Railway made Swedish villages and towns greener

Reports and Proceedings

UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG

 

IMAGE: LINDESBERG STATION IN THE 1940S. THE PICTURE SHOWS WHAT MANY RAILWAY STATIONS LOOKED LIKE BEFORE THE GARDENS WERE REMOVED IN THE 1950S. view more 

CREDIT: SWEDISH RAILWAY MUSEUM

Construction of the main railway lines in Sweden included a large-scale garden project. Parks and kitchen gardens were built around the new stations, and long hedges were planted along the railways. A new dissertation from the University of Gothenburg describes how this came to be and explains why almost all of these cultivated areas are now gone.

Not only did the introduction of railways in Sweden in the 1850s revolutionise travel. It also gave thousands of Swedish villages and towns large gardens, which were often the first public gardens to be established. Railways were novel, and the gardens were an important part of their positive reception.

“These gardens had several purposes. A beautiful park with trees, rosebeds, gravel walkways and benches signalled orderliness and created a comfortable environment where travellers could wait for the train. Hedges and rows of trees were planted to keep animals and people off the tracks, and the railway attendants who lived by the station also had kitchen gardens,” says University of Gothenburg researcher Anna Lindgren, who has written a dissertation entitled The State as Gardener.

Railway construction included gardens

Most of Sweden’s main lines were built in just a few decades in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Decisions for new railways were based on documentation for that included information about the routes, financial accounts and stations. But the parks and gardens are hardly mentioned at all. By going through the archive materials from that time, Anna Lindgren has found that these cultivated areas were likely included from the start.

“My interpretation is that the gardens were as much a matter of course as the rails, which is why they’re not included in the documents. There were similar gardens in countries that had railways early on, like England and Germany,” says Anna Lindgren.

In addition, in the mid-nineteenth century, the concept of the “art of improving nature” gained popularity and was considered a form of cultural expression. The approach at that time viewed the landscape as its own entity with aesthetic value. This also led to an increasing understanding of how gardens benefit local residents and supported nation-building. The railway gardens were high quality. First, local gardeners were hired, then SJ hired its own staff; at its peak, there were over 140 employees. In the 1860s, SJ built plant nurseries at several sites around the country to raise plants.

“The government wanted to bring the art of gardening to the people; there was an explicit ideal of popular education. Several station gardens signposted all of the plants, as is done in botanical gardens, and the plants were available to buy at the local nursery,” says Anna Lindgren.

SJ’s gardeners went around and inspected the gardens at the stations, which were also adapted to the local climate. SJ helped to define Sweden’s plant zones and introduced brand-new plant varieties to the country.

Private vehicles: the beginning of the end

Anna Lindgren discusses two eras that illustrate the rise and fall of railway gardens. During construction of the main lines in 1855–1875, no expense was spared on community building. A century later, from 1955-1975, society had changed – and so had travel habits.

“The societal shift to increased private car ownership from the mid-twentieth century resulted in a decline in train travel and SJ needed to save money. There was a shift from beautification to performance and unprofitable lines were quickly shut down. Streamlining was more important than having a beautiful setting around the stations,” says Anna Lindgren.

In just 20 years, much of the ambition for railway gardens had vanished, and responsibility for the planted areas was “bequeathed” to the local level. In 1973, SJ’s last plant nursery was closed, and responsibility for the planted areas often shifted to the municipalities. But the gardens were in attractive locations in town centres, and the land was often needed for parking for cars and buses. In just a few years, almost all of the gardens disappeared. Today, only a few large railway gardens remain in Sweden.

“During industrial modernisation of the nineteenth century, railways were one of the leading symbols of belief in the future, technological advances and building a modern society. But the shift to post-war ideals saw cars replace railways as the symbol of modern life, and railway stations went from places where people spent time to become places to pass through while travelling,” says Anna Lindgren.

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METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Staten som trädgårdsmästare. Järnvägens planteringar från naturförsköningskonst till testamente

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

20-Jan-2023

Mercury helps to detail Earth’s most massive extinction event

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT

The Latest Permian Mass Extinction (LPME) was the largest extinction in Earth’s history to date, killing between 80-90% of life on the planet, though finding definitive evidence for what caused the dramatic changes in climate has eluded experts.

An international team of scientists, including UConn Department of Earth Sciences researchers Professor and Department Head Tracy Frank and Professor Christopher Fielding, are working to understand the cause and how the events of the LPME unfolded by focusing on mercury from Siberian volcanoes that ended up in sediments in Australia and South Africa. The research has been published in Nature Communications.

Though the LPME happened over 250 million years ago, there are similarities to the major climate changes happening today, explains Frank:

“It’s relevant to understanding what might happen on earth in the future. The main cause of climate change is related to a massive injection of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere around the time of the extinction, which led to rapid warming.”

In the case of the LPME, it is widely accepted that the rapid warming associated with the event is linked to massive volcanism occurring at a huge deposit of lava called the Siberian Traps Large Igneous Province (STLIP), says Frank, but direct evidence was still lacking.

Volcanos leave helpful clues in the geological record. With the outpouring of lava, there was also a huge quantity of gases released, such as CO2 and methane, along with particulates and heavy metals that were launched into the atmosphere and deposited around the globe.

“However, it’s hard to directly link something like that to the extinction event,” says Frank. “As geologists, we’re looking for a signature of some kind — a smoking gun — so that we can absolutely point to the cause.”

In this case, the smoking gun the researchers focused on was mercury, one of the heavy metals associated with volcanic eruptions. The trick is finding areas where that record still exists.

Frank explains there is a continuous record of the earth’s history contained in sediments in marine environments which acts almost like a tape recorder because deposits are quickly buried and protected. These sediments yield an abundance of data about the extinction and how it unfolded in the oceans. On land, it is more difficult to find such well-preserved records from this time period.

To illustrate this, Frank uses Connecticut as an example: the state is rich with 400-500-million-year-old metamorphic rocks at or near the surface, with a covering of glacial deposits dating to around 23,000 years ago.

“There’s a big gap in the record here. You have to be lucky to preserve terrestrial records and that’s why they aren’t as well studied, because there are fewer of them out there,” says Frank.

Not all terrains around the world have such massive gaps in the geologic record, and previous studies of the LPME have focused primarily on sites found in the northern hemisphere. However, the Sydney Basin in Eastern Australia and the Karoo Basin in South Africa are two areas in the southern hemisphere that happen to have an excellent record of the event, and are areas Frank and Fielding have studied previously. A colleague and co-author, Jun Shen from the State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources at the China University of Geosciences, reached out and connected with Frank, Fielding, and other co-authors for samples, with hopes to analyze them for mercury isotopes.

Shen was able to analyze the mercury isotopes in the samples and tie all the data together says Frank.

“It turns out that volcanic emissions of mercury have a very specific isotopic composition of the mercury that accumulated at the extinction horizon. Knowing the age of these deposits, we can more definitively tie the timing of the extinction to this massive eruption in Siberia. What is different about this paper is we looked not only at mercury, but the isotopic composition of the mercury from samples in the high southern latitudes, both for the first time.”

This definitive timing is something that scientists have been working on refining, but as Fielding points out, the more that we learn, the more complicated it gets.

“As a starting point, geologists have pinpointed the timing of the major extinction event at 251.9 million years with a high degree of precision from radiogenic isotope dating methods. Researchers know that is when the major extinction event happened in the marine environment and it was just assumed that the terrestrial extinction event happened at the same time.”

In Frank and Fielding’s previous research, they found that the extinction event on land happened 200-600,000 years earlier, however.

“That suggests that the event itself wasn’t just one big whammy that happened instantaneously. It wasn’t just one very bad day on Earth, so to speak, it took some time to build and this feeds in well into the new results because it suggests the volcanism was the root cause,” says Fielding. “That’s just the first impact of the biotic crisis that happened on land, and it happened early. It took time to be transmitted into the oceans. The event 251.9 million years ago was the major tipping point in environmental conditions in the ocean that had deteriorated over some time.”

Retracing the events relies on knowledge from many different geologists all specializing in different methods, from sedimentology, geochemistry, paleontology, and geochronology, says Frank,

“This type of work requires a lot of collaboration. It all started with fieldwork when a group of us went down to Australia, where we studied the stratigraphic sections that preserved the time interval in question. The main point is that we now have a chemical signature in the form of mercury isotope signatures, that definitively ties the extinction horizon in these terrestrial sections that provide a record of what was happening on land due to Siberian Traps volcanism.”

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-022-35272-8 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Mercury evidence from southern Pangea terrestrial sections for end-Permian global volcanic effects

ESG

Study finds that board renewal can benefit the environment

Hannes Wagner, Bocconi University Milan, finds that governance mechanisms that help align the interests of investors and board members enhance the environmental performance of firms. This is true also if a woman is appointed to a previously all-male board

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BOCCONI UNIVERSITY

 

VIDEO: HANNES WAGNER, BOCCONI UNIVERSITY, MILAN, FINDS THAT GOVERNANCE MECHANISMS THAT HELP ALIGN THE INTERESTS OF INVESTORS AND BOARD MEMBERS ENHANCE THE ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE OF FIRMS. THIS IS TRUE ALSO IF A WOMAN IS APPOINTED TO A PREVIOUSLY ALL MALE BOARD. WAGNER’S INVESTIGATION IS JOINT WITH HIS COAUTHORS ALEXANDER DYCK (UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO), KARL V. LINS (UNIVERSITY OF UTAH), LUKAS ROTH (UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA), AND MITCH TOWNER (UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA). THE AUTHORS IDENTIFIED TWO POTENTIAL BOARD RENEWAL MECHANISMS: THE ADOPTION OF MAJORITY VOTING AND THE INTRODUCTION OF A FEMALE DIRECTOR. MAJORITY VOTING FOR BOARD MEMBERS IS DIFFERENT FROM PLURALITY VOTING. IT GIVES INVESTORS MORE POWER. “AND WHAT WE SHOW IS THAT MAJORITY VOTING RULES LEAD TO BETTER ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE,” PROFESSOR WAGNER SAYS. SO, GIVING INVESTORS MORE POWER, AND IMPROVING CORPORATE GOVERNANCE LEADS TO ANOTHER OUTCOME, WHICH IS IMPROVING ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE OF A FIRM. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR A LOT OF INVESTORS, SINCE WHILE THEY CARE ABOUT FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE, MANY OF THEM INCREASINGLY CARE ABOUT THESE OTHER NON-FINANCIAL ASPECTS OF THE PERFORMANCE OF A FIRM. THE APPOINTMENT OF A FEMALE DIRECTOR TO AN ALL-MALE BOARD HAS AN EVEN STRONGER EFFECT. “WE ANALYZE IN DETAIL HOW FEMALE BOARD MEMBERS DIFFER IN THEIR CHARACTERISTICS FROM MALE BOARD MEMBERS, SINCE WE KNOW FOR EXAMPLE THAT FEMALE DIRECTORS TEND TO HAVE HIGHER EDUCATION LEVELS,” WAGNER EXPLAINS. “WHAT IS INTERESTING IS THAT ONCE WE CONTROL FOR ANY DIFFERENCES SUCH AS EDUCATION AND PRIOR EXECUTIVE EXPERIENCE, THE FEMALE EFFECT CONTINUES TO SHOW UP. SO, APPOINTING FEMALE DIRECTORS TO ALL-MALE BOARDS IMPROVES ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE AND THIS IS DIRECTLY RELATED TO GENDER.” view more 

CREDIT: BOCCONI UNIVERSITY, MILAN

In an age when environmental awareness is widespread among investors, board renewal mechanisms that better align investors’ and directors’ interests can enhance a firm’s environmental performance, according to a new study by Hannes Wagner (Bocconi University, Milan). Interestingly, the study also finds a positive relation between the appointment of female directors and environmental performance.

Wagner’s investigation is joint with his coauthors Alexander Dyck (University of Toronto), Karl V. Lins (University of Utah), Lukas Roth (University of Alberta), and Mitch Towner (University of Arizona). It is titled “Renewable Governance: Good for the Environment?”, and it is forthcoming in the Journal of Accounting Research.

The authors identified two potential board renewal mechanisms: the adoption of majority voting and the introduction of a female director. Under majority voting, directors must obtain more than half of the votes cast by shareholders to be elected. Without it, directors only need a plurality of the votes cast. Thus, majority voting gives investors the ability to vote against directors, rather than just withhold their votes.

The paper finds that the introduction of majority voting is correlated to a significant increase in a firm’s environmental performance. In recent years investors have been pushing for firms to focus on environmental, rather than just financial, performance. Majority voting ensures a greater alignment between the interests of investors and directors.

The findings are even stronger when considering the relation between environmental performance and the appointment of a female director in the board. Most interestingly, the coefficients are still significant when controlling for board member characteristics such as education and experience. This suggests that the improvement in environmental performance is a direct effect of gender itself rather than of characteristics of female directors.

“The key contribution of our work is providing a roadmap for investors,” Professor Wagner said. “We show that if they want to increase environmental performance, they should not only monitor sustainability metrics, but also take action ‘upstream’, at the board level, where changes that produce such improvements are decided.”

The authors exploit quasi-exogenous shocks in different countries as a testing field for their hypotheses. These shocks are useful as they cause a change in one of the two variables investigated in the paper (female presence in the board or majority voting) without specifically intending to address firms’ environmental performance.

To evaluate the effect of appointing a female director, the authors analyzed countries that introduced compulsory gender quotas for boards. The results show that firms that introduced a female board member for the first time environmentally outperformed firms that did not by 8%, on average.

“Currently, regulatory efforts are aimed at increasing gender equality in boards. As an interesting and welcome side effect, these measures appear to also improve environmental performance of firms,” Prof. Wagner commented.

As for majority voting, the authors exploited the pressure from a campaign conducted by a large investor group in Canada. In this case, too, firms that switched to majority voting after the campaign exhibited a significant improvement in environmental performance measures.

Finally, the link between board renewal mechanism and environmental performance was stronger in countries with better investor protection laws and stricter disclosure requirements. But that is not all. The same (stronger link) was true also for firms having a more “motivated” shareholder base. This result reinforces the hypothesis that investors use board renewal to align the boards’ interests with their own.

“As ever more shareholders look for sustainability when making investment choices,” Prof. Wagner concluded, “investigating the drivers of environmental performance at the board level is something that can produce meaningful and tangible results. As so often, academic research can help better decision making”.

Alexander Dyck, Karl V. Lins, Lukas Roth, Mitch Towner, Hannes Wagner, “Renewable Governance: Good for the Environment?”, forthcoming in Journal of Accounting Research. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-679X.12462.

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JOURNAL

Journal of Accounting Research

DOI

10.1111/1475-679X.12462 

ARTICLE TITLE

Renewable Governance: Good for the Environment?

Aston University receives Wolfson Foundation grant to help develop first integrated lab-scale center to explore low carbon hydrogen production from biomass conversion

Grant and Award Announcement

ASTON UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: EBRI view more 

CREDIT: ASTON UNIVERSITY

Aston University receives Wolfson Foundation grant to help develop first integrated lab-scale centre to explore low carbon hydrogen production from biomass conversion

•  Grant to help set up first integrated centre to explore low carbon hydrogen production from biomass conversion
• Centre to be equipped with state-of-the-art technology
• Will place Aston University at the forefront of hydrogen production and utilisation

 25 January 2023 | Birmingham, UK

Aston University is to set up the first integrated centre to explore low carbon hydrogen production from biomass conversion.

The new research centre will be developed at Aston University with the help of a £300,000 grant from the Wolfson Foundation, which will enable the University to acquire state-of-the-art equipment including for gasification, membrane separation and fuel cells. Having these technologies integrated within the new centre will place Aston University at the forefront of hydrogen production and utilisation based on biomass conversion and will strengthen its global research reputation in these areas.

The new equipment will be installed at the University’s campus-based Energy and Bioproducts Research Institute (EBRI), which carries out world-leading research into new and innovative ways of converting biomass into sources of sustainable energy, using thermochemical, biological and catalytic processes.

It is expected that this research centre will allow national and international collaborations on low carbon hydrogen production and use. The research topics will be closely aligned to both the UK Government’s target to transition to net zero by 2050 and to future sustainable energy worldwide.

Professor Patricia Thornley, director of EBRI, said: “We are delighted to receive this generous grant which will help place EBRI at the forefront of hydrogen technology development in the UK.

“Researchers have a crucial role to play in supporting new energy technologies and this new facility will contribute to the Government’s 2050 net zero target.

“As well as all the new opportunities this holistic and novel approach will bring, it will involve diverse stakeholders including policy makers, academics, industrialists, etc.

“I am looking forward to using the new facilities to support industrialists and developers progressing technology scale-up in this important area.”

Paul Ramsbottom, chief executive of the Wolfson Foundation, said: “Aston University’s Energy and Bioproducts Research Institute is well-placed to support the UK’s continuing journey towards achieving net zero. We are delighted to be supporting new facilities which will help them deepen their collaboration with industry in efforts to generate, store and utilise sustainable hydrogen as a viable alternative to fossil fuels. It is a crucial area of research.”

Aston University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Aleks Subic, said: “This new centre will help strengthen Aston University’s place as a national and global centre of expertise for future energy.

“It will build on existing relationships with our industrial partners, facilitate future research collaborations, as well as support teaching of our students to make them better equipped to tackle one of the grand challenges of the 21st century. We are extremely grateful to the Wolfson Foundation for their continued support and for helping to make this centre possible.”

The Wolfson Foundation awards grants for new buildings, refurbishment and equipment to support excellence in the fields of science and medicine, health, education and the arts and humanities. Aston University and EBRI researchers will enormously benefit from this grant which will open various opportunities for national and international collaborations with different stakeholders.

In May, June and September the EBRI plant will be opening its doors to professionals who want to enhance their careers with a short hands-on course in Practical Process Engineering. For more information visit https://www.aston.ac.uk/study/courses/practical-process-engineering

ENDS

Notes to Editors

The Wolfson Foundation is an independent charity with a focus on research and education. Its aim is to support civil society by investing in excellent projects in science, health, heritage, humanities and the arts.

 

Since it was established in 1955, some £1 billion (£2 billion in real terms) has been awarded to more than 12,000 projects throughout the UK, all on the basis of expert review.

Twitter: @wolfsonfdn

 

The academics leading this centre will be Dr Paula Blanco (leading research in biomass gasification), Dr Zhentao Wu (leading research in membranes), Dr Amir Amiri (leading research in fuel cells), and Dr Clara Serrano (technical support).

 

About Aston University

Founded in 1895 and a university since 1966, Aston is a long-established university led by its three main beneficiary groups – students, business and the professions, and the West Midlands region and wider society. Located in Birmingham at the heart of a vibrant city, the campus houses all the University’s academic, social and accommodation facilities for our students. Professor Aleks Subic is the Vice-Chancellor & Chief Executive.

In 2022 Aston University was ranked in the top 25 of the Guardian University Guide, based on measures including entry standards, student satisfaction, research quality and graduate prospects. The Aston Business School MBA programme was ranked in the top 100 in the world in the Economist MBA 2021 ranking.

For media inquiries in relation to this release, contact Nicola Jones, Press and Communications Manager, on (+44) 7825 342091 or email: n.jones6@aston.ac.uk

 

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Elevated design keeps solar stills salt-free

Peer-Reviewed Publication

KING ABDULLAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (KAUST)

 

VIDEO: LEARN HOW KAUST RESEARCHERS ARE INVENTING FRESH WAYS TO DESALINATE SEAWATER. view more 

CREDIT: © 2023 KAUST; ANASTASIA SERIN.

A solar distillation device can purify brine from reverse osmosis plants with over 10 percent salinity, as well as water taken directly from the Red Sea. The technology offers double the freshwater production rate of existing salt-rejection solar stills.

 

Inspired by the floating solar still in “The Life of Pi” movie, KAUST professor Qiaoqiang Gan has developed several nanomaterials and thermal isolation processes to enhance the evaporation of brackish water into pure steam. In 2016 he launched a startup, Sunny Clean Water, that produces low-cost inflatable stills capable of generating 10-20 liters of fresh water per day.

In 2021, Gan joined KAUST and teamed up with fellow KAUST professor Yu Han and researcher Kaijie Yang to improve the efficiency of salt rejection, a strategy that employs techniques such as hydrophobic surfaces or fluid convection to limit mineral buildups.

 

The team’s new evaporator is a centimeter-scale plastic cube that contains several glass fiber membranes — thin materials normally used for filtration. A horizontally aligned membrane coated with carbon nanotubes acts as a light-absorbing layer on the cube’s upper surface. Underneath it, a series of vertically oriented membranes, or “mass transfer bridges,” separate the solar absorber from the bulk salt water.

  

A simple solar-powered method to desalinate seawater and make it drinkable could be used in emergency situations or on life rafts.

CREDIT

© 2023 KAUST; Anastasia Serin.

When it comes to seawater purification, however, Gan admits that even his devices have limits. “Over time, you’ll always see salt accumulation on the solar absorbing material — the accumulated salt reflects sunlight and degrades the still’s performance,” he says.

Yang, who conceived the design, explains that the bridges contain hydrophilic microchannels that soak up seawater to the top solar layer for distillation into steam. And when salt accumulation reaches a threshold, the same microchannels transport brine back into the seawater due to the capillary action of concentration gradients.

 

The elevated bridges allow the conductive heat that occurs during salt backflow to flow into the solar still, improving evaporation efficiency. “Other evaporators can realize good salt rejection, but with a short backflow process, there's a lot of heat energy loss and it impacts water generation rates,” says Yang.

“Our system has the advantage that it can adjust the tradeoff between salt rejection and water generation.”

 

Testing in both indoor labs and outdoor field stations revealed the solar still could meet the drinking needs of two people daily, with estimated raw material costs of US$50 per square meter.

 

“We can scale up to a larger architecture by assembling the cubes together,” says Han. “Because this device offers long-term operation without any maintenance, we’re preparing for commercialization.”

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-022-34528-7 

ARTICLE TITLE

Three-dimensional open architecture enabling salt-rejection solar evaporators with boosted water production efficiency

Nuclear safety research: 1.3 million euros awarded to junior research group from TU Dresden and Helmholz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR)

Business Announcement

TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITÄT DRESDEN

 

IMAGE: ROFEX, THE ULTRAFAST ELECTRON BEAM X-RAY COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY SYSTEM AT THE HELMHOLTZ-ZENTRUM DRESDEN-ROSSENDORF (HZDR), CAN RECORD UP TO 5,000 IMAGES PER SECOND – A WORLD RECORD. IT ENABLES THE VISUALIZATION OF FLOWS AS THEY OCCUR IN THE PRIMARY COOLANT CIRCUIT OF NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS AND THUS CONTRIBUTES TO NUCLEAR SAFETY RESEARCH. view more 

CREDIT: HZDR

As a consequence of Germany’s phasing out of nuclear power, young people are steadily losing interest in the subject area of nuclear safety research. The number of graduates in this area is declining and there are ever fewer nuclear experts in Germany. At the same time, Germany still needs these specialists simply by virtue of the fact that our neighboring countries continue to operate existing nuclear power plants and build new ones. Moreover, new types of reactor such as smaller modular or liquid metal-cooled ones are also being developed. These require specialized safety research and expert knowledge. Another technological and infrastructural challenge is the disposal of highly radioactive waste – an issue that will likely affect Germany for decades to come. The junior research group RIMANUS at TU Dresden seeks to counteract the impending loss of expertise and establish appealing educational research programs to recruit young early-career researchers for nuclear safety research.

The RIMANUS project has prevailed as part of an initiative of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection for promoting groups of early-career researchers in nuclear safety research at German universities. Over the next three years, the junior research group will receive 1.28 million euros in funding. Their research activities will focus on the refinement and use of innovative imaging processes for current issues in reactor safety research as well as the monitoring of nuclear fuels.

Today’s nuclear reactors are primarily light-water reactors. For safe operation, cooling the reactor core is an imperative process in the event of a malfunction. However, if for instance the pressure system has a leak, water will evaporate and the emergency core cooling system will be impaired. A well-known malfunction was the reactor accident in Fukushima, where a power outage led to cooling failure and in turn a core meltdown.

“Current research focuses on predicting when the cooling system would no longer suffice in cases of reactor failure. Therefore, we – and other research groups around the world – are working on both creating computer simulations and conducting experiments. Such experiments require appropriate measurement technology to analyze flow behavior. Image-generating measurement methods such as those developed at HZDR can contribute immensely,” explains Dr. Michael Wagner, RIMANUS Project Leader.

Ultrafast electron beam X-ray computed tomography at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf has enabled scientists to make liquid-gas flows in pipelines visible to the human eye at up to 5,000 frames per second. This unique imaging technique was primarily developed at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf and is being used and adapted for various applications at the Chair of Imaging Techniques in Energy and Process Engineering at TU Dresden. “Our objective for the RIMANUS project is to take these X-ray imaging techniques a step further to generate 3D images and create greater beam energy for nuclear safety research,” says Wagner.

The junior research group is also looking into how to store spent nuclear fuel. Since there is currently no final repository in Germany, radioactive waste has to be temporarily kept in storage and transport containers – most commonly CASTOR casks – for well over 50 years. Researchers do not currently have the appropriate knowledge to ensure that the spent fuels will remain intact and unchanged over the course of these long storage periods. However, this information is imperative for later transferring the material to final storage vessels. It would be preferable to be able to apply a non-invasive test method that would allow scientists to gain knowledge about the state of the fuel behind the 50-centimeter thick steel walls of storage containers and avoid opening them prematurely. One possible option is the use of cosmic-ray muons. Using these simply charged particles, which are created in the Earth’s upper atmosphere and are capable of penetrating even very large, thick objects, RIMANUS researchers want to implement muon imaging to inspect the temporary storage containers for spent nuclear fuel.

The RIMANUS (“Innovative Radiation-based Imaging Techniques for Nuclear Safety Research”) research group is headquartered at TU Dresden’s Chair of Imaging Techniques in Energy and Process Engineering. Practical research is conducted at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf.

Battery research moves to next stage of commercialization

Faraday Institution research creates pathway to Innovate UK Round 5 development projects

Grant and Award Announcement

THE FARADAY INSTITUTION

HARWELL, UK (26 January 2023) UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) today announced a further investment of £27.6 million from the Faraday Battery Challenge to support collaborative R&D projects co-funded by industry and managed by Innovate UK on behalf of UKRI. At least five of the projects chosen in what was a highly competitive process leverage the knowledge, capabilities and know-how developed by the Faraday Institution research community.

UKRI announcement.

Professor Pam Thomas, CEO of the Faraday Institution commented, “The range of new projects funded by Innovate UK that are based on Faraday Institution research clearly demonstrates the success of our organisation in identifying and pursing battery science and engineering ripe for commercialisation. The Faraday Battery Challenge is working as intended to marry research, innovation and scaleup to deliver positive impact for the UK. The 17 projects announced by Innovate UK today will help create a thriving and profitable UK battery development and manufacturing industry.”

Tony Harper, Challenge Director for the Faraday Battery Challenge, said, “As we move towards a net zero future the UK’s electric vehicle industry must continue to evolve. These winning projects have all shown how their ideas can potentially accelerate the development of technologies or business practices in the UK. I look forward to seeing how their innovations help to significantly advance the performance characteristics of batteries for electric vehicles.”

The projects with Faraday Institution researcher involvement include:

REBLEND aims to further develop three processes to directly recover valuable cathode active materials (CAM) from production scrap and end of life automotive and consumer batteries for reuse in automotive batteries, building the basis for a UK-based automotive battery recycling industry. The project is led by Ecoshred, with University of Leicester, University of Birmingham, Minviro, Iconichem Widnes, Watercycle Technologies, Ecolamp Recycling, and Cornish Lithium. The project combines novel delamination, magnetic, electrostatic and membrane separation techniques, developed as part of the Faraday Institution’s ReLiB project. REBLEND has the aim to produce separated and >89% pure anodic and >94% pure cathodic black mass from shredded end of life batteries enabling battery-grade CAM recovery for £6/kg.

About:Energy has been awarded a project to further develop The Voltt – their database of battery model input parameters. The company is a spin-out founded to commercialise research developed by the Faraday Institution Multi-scale Modelling project. It is focused on breaking down a barrier that currently exists that is slowing the widespread adoption of battery modelling – access to highly accurate parameterisation data, a process that requires expensive equipment and specialist knowledge for data capture. The further development of The Voltt will empower organisations to harness the power of data and modelling to speed up the battery development process, by, for example, helping automakers with cell selection and lifetime predictions. The project also involves Imperial College London and Arrival.

OXLiD is leading a project to accelerate the development, scale-up and commercialisation of quasi-solid-state lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries. The project builds on significant progress made by the Faraday Institution LiSTAR project and commercialisation team, and involves project partners at the University of Nottingham, University College London, William Blythe, WAE, Exawatt, Emerson and Renwick, and Infineum UK. Li-S batteries are a promising energy storage technology for application where high performance, lightweight batteries are needed. Quasi-solid-state Li-S batteries have the potential to significantly enhance Li-S cycle life, energy density and operating temperature range. The project will develop suitable electrodes, separators, electrolytes, and a cell design, with the aim of combining them in pouch cell format and demonstrating superior performance.

The HISTORY - The HIgh Silicon content anOdes for a solid-state batteRY - project will further develop a multi-layer, solid state pouch cell with specifications aligned with the needs of electric vehicle pack developers. Solid state battery (SSB) technology is expected to rapidly provide safety and performance improvements compared to the incumbent lithium-ion battery technology. Ilika will design and fabricate the SSB cell. Researchers at the University of St Andrews who have been working with Ilika on a Faraday Institution Industrial Sprint on SSBs will continue their collaboration in the HISTORY project by characterising the interfaces and materials interactions in the multi-layer pouch cell. Researchers at University College London and Imperial College London will apply their expertise and tools developed as part of a number of the Faraday Institution projects to model the expansion and contraction of the SSB at single-layer, multi-layer and pack level. Nexeon will develop a high silicon content anode based on its low expansion NSP-2 material, the Centre for Process Innovation will formulate inks with the silicon powders to be incorporated into Ilika’s SSB cell and UCL will conduct in-depth characterisation of the materials. HSSMI will provide recommendations for reduced environmental impact and improved end-of-life outcomes.

Another project of note is EXtrAPower - Enabling Xtreme Automotive Power - led by Nyobolt with University of Cambridge, Coventry University and WAE. Nyobolt is bringing to market an ultra-fast charging battery technology, providing significant advantages over current state-of-the-art. This project is seeking to optimise cell performance over an extended operating temperature range with enhanced cycle life. Dr Israel Temprano (a researcher on the Faraday Institution’s Degradation project based at the University of Cambridge) will lead the project’s efforts to optimise electrolyte formulations. The Faraday Institution previously awarded two Industry Fellowships to Coventry University to develop prototype cells confirming performance potential that supported a previous funding round for Nyobolt.

The Faraday Battery Challenge brings together world-leading research, business innovation and scale up of manufacturing to accelerate to develop the latest battery technologies – a crucial part of the UK’s move towards a net zero emissions economy. An additional £211 million in funding was announced on 21st October 2022, allowing the challenge to exploit the momentum, nationwide learning and industrial support generated since it began in 2017.

For more information on the Faraday Institution, visit www.faraday.ac.uk and follow @FaradayInst on twitter.

E-cigarettes potentially harmful: PET imaging shows greater lung inflammation in e-cigarette users than cigarette smokers

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SOCIETY OF NUCLEAR MEDICINE AND MOLECULAR IMAGING

 

IMAGE: SUMMARY OF THE PILOT STUDY AND PRELIMINARY PET IMAGING FINDINGS. view more 

CREDIT: IMAGE CREATED BY R WETHERILL, DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHIATRY, PERELMAN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, PHILADELPHIA, PA.

Reston, VA—Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) users have greater lung inflammation than cigarette smokers and non-smokers, according to a new study published online in The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. This study is the first to provide evidence that vaping e-liquids with e-cigarettes creates a unique inflammatory response in the lungs that is different from cigarette smoking.

E-cigarette usage has increased dramatically in the past several years, particularly among adolescents and young adults. While many assume that e-cigarettes are safer than conventional cigarettes, they can cause pulmonary inflammation and increase the risk of lung disease. In addition, their long-term safety has not been rigorously evaluated.

This is the first PET study to use a novel radiotracer, 18F-NOS, to compare lung inflammation between cigarette and e-cigarette users in vivo. Although PET imaging with 18F-FDG has been used in the past to investigate inflammation in smokers and vapers, its conclusions were limited.

“iNOS is an enzyme that is overexpressed in e-cigarette users and cigarette smokers and is associated with acute and chronic inflammatory diseases,” said Reagan Wetherill, PhD, the study’s lead author and faculty member at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. “This makes it a relevant target for molecular imaging of lung inflammation and inflammatory lung disease.”

Study participants were divided into three age- and sex-matched groups: five e-cigarette users, five cigarette smokers, and five never-smoked/vaped controls. 18F-NOS PET was performed to quantify and compare lung inflammation.

E-cigarette users showed greater pulmonary inflammation than cigarette smokers and never-smoked/vaped controls. A positive association between pulmonary and peripheral measures of inflammation was also found, suggesting that e-cigarette use may increase pulmonary inflammation.

“Having these findings provides patients with additional evidence about the potentially harmful effects of e-cigarette use on the lungs,” says Wetherill. “Our work advances what is currently known about the impacts of e-cigarette use on respiratory health and provides a better understanding of harm and harm reduction associated with e-cigarette use relative to cigarette smoking.”

Senior author and Perelman School of Medicine Department of Radiology faculty member Jacob Dubroff, MD, PhD, sees a growing role for using molecular imaging to understand the effects of electronic cigarettes. He notes, “These findings suggest molecular imaging may be uniquely poised to detect and measure the potential pathophysiologic harms associated with electronic cigarettes, which have been touted as a safer vehicle for nicotine compared to traditional combustible cigarettes.”

This study was made available online in January 2023.

The authors of “Molecular Imaging of Pulmonary Inflammation in Electronic and Combustible Cigarette Users: A Pilot Study” include Reagan R. Wetherill, Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Robert K. Doot, Anthony J. Young, Hsiaoju Lee, Erin K. Schubert, Robert H. Mach, and Jacob G. Dubroff, Department of Radiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Corinde E. Wiers, Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Department of Radiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Frank T. Leone, Comprehensive Smoking Treatment Program, Penn Lung Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Henry R. Kranzler, Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Crescenz VAMC, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Visit the JNM website for the latest research, and follow our new Twitter and Facebook pages @JournalofNucMed or follow us on LinkedIn.

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Please visit the SNMMI Media Center for more information about molecular imaging and precision imaging. To schedule an interview with the researchers, please contact Rebecca Maxey at (703) 652-6772 or rmaxey@snmmi.org.

About JNM and the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging

The Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM) is the world’s leading nuclear medicine, molecular imaging and theranostics journal, accessed 15 million times each year by practitioners around the globe, providing them with the information they need to advance this rapidly expanding field. Current and past issues of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine can be found online at http://jnm.snmjournals.org.

JNM is published by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI), an international scientific and medical organization dedicated to advancing nuclear medicine and molecular imaging—precision medicine that allows diagnosis and treatment to be tailored to individual patients in order to achieve the best possible outcomes. For more information, visit www.snmmi.org.

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JOURNAL

Journal of Nuclear Medicine

DOI

10.2967/jnumed.122.264529 

ARTICLE TITLE

Molecular imaging of pulmonary inflammation in electronic and combustible cigarette users: a pilot study

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Jan-2023

COI STATEMENT

Dr. Kranzler is a member of advisory boards for Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Sophrosyne Pharmaceuticals, and Enthion Pharmaceuticals; a consultant to Sobrera Pharmaceuticals; recipient of grant funds and medication supplies from Alkermes for an investigator-initiated study; a member of the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology’s Alcohol Clinical Trials Initiative, which was supported by Alkermes, Dicerna, Ethypharm, Lundbeck, Mitsubishi, and Otsuka; and a holder of U.S. patent 10,900,082 titled: "Genotype-guided dosing of opioid agonists," issued 26 January 2021. Drs. Dubroff, Doot, and Mach have received support from the Michael J. Fox Foundation.