Engineering Matters

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#150 Green Hydrogen: Creating the System Feb 17, 2022

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Green hydrogen, created from renewable energy resources, has been hailed as a panacea to decarbonisation of heat and fluctuation in natural gas prices. But the reality is that not every application will be either cost effective or practically viable. In this episode we explore the case for green hydrogen and find that its success is...

#149 Roads: Invention needs Ambition Feb 10, 2022

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In the UK in 2020, 80% of freight was moved by road and 90% of passenger miles were travelled by road. It is considered a high-carbon form of transport today, but this is changing as new technology is rapidly making electric vehicles and alternative fuels more attractive. With the decarbonisation of road transport, its popularity...

#148 Skyscrapers: Predicting the Future Feb 03, 2022

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Predicting the future is difficult, every year would-be prophets fail to predict major events and over-eager journalists seize on the words of ancient mystics to fill column inches. But there are some people who need to be able to predict what society will need, up to a decade in advance. Developers of skyscrapers need to...

#147 Flooding: Making Space for Water Jan 27, 2022

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In the summer of 2021 record rainfall overwhelmed river systems across Europe. People in the Limburg region of the Netherlands held their collective breath as water levels in the River Meuse rose. Floods in the 1990s had taught them what devastation flooding could bring. Fortunately, the government had already acted, investing in a unique and...

#146 Small Modular Reactors Jan 20, 2022

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The 2021 energy crisis saw coal power plants fire into life as natural gas prices spiralled and wind turbines stood idle. The combination of circumstances emphasised the need for firm power that is also zero carbon. Fortunately, a quiet revolution has been underway in the nuclear industry as Small Modular Reactor (SMR) plans are maturing....

#145 Andrew Smyth – Engineering with Cake Jan 13, 2022

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When Andrew Smyth turned the handle on his clockwork pies on Great British Bake Off in 2016, it brought together two disciplines that had never been combined before. Engineering and baking were combined in the glory of eight mechanised pies. For aerospace engineer Andrew this was just the beginning of a new career as a...

#144 Enhancing an Estuary, Restoring a River Jan 06, 2022

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In this first episode of the New Year, we are telling a story about renewal. A project in 1950s New Zealand called the Kaituna Cut re-diverted a river, draining wetlands to create pasture. But working against nature can have negative consequences. The process caused the Maketū estuary to silt, and biodiversity to crash. Now, following...

#143 Learning From Adventure Dec 23, 2021

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This week we bring you a guest episode from the Planet Beyond podcast. An adventurous spirit in people has made many successful organisations what they are today. To be truly great, we often find these people are guided by a moral compass, possessing core values that provide that relentless pointer to the right way, even...

#142 Blue Carbon: The Forgotten Store Dec 16, 2021

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Humans can feel that we have built a world to live in that is above and apart from nature. We concrete the ground, we regulate the temperature of our spaces, and we shield ourselves from storms. But increasingly wild and frequent weather events are making us doubt the endurance of our fortress of glass, steel,...

#141 Setting up a Vaccine Factory Dec 09, 2021

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By the end of 2021, 8 billion doses of COVID19 vaccine had been administered around the world. This achievement has only been possible thanks to world leading scientific research creating vaccines in record breaking time. However not many people realise that this is only part of the story. To get these vaccines into the arms...

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