W2B-035 Technology matters 3-0.txt
GREEN RESEARCH

By Jim Swindall

The recent sinking of the Braer off the Shetlands Islands has once again focused public attention on the impact of modern society, in particular industrial activity, upon our environment. This is the most recent stage in a process of increased awareness over the past decade. The growth in public concern has resulted in new environment legislation at national and European level that has had a profound effect upon industry and commerce.

One has only to look at the supermarket shelves to see the vast range of products that claim to be environmentally friendly. Even some family cars now claim to be recyclable as well as being energy-efficient. These changes came about as a direct result of industry and commerce seeing marketing advantage in selling products that claim to be 'green'.

Changes are also occurring in the manufacturing process where companies are taking steps to minimise their effluent and waste.

The increase in environmental consciousness in industry has given a boost to fundamental environmental research which underpins the practical solutions required to reduce the environmental impact of industrial operations. New effluent treatment systems are being developed, and there is an increasing emphasis on clean technology, ie changing the manufacturing process to eliminate a polluting by-product or to produce an innocuous waste which can be recycled.

Solutions

Much work needs to be carried out in the economics and social science areas to determine if proposed solutions do indeed lead to real environmental gain. For example, it takes 200 times more water and far more energy to make a paper cup than a polystyrene cup. Yet it is accepted wisdom that the paper cup is environmentally more sound. Another example is the belief that gas is a better fuel than coal because it produces less carbon dioxide which acts as a greenhouse gas. In reality the use of gas inevitably leads to leaks to the atmosphere and, as natural gas is a 20 times stronger greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, the answer to the question 'Which is the best fuel?' is not nearly so clear cut.

The QUESTOR Centre at Queen's, which was founded in 1989, was the first environmental IUCRC outside the USA. The International Fund for Ireland adopted the NSF role of providing the pump-priming funding for the first five years of operation. This amounted to £ 745,000, and a similar sum has been obtained from the 16 industry members of the Centre.

The members'subscriptions and the IFI contribution are used to fund fundamental research projects which are industrially relevant. The industry members help to select the projects submitted by University staff and also give valuable input at the six-monthly meetings of the Centre on practical aspects of the research. The existence of the Centre has led to other funding being brought into the University Ð to date £ 470,000 in research grants and £ 660,000 in EC STRIDE funding. It is confidently expected that more will follow. Increased contacts between the University and the Centre members has also been a positive outcome of the establishment of the Centre.

Links

International links have been established, especially with the Hazardous Substance Management Research Centre in New Jersey, but also with a French centre set up in 1990 and embryo centres in Canada and Russia. These links have proved most valuable, helping to avoid duplication of research effort and allowing new centres to learn from the experience of those established earlier.

When the QUESTOR Centre central laboratory was formally opened by David Bellamy on 24 October 1980 he said that it was 'a bright light at the end of a very dark tunnel'. Perhaps this was a bit of Bellamy overstatement but it is significant that, as a result of the existence of the QUESTOR Centre, industrially relevant environmental research costing over £ 3.5m has been funded at Queen's to date for the period 1989 Ð 1994.

(Jim Swindall is Director of the QUESTOR Centre at Queen's)
