Pictured is Dr Molly Haugen delivering her seminar (left) and the drone demonstration at UTown Green (right)
On Thursday 20 April, CARES had the pleasure of hosting a two-part event for Dr Molly Haugen (University of Cambridge, Department of Engineering) to present her research on utilising an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to monitor air quality, particularly focussing on areas (such as Singapore) where maritime and urban environments intersect.
Dr Haugen’s work has been conducted in collaboration with CARES C4T IRP4 PI, Prof Epaminondas Mastorakos, and Co-I, Prof Adam Boies and she visited Singapore in April 2023 under the CARES C4T Visiting Scientists Scheme.
The seminar focused on the objective of Dr Haugen’s research and field campaign in Port Rafina, Greece in September 2021. The aim was to understand how plumes disperse from large shipping (such as ferries or cargo ships), if UAV measurements of a direct plume dispersion could improve combustion distribution models, the particle dynamics behind in-use monitoring of maritime emissions, and the capabilities of UAVs at conducting this task.
Prior research in this area mostly focused on ships at the engine level and the volume of fuel consumed rather than at-sea monitoring and in-use emissions.
Dr Haugen used the seminar to share results from this field campaign that detailed many successes in terms of UAV sampling design, retrieval of reliable particulate emissions data, and potential adaptation of methods for non-maritime settings. Full results have been published in a paper in Atmospheric Environment.
Following the talk, guests were able to experience an outdoor demonstration of the drone and its onboard technology; a smoke machine helped to illustrate the points made in Dr Haugen’s talk on the advantages of the sampling rod design for accessing undisturbed areas of the plume.
CARES was delighted to welcome representatives from many relevant Singapore government agencies, including the Maritime Port Authority (MPA), National Environment Agency (NEA), and the National Climate Change Secretariat (NCCS) to the event and looks forward to further pilot studies to explore the use of the technology in Singapore in 2023/4.
Highlights from the demo are in this video also containing key points of Dr Haugen’s research:
The paper related to this research is “Measurements and modelling of the three-dimensional near-field dispersion of particulate matter emitted from passenger ships in a port environment” (DOI: 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2022.119384) published in Atmospheric Environment.
Dr Haugen’s research was in collaboration with Cambridge PI Prof Epaminondas Mastorakos and Co-I Prof Adam Boies, and the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. The drone research was built and conducted with support from the Carbon Reduction in Chemical Technologies (C4T) programme funded by the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore under its Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) programme.
