Seminar, Peking University, Beijing, China
 
Time：4:00pm, Wednesday, 22 May 2013
Place：418N, Yingjie Communication Center

Abstract
This seminar will comprise two parts.  The first will examine marine electro-gas, which offers the exciting prospect of simultaneous energy storage and carbon capture.  Implementation of an electro-chemical conversion system can couple offshore wind energy generation, CO2 sequestration, storage and conversion of produced energy to a gaseous biofuel (marine electro-gas). The electro-chemical system can also deal with two inherent problems in renewable electricity production: the highly fluctuating nature of wind energy and the difficulty of connecting electricity from marine platforms to land.  The technology has very far reaching potential advantages; and could be applied to wind energy storage in China and nuclear energy conversion into fuel.  The second part will consider a way of predicting mixing processes in an oxidation ditch, based on results obtained at Peking University.  A simple advection model will be presented of chaotic advection caused by a pair of alternating stirrers in a circular cylinder.  This type of model could be useful in predicting stagnation zones, as well as periodic and chaotic floc motions in oxidation ditches. 
Brief CV
In October 2011, Alistair Borthwick took up the position of Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University College Cork, Ireland.  Prof. Borthwick was previously a Professor of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford, where he worked for 21 years.  He remains an Emeritus Fellow at St Edmund Hall Oxford.  Prof. Borthwick has more than 35 years’ experience in civil, coastal, and offshore engineering. He was a member of the design team of the Hutton Tension Leg Platform, which won the Queen’s Award for Technological Achievement in 1984.   Prof. Borthwick’s research interests include shallow water-sediment flows, flood risk, coastal processes, offshore engineering, and marine renewable energy.  He has co-authored more than 110 papers in peer-reviewed journals, and supervised more than 30 doctoral students to completion.  In 2005, Prof. Borthwick was awarded a DSc by the University of Oxford for his sustained research in environmental fluid mechanics.