Underground fires represent a massive and uncontrolled release of energy that is not used, is very difficult to suppress and is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. Extracting energy while systematically suppressing these fires is a major technological challenge, but one with significant potential benefit. Professor Torero discussed the fundamentals of energy recovery from underground fires, the science of smouldering combustion at its heart, and examples of how smouldering has been used effectively for resource recovery.
Speaker
José Torero has been Professor of Civil Engineering and Head of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at University College London since 2018. He works in fire safety, specialising in complex processes and environments, and has developed smouldering-combustion technologies for resource recovery that are now used globally. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society of Edinburgh.