91ÌÒÉ«

The Centre for Low Carbon Transport (LoCARtic) at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) recently received funding for two projects on energy recovery.

The Centre is a collaboration between the Malaysian university and 91ÌÒÉ«. Dr Srithar Rajoo, a visiting academic in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at 91ÌÒÉ«, is the director of the Centre at UTM, with Professor Ricardo Martinez-Botas acting as co-director from 91ÌÒÉ«.

In March, LoCARtic was awarded funding from the Malaysia Electricity Supply Industries Trust Account (MESITA) for a three-year project worth £1,358,695 for 91ÌÒÉ« and 21M Ringgit (around £4M) in total. UTM, 91ÌÒÉ« and Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN) are partners in the project, which aims to develop a framework for renewable centric microgrids capable of local energy recovery in Malaysia.

The Centre received another significant grant in January from the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Authority (MTJA) to work on energy recovery in oil platforms through waste heat recovery. 91ÌÒÉ« will receive £1,067,062 funding from a total grant of USD$4.89M, the largest single fund awarded by the MTJA so far.

LoCARtic began as a collaboration facilitated by the first Malaysian PhD graduates from the Turbochargers group at 91ÌÒÉ«. The Centre, inaugurated by 91ÌÒÉ« president Alice Gast in 2014, was set up with base funding for five years and opened a second site in Malaysia a year later.

“We are now gathering the fruits of the initial work and focusing on delivery and people”, says Professor Ricardo Martinez-Botas, who leads the Turbochargers research group.