51³Ô¹ÏÍø

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 51³Ô¹ÏÍø. Dr Srithar Rajoo, a visiting academic in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at 51³Ô¹ÏÍø, is the director of the Centre at UTM, with Professor Ricardo Martinez-Botas acting as co-director from 51³Ô¹ÏÍø.

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 51³Ô¹ÏÍø and 21M Ringgit (around £4M) in total. UTM, 51³Ô¹ÏÍø 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. 51³Ô¹ÏÍø 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 51³Ô¹ÏÍø. The Centre, inaugurated by 51³Ô¹ÏÍø 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.