Research Areas
The Centre engages in research of both an applied and multidisciplinary nature, directed towards solving problems related to energy and the environment in the context of sustainable economic growth. Much of it involves industrial partners and often comprises both national and international collaborations. In addition, our research interests make contact with National and ED Government priorities. This dynamic unit now has seven members of academic staff, two visiting Professors, fifteen Research Fellows/Assistants and seven PhD students.
Research projects include; the development of technologies for sustainable water usage, renewable energy generation and environmental monitoring. The Centre also provides a focus for wider collaborative research in the built environment energy policy and economics. The Centre collaborates with national and international centres of excellence, with groups in Europe, the United States, the Middle and Far East.
The Robert Gordon University is an established centre of expertise in renewable energy, especially marine renewable energy. It is a core member of the Supergen (Marine) research consortium, established by the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council. The Supergen programme is built upon a substantial depth of experience in the fields of tidal current and wave research. The SNAIL tidal current device, developed at RGU, has received world-wide press coverage.
The centre has also been involved in the development of in-situ environmental sensors and taggants/labels for detecting a broad range of compounds in air, water and soil. This work directly overlaps the areas of research in water sustainability with respect to detection of priority pollutants and development of on line sensors for pollutant monitoring in advanced water treatment units. The sensors are based on both spectroscopic and electrochemical technologies. Novel taggants have also been developed which can be utilised in a wide range of applications not only in environmental monitoring and tracer studies but also in the security industry and as medical taggants.
