Imperial team win BP Ultimate Fieldtrip 2010

Meltdown, a team of 2nd year undergraduates from the Department of Earth Science and Engineering, have won the BP Ultimate Field Trip 2010 following the Grand Final held at The Natural History Museum.

Meltdown, a team of 2nd year undergraduates from the Department of Earth Science and Engineering, have won the BP Ultimate Field Trip 2010 following the Grand Final held at The Natural History Museum.

Meltdown's submission aims to reduce carbon emissions from a gas-fired power station by utilising photosynthetic single cell micro-organisms (algae, bacteria). The three team members will now complete a 6-8 week paid internship with BP North Sea this summer working on a real business feasibility study.

Meltdown wowed the judging panel of senior BP executives with their innovative approach to answering the overall brief: "What innovative, scientific ideas can your team come up with to address the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted from a typical power station using natural gas from the North Sea to generate electricity?".

Meltdown's concept uses a family of bacteria, which when in the presence of light, CO2 and calcium (gypsum) has the ability to produce a variety of components that can be sold to the chemical market, or burnt to produce green electricity. The main product of the process is a solid, calcium carbonate, a common substance found in rocks and the main component of eggshells or seashells, and can therefore be disposed of easily.

Read more in BP's press release.