Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) researchers have benefitted from a £1.6m grant to explore efficient generation of power through miniature engines.
The university is part of the UK-Irish consortium, QuamNESS, which also includes researchers at the University of Bristol and Trinity College Dublin.
They will use the EPSRC-SFI (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Science Foundation Ireland) funding to understand the fundamental principles governing the performance of the smallest engines.
The team will also develop mathematical tools and simulations, working towards the engineering of new technologies to manage heat flows and recover wasted energy.
RELATED: Controversy over North-South Interconnector and climate change continues
Thermodynamics studies the way energy is exchanged between bodies at different temperatures, predicts the likeliness of certain chemical reaction and explains why even the most energy-efficient engine will always produce waste.
However, QUB said that when we consider objects as simple as electrons, atoms or molecules, the laws of quantum mechanics should be used; “Only by blending thermodynamics and quantum theory will we be able to provide an accurate description of the way such simple system exchange energy among them.”
The research aims to produce miniaturised machines - of only a handful of atoms - that will offer highly efficient ways of generating power, managing heat flows and recovering wasted energy in wide-ranging technologies, from microprocessors to chemical reactions.
RELATED: SSE will continue £7.5b green energy plan despite Covid-19 disruption
Prof Mauro Paternostro from the School of Mathematics and Physics at QUB said: “Developing a new framework to unravel these quantum enhancements is of paramount importance and a core objective of our project. Quantum systems are well known to possess counterintuitive properties.
“Under the right conditions, these strange quantum effects can compete with and radically alter the usual way energy-exchange processes occur in nature. QuamNESS will sharpen our view of this interplay and how it can be harnessed for technological progress and fundamental understanding.”
He added that the grant is a “fantastic opportunity” that will “hopefully be a key step towards a full-scale, pan-Irish collaborative framework.”
RELATED: Green Tourism: How the islands are open and welcoming to green visitors
