Professor Minoo Patel

Areas of expertise

• Carbon Capture and Storage
• Oil and Gas
• Renewable Energy

Background

Prof. Patel started his career as an aerodynamicist following a BSc in Aeronautical Engineering and a PhD in unsteady boundary layers. He subsequently worked on the determination of aerodynamic gust loads on aircraft wings before opting for a change in career to offshore mechanics. He became a Chartered Engineer in 1980 and was appointed an Honorary Member of the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors in 1996 and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1999.

Prior to his current Director of Development post starting in November 2010, he served as Head of School of Engineering at Cranfield University from 2002 to 2010. His role as Head was to provide academic and management leadership to the School’s staff and to work on its offshore and renewable energy projects. He worked from 1989 to 2002 as Kennedy Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University College London. In addition to the above executive roles, he has held non-executive Directorships at Cranfield Aerospace Ltd from 2004 to 2011 and at UCL Trading Ltd from 1991 to 1997.

Current activities

My research is concerned with the fluid mechanics of unsteady air and water flows and the behaviour of floating rigid structures and submerged flexible structures responding to ocean currents and gravity waves used both for offshore oil production and latterly for maritime renewable energy generation. Detailed work is centred around hydro-elastic and structural behaviour of floating platforms and slender structures used for hydro-carbon production in deep water as well as fixed and floating platforms for the generation of renewable energy from wind and for the large scale production of sustainable carbon neutral bio-fuels.

His work has led to around 120 research papers, 2 books and 10 granted patents. His work is motivated by a desire to carry out fundamental research but also to ensure that it is translated into design and construction of novel systems for the consequential economic benefits that this brings. Prof Patel has a particular interest in creating sustainable schemes for translating fundamental research into applications through the development of organisational structures, staff and teams. Key outcomes sought from this are the creation of economically significant innovations, and more importantly, the training of research students who went on to develop their own careers in industry as part of teams translating fundamental research into practical applications.

A science park company, BPP Technical Services Ltd, was established in 1981 to exploit the above patents in the oil and gas sector as part of translating research outcomes into practical applications. Other business and innovation roles include serving as an Independent Director of a large multi-national company, Keppel Offshore and Marine Ltd and of BMT Group Ltd.

Clients

In addition to government funding agencies such as EPSRC and TSB key clients from industry have included:

BAE Systems

Keppel Offshore & Marine

Energy Technology Institute

Orecon Ltd

Conoco Philips

Shell UK E&P

BP

British Gas

Chevron.

Publications

• Conference papers