The overarching goal of this project is to establish the technological potential, through a proof - of - concept study, of an entirely new family of glassy materials which could safely and stably incorporate high levels of CO2 by locking it away within the structure of the material in a stable form that is resistant to air, heat and light. In doing so it is believed this will present multiple new properties and in so doing this will enable transformative industrial changes in the way we manufacture, use, recycle and think about glass. There are three main pathways to academic and commercial impact: (1) UK glass industry and community (the primary route); (2) Multiple UK manufacturing sectors, specifically electronic devices and photonics; and (3) UK nuclear industry, specifically waste immobilisation and site license companies. Carboglass could provide multiple new innovation platforms for advanced materials and manufacturing technologies; carbon capture and storage; nuclear decommissioning; and energy and CO2 emissions reduction, thereby impacting upon policy, health and quality of life; delivering the capability to disrupt existing business models and contributing towards a more resilient, productive and prosperous nation. This research could lead to new technologies that provide the UK glass industry with CO2 emissions savings of up to 50% (1.25MT/yr) and increase resource efficiency by up to 20% (1 MT/yr, saving £100M/yr). It could also provide a new path for treatment of carbon-rich radioactive wastes, and could become a leading carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. This disruptive development could lead to new high-skilled UK jobs and offer a technology platform for uptake by other industries. The proposed research will take the form of 3 work packages (WP's) that will lead to proof-of-concept, as follows: WP1. CO2 incorporation (Months 1-20). Determine key chemical, structural and processing factors governing CO2 incorporation in materials. Materials incorporating CO2 will be produced. Outcomes: relations mapped in model systems, boundaries defined. WP2. Composition / structure / property relations (Months 3-24). Map relations in model materials with focus on CO2 incorporation and physical / chemical properties. Outcomes: fundamental understanding of effects of CO2 incorporation on material properties and structure achieved. WP3. Carboglass technology development (Months 12-24). Build / disseminate understanding of research needs to enable development of Carboglass technology towards high volume manufacturing. Outcomes: clear understanding of research needs for development of Carboglass technology, with initial upscaling designs disseminated widely to academic and industrial partners. Public benefits of this research will include improved environment and quality of life (lower CO2 emissions and energy use; safer nuclear waste, new functional materials leading to new products and processes); disruption of business models (UK jobs and wealth creation); and raised public interest in science and technology. Carboglass represents an opportunity for the UK to lead the world in new, clean and green technologies and simultaneously provides multiple new pathways for a resilient, productive and healthy UK.

Used nuclear fuel (UNF) for both existing and advanced nuclear fuel cycles currently under consideration in many countries, including the US and UK, is usually processed in molten salt (e.g., LiCl-KCl), and fission product and (activated) corrosion product elements that are more active than uranium accumulate in the molten salt as dissolved ions (e.g., Co2+, Nd3+, Pr3+, and Cs+). These elements need to be periodically removed to ensure process safety, recycle the salt, and minimize nuclear waste generation. However, there is a critical knowledge gap associated with the thermodynamics, physical and chemical properties, and in-service behaviour of these salts as a function of their evolution in-service - for example, fission product and actinide content, combined with evaporation / corrosion behaviour, can dynamically alter, in real-time, the composition and therefore critical properties of these molten salts. Indeed, even simple phase relations are poorly understood in fission product / actinide containing salts. For adequate treatment, recycle, and disposal of this nuclear waste stream plus recovering valuable elements such as uranium and transuranic metals, thermochemical and physical knowledge of molten salts is required. However, this knowledge is limited, especially for complex salts, such as LiCl-KCl salts involving lanthanide and actinide elements, oxide contamination, and alkali (Na, Rb, Cs) and alkaline earth (Sr, Ba) elements. In the proposed project, the extended LiCl-NaCl-KCl-RbCl-CsCl-SrCl2-BaCl2-LnCl3 (Ln = La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, and Y) system has been selected as the primary model system to demonstrate accelerated exploration of structural, thermodynamic, and physical properties using our open-source platform including ML models, high throughput DFT-based first-principles calculations, MD and AIMD simulations, and high throughput CALPHAD modeling using UNIQUC and MQM models. The UK partners will also aim to further study LiCl-Li2O-(RbCl, CsCl, SrCl2, and BaCl2), representative of electroreducer pyro-processing salts, and (LiF-NaF-KF and LiF-BeF2), representative of the US and UK candidate molten salt reactor (MSR) fuel / coolant salts. Our proposed US/UK collaborative research will develop a computational framework by implementing advanced thermodynamic models to systematically explore critical molten salt characteristics, addressing a critical global knowledge gap in molten salts relevant to future fast nuclear reactors and advanced future nuclear fuel cycles. The proposed research is not only directly relevant to the US NEUP Call Workscope FC-1.2, but also to the corresponding UK EPSRC Call and the wider UK civil nuclear programme. This project will be truly significant for the global molten salt community by providing various open source, high throughput computational approaches and tools, and underpinning datasets, to model and design advanced molten salts.

The Supergen Bioenergy Hub will bring together academic, industrial an policy stakeholders to focus on sustaianable bioenergy systems. It will adopt an interdisciplinary approach focused on key innovation stages. Research at UK universities will generate new knowledge and insights in sustainable bioenergy, while incubating UK science to deliver its commerical potential and working with researchers to ensure their knowledge is diffused across the innovation community for wider benefit. This will deliver impact with policy makers via our well-established policy connections and a focused policy-makers only forum to address their key concerns. It will deliver impact with industrialists via an industry forum that will connect innovators with UK scientists and engineers who can support them. It will deliver impact with the wider sustainable energy and product community by establishing a professional forum which will support training of commercial professionals and key knowledge transfer in new knowledge areas. Above all it will foster stronger connections between the academic, industrial and policy sectors in a way that supports advancement of sustainable bioenergy in the U.K.

This proposal brings together experts in complementary areas of physics, chemistry and engineering, to explore new science with potentially high practical impact. Processing glass and similar materials to precise, polished surfaces is the "hidden gem" behind many products and services we take for granted - both in precise control of the distribution of light (e.g. anti-glare headlamps), or to focus light in imaging. From medical X-ray cameras to satellite optics, precise, smooth surfaces are required, with surface errors but small fractions of a micron (maybe 1/1000 the width of a human hair), with roughness down to a few atoms. Also, highly localised defects can scatter light, reducing contrast, or lead to component failure in high-power laser applications. Polishing 'rubs' surfaces to remove damage from prior hard-grinding, and then controls surface-contours to meet design requirements. Historically, these steps were performed by highly-skilled craftspeople, who are in ever-shorter supply as they retire. Modern CNC machines now take much of the drudgery out, but even so, multiple polish/measure cycles are needed to reach refined levels of quality. The basic reason is that, after some 400 years of optical manufacture, the underlying 'rubbing' processes are still far from perfectly understood. A practical setup typically deploys some kind of rotating tool, fed with a liquid slurry containing a fine abrasive powder. The tool moves over a glass surface, often with complex contours. Details of fluid-flow at the microscopic level between tool and glass are complex, and control local interactions of individual abrasive particles with the glass. Then, at the atomic ('nano') scale, chemical-attack, plastic-flow and brittle-fracture perform a complex 'dance', controlling how material is removed. Prior work at various institutions has tended to focus on fluid flow OR nano-scale removal, representing distinct disciplines. But, modelling fluid-flow alone (computational fluid dynamics) omits chemistry and fracture-mechanics. Conversely, nano-scale molecular dynamics omits important fluid-flow issues. What nobody has done before, as we propose, is to combine these distinct approaches, supported by real-time process-monitoring data, and high-performance computing. Then CFD can provide molecular dynamics with predicted particle-trajectories, and particles in CFD can be treated as chemically-reactive rather than inert. The models can then by brought together in a unified large-scale and predictive macro model of removal-processes. Often, scientific breakthroughs arise at the INTERFACES between disciplines - precisely where this proposal focusses. This model will be further developed through polishing trials of complete surfaces, drawing on real-time process-data to predict removal, and post-process measurement of what material has been removed where, plus any defects. This promises to reveal how a surface progresses in real-time, when it is smothered with slurry and invisible to direct inspection. Processes can then be tuned 'on the fly' to keep removal on-target, and improve accuracy of the result. Our aim is then to reduce the number of process cycles required, and give insight into why defects arise and how to control them. In implementing the above, the mathematical and computer models developed at nano, micro and macro scales will describe fundamental aspects of molecules and fluids. This will be generally applicable, including different materials and abrasives. Another important application arises where the methods could be transformative - processes underlying materials wearing in mechanical systems (bearings, slide-ways, human joint-implants etc). So, what starts out as fundamental research into "intentional wear" in processes such as polishing, promises to have a profoundly significant impact on our understanding and control of "incidental wear" in things that rub - and wear-out - in everyday life!

A thriving, low carbon hydrogen sector is essential for the UK's plans to build back better with a cleaner, greener energy system. Hydrogen has the potential to reduce emissions in some of the highest-emitting and most difficult to decarbonise areas of the economy, which must be transformed rapidly to meet Net Zero targets. To achieve this, large amounts of low carbon hydrogen and alternative liquid fuels will be needed. These must be stored and transported to their point of use. There remain significant research challenges across the whole value chain and researchers, industry and policy makers must work collaboratively and across disciplines to drive forward large-scale implementation of hydrogen and alternative liquid fuels as energy vectors and feedstocks. The flagship UK-HyRES hub will identify, prioritise and deliver solutions to research challenges that must be overcome for widespread adoption of hydrogen and alternative liquid fuels. It will be a focus for the UK research community, both those who are already involved in hydrogen research and those who must be involved in future. The UK-HyRES hub will provide a network and collaboration platform for fundamental research, requiring the combined efforts of scientists, engineers, social scientists and others. The UK-HyRES team will coordinate a national, interdisciplinary programme of research to ensure a pipeline of projects that can deliver commercialisation of hydrogen and alternative liquid fuel technologies that are safe, acceptable, and environmentally, economically and socially sustainable, de-coupling fossil fuels from our energy system and delivering greener energy. We intend that, within its five-year funding window and beyond, UK-HyRES will be recognised internationally as a global centre of excellence and impact in hydrogen and alternative liquid fuel research.