Energy Efficiency Engineering: Making more with less and getting it done
17 Jul 2018 5:15 PM
Professor Michael Walmsley, School of Engineering
Professor Michael Walmsley walks a fine line between academia and industry and is well aware that what happens in theory doesn’t always work the same in practice.
He’ll be talking about his research at his inaugural professorial lecture taking place at the University of Waikato on Tuesday 17 July.
A chemical and materials engineer, Professor Walmsley’s research has mostly focussed on improving the energy efficiency in existing chemical processing plants, which he describes as “an elusive challenge”.
“What seems good to an academic in his office is often optimistic and can be far from the mark in the uncertain environment of industry,” he says.
Fundamental analysis may identify mechanisms and answers to perplexing questions. Lab-scale experiments may help to demonstrate overall effects and give confidence to try things on a larger scale, while numerical analysis may enable testing without the expense of a large-scale equipment. “While all of this work is great for academic publications and peer esteem, without passing through the R&D ‘pinch point’ to an installation in industry, no PJ’s of heat energy or kWh’s of electricity are actually saved,” says Professor Walmsley.
He says managing R&D projects above the ‘pinch’ is therefore important for delivering long-term benefits and research impacts to industry, and managing projects below the ‘pinch’ is important for staying on the landscape in a university setting and contributing to research excellence within the institution.
In his lecture, Professor Walmsley will discuss how the tension between scientific excellence and research impact is managed in engineering research, using dairy processing energy efficiency projects carried out by University of Waikato staff and students over 13 years.
Professor Michael Walmsley is currently the Assistant Dean of Academic programmes in the School of Engineering and is a founding member of the Waikato Energy Research Group. He was also part of a group that established engineering at the University of Waikato in 2000.
His academic career has led him to many universities around world. He has taught and/or done research at the University of Auckland, Monash University, University of Washington, University of Idaho, University of California Davis, University of Pannonia, Hungary and Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic. In 2014 he was a Fulbright Scholar, going to UC Davis to study renewably energy.
Tickets: Free and open to the public. OPUS Bar open from 4.30pm