Independent Researcher

Technical Director

University of Birmingham

Thesis Title: The biodegradation of chelating agents involved in the nuclear fuel cycle

About

I am a Technical Director at Parsons Brinckerhoff Ltd in the UK. My time is split between undertaking and managing research into various aspects of contaminated land and managing and supporting the Bristol Contaminated Land Team to undertake Site Investigations of potentially contaminated land. I also provide a lot of support to those trying to understand former gasworks site and write articles on former gasworks, widely circulated.

I also manage a group on Linkedin on the subject of "Gasworks (MGP) History and Investigation", if you want to become a member register on Linkedin and follow the link: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=3668058


My industrial career started at the Gas Research Centre (GRC) of British Gas, a great 4 years working with excellent people and on very interesting projects. Unfortunately as with most large industrial research facilities in the utilities sector it was gradually wound down. I arrived at the GRC after initially studying the biodegradation of chelating agents involved in the nuclear fuel cycle during my PhD.  I was fortunate to work under the supervision of the brilliant Lynne Macaskie.

My interests turned to developing methods for the bioremediation of contaminated materials associated with former gasworks (MGP) sites.    Having studied the gas industry for many years and worked on many different gasworks site, I have been gradually studying and documenting the UK gas industry with a focus on small and country house gaswork sites.

If you have any QUESTIONS you want answering about any aspects of gasworks or gasworks sites, I'll see if I can find you an answer, you can contact me on thomasru@pbworld.com or gasworkshistory@gmail.com


Given the chance, I like to occasionally lecture on the gas industry, it's history, gas production methods and the investigation and remediation of gasworks site, if your interested let me know. I am usually involved with a number of different gasworks projects at any one time. I also have extensive experience in my primary field of environmental biotechnology/microbiology and the development and application of sustainable remediation technologies.  In both my current and previous roles I have been involved in the development of sustainable remediation technologies such as the SEquential REactive BARrier (SEREBAR - see papers for more details).

Another area of interest, is the investigation and assessment of biohazard sites such as tanneries, leatherworks, animal burial sites etc. it keep my interest in microbiology going.

Whilst I have focussed on two areas above, in truth if there is a interesting environmental project to be done whether it includes contaminated land, R&D, industrial heritage/ archaeology or microbiology, then I would be interested.

For profiles on various aspects of the gas industry see the papers section. For the gasworks models see the teaching documents.

For those of you who are interested in knowing more about the gas industry and its origins in the UK then visit the Institution of Gas Engineers and Managers website at http://www.igem.org.uk/company/historypanel.asp
where you can subscribe to the Historic Gas Times.

Also why not visit the National gas Museum in Leicester http://www.gasmuseum.co.uk/gasholders.htm

Or the Gas Museum in Fakenham, the only surviving town gasworks in England and Wales, complete with all equipment used for the manufacture of gas from coal: retorts, condenser, purifiers, meter, gasholder.
http://www.fakenhamgasmuseum.com/

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