Accelerating research

Sponsored by £1m worth of funding from specialised component maker

, a new research centre at

will focus on commercialising microwave processing technologies developed at the university for use in a range of bulk material processing industries.

The e2v Centre for Industrial Microwave Processing (e2v CIMP) will be formed through a partnership between researchers in the National Centre for Industrial Processing at the university’s Faculty of Engineering and e2v.

One example of where such microwave technology might be deployed to reduce energy costs is in the mining industry. Up to five per cent of the world’s electrical energy output is currently used to grind rocks to free the valuable metals within them, and microwave technology can be used to stress and fracture the rock prior to grinding, achieving the same results for a fraction of the energy consumption.

Dr Trevor Cross, group chief technology officer at e2v, said: 'The cash investment into the e2v CIMP, together with the two-way sharing of knowledge, will both accelerate scientific research and lead to more effective economic impact from technologies based on that research.'