Postgraduate Course: Eco-Engineering (IDCORE) (PGEE11221)
Course Outline
| School | School of Engineering |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | The emerging discipline of ecological engineering is a response to the growing need for engineering practice to provide for human welfare while at the same time protecting the natural environment from which goods and services are drawn. Ecological engineering is the design of sustainable systems, consistent with ecological principles.
Focused towards Offshore Energy Infrastructure (OEI) projects, this course will incorporate five design principles to guide practical ecological engineering. The principles are: (1) design consistent with ecological principles, (2) design for site-specific context, (3) maintain the independence of design functional requirements, (4) design for efficiency in energy and information, and (5) acknowledge the values and purposes that motivate design.
The course will include lectures, mini-projects and site visits, taking full advantage of the range of capabilities available within the consortium.
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| Course description |
Eco-engineering starts from dedicated pre-project environmental monitoring, recognizing key environmental values and the presence and resilience of sensitive systems at an early stage. The planning, consenting and consequent installation of Offshore Energy Infrastructure often requires detailed environmental studies prior to the installation, during installation and during the operation. Base line studies will inform potential environmental concerns and impacts, providing a thorough understanding and increase the overall value of the project both for nature, society and the project itself related to economics and profitability during operational lifetime. The inclusion of Eco-Engineering approaches allows the optimization of project design and implementation of adaptive work methods with the objective to enhance habitat and ensure minimal impact whilst enhancing beneficial gains.
The course will prepare for Eco-Engineering processes relevant to Offshore Energy Infrastructure projects that are often placed in sensitive marine environments that ask for responsible and innovative project approaches. The approaches considered will need to enable minimizing impacts in the broadest sense and compensating any residual negative effects, whilst enabling the realization of the infrastructure installation through an eco-friendly approach as part of the design, processes and choice of materials. The learning outcomes will focus towards eco-friendly and integrated design processes and choice of materials and sub-systems; as well as the consideration of the inclusion of stakeholders and decision-making processes (i.e. regulatory requirements).
The course will be designed to build in relevant examples of pilots and case studies and students will learn from real experience, and will be asked to create scenarios developing notional Offshore Energy Infrastructure developments applying an Eco-Engineering approach. Notional project scenarios will include e.g. the development of i) an offshore renewable energy test site, ii) an installation of an offshore wind farm, iii) ecological design for scour protection and revetments, iv) receptor-based instead of source-based limits approach to underwater sound. In each case three general levels of Eco-Engineering approaches will be considered:
Considerate, responsible execution of offshore installation;
Fundamental knowledge generation to inform about realistic environmental constrains;
Develop innovative techniques to add ecological value to the design of offshore infrastructure.
In addition to the normal study support resources, the course will have access to processes undertaken to develop the Falmouth Bay Test site (FaBTest), with embedded regulatory processes and customer requirements.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2022/23, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Flexible |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Lecture Hours 30,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10,
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 10,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 10,
Revision Session Hours 10,
Other Study Hours 28,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
0 )
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| Additional Information (Learning and Teaching) |
Self study
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Coursework %: 100 |
| Feedback |
Written feedback and verbal feedback after presentations |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- be familiar with different types Eco-Engineering approaches, which may be used for offshore energy infrastructure development;
- be aware of stakeholder and regulatory requirements, eco-friendly technologies and processes, and application of best-practice;
- understand the value of Eco-Engineering approaches and the benefits to nature, society and the project itself;
- be familiar with basic approaches of Eco-Engineering processes and the importance of the early inclusion in the design of offshore energy infrastructure;
- be aware of Eco-Engineering techniques and potential relevance to different offshore energy infrastructure developments.
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Reading List
1. D. Rijks, et. al.; Eco-Engineering Opportunities for Offshore Marine Infrastructure Projects; October 2015; DOI: 10.4043/26207-MS;
2. Ó Brádaigh, CM, Doyle, A., Doyle, D. and Feerick. P.J., ¿One-Shot Wind Turbine Blade Manufacturing using Powder-Epoxy and Electrically-Heated Ceramic Composite Tooling¿, 7th International CFK-Valley Stade Convention, Germany, June 2013.
3. Grogan, D.M., Kennedy, C.R., Leen, S.B. and Ó Brádaigh, C.M, 'Design of Composite Tidal Turbine Blades') 'Design of Composite Tidal Turbine Blades'. Renewable Energy, 57 :151-162, 2013 doi:10.1016/j.renene.2013.01.021
4. Archer, E., McIlhagger, A.T., McIlhagger, R., Quinn, J.P., Mallon, P., Ó Brádaigh, C.M.,¿Industrial Cure Monitoring of CBT using DEA for Wind Energy¿, International Journal of Computational Materials Science and Surface Engineering, Vol. 2, No.1/2, 2009.
5. Ó Brádaigh, C.M, Doyle, A., Doyle, D. and Feerick, P.J., ¿Electrically-Heated Ceramic Composite Tooling for Out-of-Autoclave Manufacturing of Large Composite Structures¿, SAMPE Journal, Vol. 47, No. 4, 6-14, 2011.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Ecological,engineering,Design,principles,Offshore,Renewable,Engineering,Eco,Marine,Environment |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Lars Johanning
Tel:
Email: |
Course secretary | Dr Katrina Tait
Tel: (0131 6)51 9023
Email: |
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