imaging of injected carbon on the MAST tokamak. Leggate, H.J; Lisgo, S.W; Harrison, J.R; Elmore, S; Allan, S.Y; Turner, M.M. 39th EPS Conference on Plasma Physics 2012, EPS 2012 and the 16th International Congress on Plasma Physics 2012

Fabrication and characterization of nanotemplated carbon monolithic material. He, X; Nesterenko, E.P; Nesterenko, P.N; Brabazon, D; Zhou, L; Glennon, J.D; Luong, J.H.T; Paull, B. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces 2013

Deposition of earth-abundant p-type CuBr films with high hole conductivity and realization of p-CuBr/n-Si heterojunction solar cell. Rajani, K.V; Daniels, S; Rahman, M; Cowley, A; McNally, P.J. Materials Letters 2013

Laser machined macro and micro structures on glass for enhanced light trapping in solar cells. Moore, D; Rahman, M; Dowling, D.P; McNally, P.J; Brabazon, D. Applied Physics A: Materials Science and Processing 2013

Strain characterization of directly bonded germanium-to-silicon substrates. Bennett, N.S; Ferain, I; McNally, P.J; Holl, S; Colinge, C. ECS Transactions 2013

Hydrogen absorption in thin ZnO films prepared by pulsed laser deposition. Melikhova, O; Čížek, J; Lukáč, F; Vlček, M; Novotný, M; Bulíř, J; Lančok, J; Anwand, W; Brauer, G; Connolly, J; McCarthy, E; Krishnamurthy, S; Mosnier, J.-P. Journal of Alloys and Compounds 2013

Uniaxial stress and Zeeman spectroscopy of the 3.324-eV Ge-related photoluminescence in ZnO. Cullen, J; Johnston, K; McGlynn, E; Henry, M.O; Dunker, D; Yakovlev, D.R; Bayer, M. Physical Review B – Condensed Matter and Materials Physics 2013

Photochemical activity of TiO2 nanotubes. Pfuch, A; Güell, F; Toelke, T; Das, S.K; Messaoudi, H; McGlynn, E; Seeber, W; Fábrega, C; Andreu, T; Morante, J.R; Grunwald, R. Proceedings of SPIE – The International Society for Optical Engineering 2013

Defect studies of ZnO films prepared by pulsed laser deposition on various substrates. Melikhova, O; Čížek, J; Procházka, I; Kužel, R; Novotný, M; Bulíř, J; Lančok, J; Anwand, W; Brauer, G; Connolly, J; McCarthy, E; Krishnamurthy, S; Mosnier, J.-P. Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2013

Using atmospheric pressure tendency to optimise battery charging in off-grid hybrid wind-diesel systems for telecoms. Phelan, S; Meehan, P; Daniels, S. Energies 2013