• creative entrepreneurs awarded share of £1.95 million to revolutionise UK’s transport network
• projects include technology to protect public transport systems from extreme weather conditions and proposals to reduce carbon emissions from HGVs
• government-backed projects will help support a greener and more efficient transport future, as UK drives towards net zero targets

Entrepreneurs and innovators pioneering new ways of creating a more efficient transport system are being backed by government funding announced today (13 April 2022).

In total, 51 projects have been awarded a share of £1.95 million in Department for Transport (DfT) funding as part of the government’s Transport Research and Innovation Grant (TRIG) programme, the largest number of projects backed in the programme’s history.

One winner, Makesense Technology Ltd, will develop a technology to guide visually impaired people through the public transport network. A handheld device will scan the area and provide touch feedback, such as a vibration to the tablet holder, alerting them to any obstacles and their direction of travel.

AJEA Products Ltd is also among those awarded funding, creating autonomous flood protection for critical transport infrastructure. It will design self-deploying barriers that can be installed at train stations across the UK and pop up automatically when floods are detected, preventing passenger journeys from being disrupted by extreme weather.

Meanwhile, Unitrove Innovation Ltd is being backed to develop a control system for the world’s first liquid hydrogen fuel container facility for zero emission ships (as seen in the image above).

The University of Cambridge is developing a new low-cost and lightweight steering system for heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), which will reduce tyre wear, reduce carbon emissions and make it easier for larger vehicles to manoeuvre on the road.

Innovation funded as part of TRIG could be the key to unlocking a more efficient and safer transport system for tomorrow.

I support the ingenious ideas of this year’s cohort every step of the way and wish the successful applicants all the very best. I look forward to seeing the ideas develop to boost our green agenda and create high-skilled jobs across the UK.

Transport Minister, Trudy Harrison

Now in its 11th round of funding, the TRIG programme, delivered in partnership with Connected Places Catapult, brings together talented start-ups – mainly SMEs and universities – and policymakers at the earliest stage of innovation to help enhance the UK’s transport system.

Since launching in 2014, over £6 million in grants has supported more than 200 TRIG projects.

This year, the programme focused on increasing the diversity of its applicants. From Southampton to the Shetland Islands, the winning projects are based across the UK and reflect DfT’s commitments to levelling up.

The winners were selected based on 4 key themes:

• maritime decarbonisation
• future of freight
• COVID-19 recovery
• transport resilience

An open call, where any transport related idea was also considered.

For the first time, 6 Future of Freight grants worth £100,000 each were piloted for larger projects, moving them past ‘proof of concept’ and towards being demonstration ready. These will complement remaining 45 grants of up to £30,000 each, spread across all 4 themes.

DfT will also be working in partnership with Connected Places Catapult this year to pilot an Innovation Accelerator Programme, which will support companies at a later stage in their innovation journeys. The programme will provide funding to help projects take the last step towards the market by providing bespoke training from industry experts.

TRIG is a one-of-a-kind programme. It provides a mechanism to identify and support early-stage innovation that might slip through the nets of traditional funding routes.

Connected Places Catapult is extremely proud to deliver TRIG 2021, which is supporting over 50 innovators across 4 different challenges, including the future of freight, maritime decarbonisation, COVID-19 recovery and resilient transport systems. I am excited to see what great products and services arise.

Buhari led Administration and the Hon. Minister of Aviation for promises kept.

The second runway project was awarded to the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation Nigeria Limited (CCECC) and the site was handed over to the company on the aforementioned date.

Other projects that would be executed as part of the aviation roadmap include: Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) Centre; Aviation Leasing Company (ALC); Agro-Allied Cargo Terminals; Aerotropolis or Airport City; National Carrier; Africa Aerospace and Aviation University (AAAU); second Runway of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, amongst others.

Some of the benefits that would accrue to Nigeria at the completion of the projects are: employment opportunities for Nigerians; enhanced transfer of technology; increase in foreign exchange earnings/increase in GDP contribution; backward integration of aircraft maintenance and repair facilities for both domestic and international carriers; improvement in Ease of Doing Business in Nigeria; reduction in capital flight; increase in Bilateral Air Services Agreements with other countries, amongst others.

In-line water driven foam proportioning pumps have become more and more popular in the last decade. Their low pressure drop and accurate foam proportioning over a wide range of flows are necessary in many systems. But this technology is not simple: the equipment on the market until now is quite complicated and sensitive to contamination and over speeding. The new Turbinator water driven foam proportioning pump developed by Knowsley SK effectively solves these problems, making this technology the preferred choice for a wide range of fire fighting systems.

Precision proportioning – Always

The Turbinator is a positive displacement foam proportioning pump designed for Fixed and Mobile applications. The unit is driven by a special volumetric water motor which is directly coupled to a precision gear foam pump. Because both parts of the Turbinator are positive displacement devices, the ratio of foam concentrate to firewater is fixed over the full operating range. This makes Turbinator the ideal proportioning technology for systems with different flows, such as multi-legged deluge systems, sprinkler systems and mobile large incident equipment.

The Turbinator unit does not require setting up or on-site adjustment – the proportioning rate is achieved at any flow rate and pressure within the operating range.

Technology built to last – Forever

With Turbinator technology, Knowsley introduced a flexible, abrasion resistant paddle material in the water motor which gives the unit its unique wear characteristics. The usual contamination present in fire water does not damage the paddles. Overspeed up to 120% of the nominal flow, which can occur during automatically controlled activation of large systems, does not damage the unit. In addition, the Turbinator resists dry running in accordance with NFPA20.

Design and installation: Simple as 1-2-3

The close-coupled design offers a very compact and efficient installation with just three connections: fire water inlet (1), foam concentrate inlet (2) and foam solution outlet (3). The unit can be installed directly into vertical or horizontal piping systems. The Turbinator foam pump delivers 3m suction height easily, which makes it possible to install the foam concentrate tank below the unit installation level – even with high viscosity concentrates in arctic conditions (thick foams). Simple, cost effective atmospheric foam tanks are fine for Turbinator.

With its unique low differential pressure, Turbinator fits in the most complicated systems, even when long pipe runs or static pressure loss are involved. Turbinator does not require external power supply or control circuits and is safe for any ATEX environment.

The Turbinator is available in 3 sizes from 500 l/min to 12’000 l/min with proportioning of 1% and 3% with freshwater and saltwater construction. Each Turbinator built in our Manchester, UK factory is 100% functionally tested on a high flow test rig through its whole operating range ensuring functionality at all times.

For more information, go to www.knowsleysk.com

Managers of petrochemical, refining, power, offshore, pulp and paper and other facilities with extensive hot processes and piping systems are frequently challenged with performing all the necessary coatings maintenance work only during periods of outages. Outages are required so that process equipment can be properly maintained and repaired including cleaning of pipelines and vessels, maintenance and replacement of pumps, motors and valves, maintenance coating operations, and other work that can only be accomplished when the operations are shut down.

When coatings work has to be performed on areas where elevated temperatures are involved, many think that the facility has to be shut down. This may not be the case.

A question frequently posed by facility managers is, “Can I do maintenance painting work while the plant is operating?” As described below, the answer is, “Yes you can, but there are safety and health issues that must be considered”.

Safety and health considerations

There is a range of safety and health hazards that must be considered on every industrial maintenance painting project, whether the coating material is being applied to hot steel or not. Some of these include proper material handling and storage, fall protection, control of fire and explosion hazards, and exposure to noise, heavy metals, solvents and other health risks.

These risks must be properly evaluated and controlled on every industrial maintenance painting project, regardless of when or where the work is performed. While present on any job, when applying specialty coatings to hot surfaces, some safety and health issues should receive additional consideration.

Flammable and combustible liquids in many coatings (solvents) can vaporize and form flammable mixtures in the air, especially when atomized during spray application or heated. The degree of hazard depends on the following:

The auto ignition temperature (AIT) of the coating material is the single most important issue when applying coatings to hot operating equipment. AIT is defined (by the National Safety Council publication Accident Prevention Manual For Business and Industry: Engineering & Technology) as “…the minimum temperature at which a flammable gas-air or vapour-air mixture will ignite from its own heat source or contact with a heated surface without the presence of an open spark or flame.”

The concept of flash point as defined by NFPA 30 is “the minimum temperature of a liquid at which sufficient vapour is given off to form an ignitable mixture with the air, near the surface of the liquid”. In other words, the flash point describes the temperature of the liquid that is high enough to generate enough vapour to create a flame if a source of ignition were introduced.

For vapours of flammable liquids, there is a minimum concentration below which the spread of the flame does not occur when in contact with a source of ignition. This is the Lower Flammable Limit (LFL). There is a maximum concentration of vapour in the air above which the spread of the flame does not occur. This is the Upper Flammable Limit (UFL). The flammable range is between the LFL and the UFL, when the concentration of vapours can support combustion.

Implementing controls

Applying coatings to hot surfaces increases the rate at which the solvents are driven off. When applying solvent borne coatings to hot surfaces it must be assumed that the concentration of vapours in the air could exceed the LFL (at least for a short time after application). As with coating application to ambient temperature steel, controls must be implemented.

While the LFL is likely to be achieved over a shorter period of time during hot application of coatings than coatings work performed at ambient conditions, the resulting fire hazard exists in both applications. That is, the fire hazard and associated controls must be considered for the application of any solvent-borne flammable coating system, regardless of the work environment. It must be recognized that the fuel component of the fire tetrahedron will be present in both ‘hot’ and ‘ambient’ environments and basic steps must be taken to minimize unnecessary solvent vapours in the work area. In addition, as outlined later, attention must also be directed to eliminating the remaining element of the tetrahedron – the source of ignition.

Controlling flammable vapours

The fuel element of a fire can be reduced by implementing basic controls such as handling and storing flammable liquids in approved, self-closing containers, keeping the number of flammable liquids containers in the work area and in storage areas to the minimum necessary and within allowable (regulatory) limits.

Alkaline detergents such as tri-sodium phosphate may be substituted, followed by surface washing with fresh water or steam cleaning and pH testing of the surface, or non-combustible solvents such as 1,1,1 trichloroethane) for pre-surface preparation solvent cleaning.

Combustible gas indicators should be used to verify that the concentration of flammable vapours is below the LFL. Combustible gas indicators must be calibrated in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendations and must be approved for use in flammable atmospheres. Operators of the equipment must be trained in proper equipment operation.

Readings should be taken in the general work area and the vicinity of the operator and in areas where there are potential sources of ignition. Typically, units are set to alarm at 10% of the LFL. If the alarm sounds, coatings application work should immediately cease until the concentration of flammable vapours is controlled. The purpose of setting the alarm below the LFL is to provide a safety factor that results in control measures being implemented before there is an imminent danger of fire or explosion.

Monitoring of the flammable vapour concentration will be necessary as the effectiveness of natural ventilation may be variable. If control of flammable vapours requires mechanical ventilation, an occupational safety or health professional or engineer with experience in industrial ventilation should be consulted.

At a minimum, mechanical ventilation systems should provide sufficient capacity to control flammable vapours to below 10% of the LFL by either exhaust ventilation to remove contaminants from the work area or by dilution ventilation through introduction of fresh air to dilute contaminants. As with combustible gas indicators, ventilation equipment must be approved for safe use in flammable atmospheres. In addition, ventilation equipment must be grounded and bonded.

Additional ventilation, if needed, should be continuous during coatings application as concentrations may increase as more surfaces are coated during the course of a work shift, and especially on hot surfaces where the rate of vaporization is higher.

Sources of Ignition

When applying coatings to hot surfaces, the first source of ignition that readily comes to mind is the heat from the surface being painted. The AIT of the coating material is the single most important issue when applying coatings to hot operating equipment. The AIT of a substance or mixture is the minimum temperature at which a vapour-air mixture will ignite when in contact with a heated surface, without the presence of any open spark or flame.

The key to controlling this source of ignition is to verify the surfaces being coated are below the AIT of the coatings being applied. While surface temperatures may be known/available in many facilities, all surface areas of the process/piping being painted and/or any equipment adjacent to the items being painted where overspray may deposit should be measured for actual surface temperature. The results should be compared to the AIT of the coating system.

While auto-ignition and open sources of ignition may be readily apparent, a more subtle but nonetheless critical source of ignition to control on any industrial painting project involving flammable solvents involves the production of static electricity. Equipment associated with the spray-painting operation, such as spray application equipment and ventilation equipment, can generate static electricity.

In addition to external sources of ignition, spontaneous ignition can occur when rags or wastes soaked with paint solvents are left in open containers. Spontaneous ignition occurs when the slow generation of heat from oxidation of organic chemicals such as paint solvents is accelerated until the ignition temperature of the fuel is reached.

This condition is reached when the material is packed loosely allowing a large surface area to be exposed, there is enough air circulating around the material for oxidation to occur, but the natural ventilation available is inadequate to carry the heat away fast enough to prevent it from building up.

For more information, go to www.ppgpmc.com/Oil-Gas-Chemical.aspx