Rashed Sheikh, PhD student, UCL Chemical Engineering

After being invited to the O&G Pipes Global Conference 2012, held by Informa Energy in London, I was exposed to many political, technical and safety issues with top experts in the oil and gas energy sector. This highlighted the challenges that exist in the energy industry today.

One issue raised was the Iranian-Pakistani gas pipeline, linking the two neighbouring countries. This pipeline is under development and was recently inaugurated by President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran.

The construction work on the Pakistan side is set to be completed within two years. Across Pakistan, there are thousands of homes and businesses that require a substantial increase in energy. This gas pipeline is one way of alleviating these problems and providing Iran (the world’s second largest holder of gas reserves) with a new gas export route.

It became apparent that these targets are difficult to meet due to political and security challenges and electrical power shortages, as meeting these targets itself requires energy – a Catch 22 situation.

Another issue raised was the Iraqi-Jordanian crude oil pipeline (under development) that links the two countries. This pipeline will help meet the growing energy demands for Jordan and help increase Iraq’s oil output from ~3 million barrels a day in 2012 to ~6 million barrels a day by 2020, and the aim is for it to be completed within five years.

It became apparent that these targets are difficult to meet due to political, security and infrastructural challenges. These problems cause businesses to focus elsewhere – however, Iraq (the world’s largest holder of oil reserves) has the potential to supply energy through to Europe for the next 80 years – another Catch 22 situation?

Seeing the scope of the oil and gas industry provided me with an in-depth view of the energy crisis. It was encouraging to see a new generation of experts exchanging ideas with experienced people, making the future of energy research worthwhile.

Image: oil pipeline by Toni Lucatorto on Flickr

Written by Mithila Manage, Graduate Research Engineer (UCL Chemical Engineering)

Torrential rain and knee deep mud couldn’t keep us away from a weekend of fun, music and spreading the word about our hydrogen fuel cell!

Off we went with our wellies at the ready to the Green Man Festival in Wales (17-19 August) to provide clean power to the Omni-Tent in Einstein’s Garden. Though I’m willing to bet Einstein probably wouldn’t have come up with something as great as this – the Garden aims to bring science to the masses and this year had an energy theme sponsored by the RCUK Energy programme.

Design of the hybrid polymer electrolyte fuel cell system has been led by Gordon Murray Design in collaboration with researchers from the UCL Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London and BOC. It has the ability to produce a whopping 8 kW of power; more than enough to provide clean, green and efficient power for the stage, sound and lighting in the Omni-Tent, which brought more science-themed fun to the festival crowd all weekend.

But, let’s face it, as much as I get excited about it and as great as it is for science and engineering, the magic of the fuel cell is still hidden away in a red box. That’s why we designed a game that made the festival goers a part of it. So much so, in fact, that they came out of it feeling like the hydrogen molecule itself! Welcome to the hydrogen relay.

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