Energy and environmental engineering
We lead the development of experimental and computational research for complex systems and complex flow-, energy- and flow-structure-interaction problems.
Multidisciplinary expertise across energy, water and environmental engineering.
Lead developers of water resource planning and environmental management software used across the UK and globally.
Home to the Manchester Hydrodynamics Laboratory - a unique wide-wave-current facility and unidirectional channels.
Leadership of the modelling research stream of the UK SuperGen Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Impact Hub.
Responding to the energy needs of our changing world
We seek to address some of the most important and inspiring engineering challenges of our time.
From making renewable energy a reality to understanding the fundamental mechanisms of natural phenomena, we are enabling the design of resilient infrastructure and the efficient use of limited water resources in an era of unprecedent climatic and socio-economic uncertainty.
With state-of-the-art facilities, our work advances understanding and methodologies that are enabling development of clean water networks, acceleration of sustainable power generation, resilient infrastructure and improving air quality within our changing climate.
We provide innovative answers to lead intersectoral change and train the research leaders of tomorrow.
With both world-leading fundamental research and close collaboration with industry and policy-makers in the energy, water and infrastructure sectors, we are providing innovative solutions to some of the most difficult societal challenges existing both today and in the future.
Benedict Rogers - Group Lead and Professor of Computational Hydrodynamics
Research
Our areas of research
Climate resilience
We focus on research into the impacts of climate change on human systems and effective methods to mitigate the issues and adapt to the new reality. Our research spans across disciplines and recent research topics have included heat vulnerability in Greater Manchester, weather shocks to research infrastructure and aircraft emissions analysis. Our work is heavily interdisciplinary, and we have a history of working with academics and researchers in fields as varies as aerospace, medicine and engineering.
Future fuels
We focus on the development and assessment of sustainable fuels such as bioenergy green hydrogen, green ammonia and novel/valorised fuels . Research is conducted in sustainable transportation including aviation and maritime applications. This includes analysis at domestic, regional and global scale. Resource potential and adverse consequences of energy use in terms of climate and air quality impacts are evaluated using the Sustainable Energy Processes Laboratory experimental facilities.
Offshore engineering and energy
Offshore energy resources such as wind, tidal stream and waves are abundant and of increasing interest for renewable electricity generation. Understanding of the fundamental behaviour of ocean waves, atmospheric boundary layer flows and marine turbulence is critical to enable design of such systems, and of offshore infrastructure more broadly. Our researchers develop numerical and analytical models across a range of scales and fidelities and underpinned by physical validation through experimental campaigns and offshore trials. Our work enables innovative offshore design contributing to massive scale-up of offshore renewable power generation.
Discover more about offshore engineering and energy on Research Explorer
Smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH)
SPH is one of the most exciting new areas in the field of computational fluid and solid dynamics and has been a major research activity in Manchester for over 20 years. This meshless method is opening up the possibility of research into fields that were well beyond any modelling capability but are now being actively pursued, from violent free-surface flows (natural hazards including flooding, tsunamis, resilient infrastructure) to offshore renewable energy devices to complex multiphase (nuclear, fusion, automotive, environmental) flows and hardware acceleration using graphics processing units (GPUs) and exascale heterogeneous computing.
Water engineering
Our team conducts interdisciplinary research on the modelling, analysis, and management of complex water systems. We develop and apply analytical methods and computational tools for water resources planning, hydro-economic analysis, and climate impact assessment. Current projects include large-scale multi-sector infrastructure system design, resilient irrigation under climate and market variability, and national-scale hydrological modelling of floods and droughts. Our work integrates coupled human–natural systems modelling, data assimilation, and stakeholder co-development to support evidence-based decision-making at regional to global scales. This research is internationally recognised for its policy-relevance and practical impact.
Study with us
Your career in energy and environmental engineering starts here!
All members of our group teach across the whole range of our undergraduate and postgraduate courses here in Manchester with research and industry-inspired teaching. For those looking for specialist MSc courses, we play leading roles in:
Connect with us
Our people
- David Apsley - Lecturer in Civil Engineering
- Samuel Draycott - Senior Lecturer in Ocean Engineering
- Timothy Foster - Reader in Water-Food Security
- Georgios Fourtakas - Lecturer in Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics
- Julien Harou - Chair in Water Engineering
- Gregory Lane-Serff - Senior Lecturer in Fluid Dynamics
- Amanda Lea-Langton - Lecturer in BioEnergy Engineering
- Elizabeth Lewis - Senior Lecturer in Fluid Mechanics / Hydraulics
- Hannah Mullings - Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw Fellow
- Pablo Ouro - Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw Fellow
- Ben Parkes Lecturer in Climate Resilience
- Benedict Rogers - Professor, Chair of Computational Hydrodynamics
- Tim Stallard - Professor of Offshore and Renewable Energy Engineering
- Peter Stansby - Osborne Reynolds Chair
- Diego Araya Araya - Research Associate
- Omar Sherif Mohamed - Research Associate
- Abouzied Nasar - Research Associate
Get in touch
Contact our team
For any contact enquiries, please contact each individual member of staff using their email given on their research profile page.
For more general research enquiries the Civil Engineering and Management Director of Research: meini.su@manchester.ac.uk