[Dan]

The new GSK sponsored carbon neutral lab burned down last night. It was still under construction - due to have groups moving in next year. Nobody was inside, no injuries. Cause as yet unknown.

I checked the webcam this morning, there's nothing left. Real shame.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-29188682

[kriggy]

Wow thats huge.. Fortunately nobody was hurt.
Im very interested what could have caused fire of that magnitude in construction site.

[discodermolide]

I was really sorry to hear about this, what a disaster for the Uni. not to mention the students who would have seeded the building.
Let's hope there is a quick recovery.

[Borek]

+1 to all that was said.

I wonder what  "construction 70% completed" means.

[Arkcon]

I was, until this point, too bogged down in the irony that a carbon neutral lab burned.  Hey, somebody had to say it. Now listening to everybody, this does seem to be quite a setback for a variety of programs.

[curiouscat]

Well, they better fund a researcher to calculate the net total carbon impact of this project now.

[curiouscat]

Is it standard practice  in today's engineering to build timber framed structures as chemistry labs? I can, of course, visualize all the old structures but for new constructions?

Investigations into a blaze that has destroyed a multi-million pound university chemistry building are set to begin.

Up to 60 firefighters were involved in tackling the fire at the University of Nottingham, after they were called about 20:30 BST on Friday..

The timber-framed building was under construction and was due to be completed by next year.

It had been partly funded by a £12m grant from drug company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK),

[Dan]

No, not standard practice - I think the idea is to use sustainable building materials. The timber was specially treated for fire resistance (I don't know exact details, but the hazard was not overlooked).

[curiouscat]

I was really sorry to hear about this, what a disaster for the Uni. not to mention the students who would have seeded the building.
Let's hope there is a quick recovery.

@disco: I know that you are in general skeptical of the term "green chemistry". What's your view about "carbon neutral"?

Does it suffer from similar problems?

[discodermolide]

How can using wood be carbon neutral?
What about the logging, the transport of the logs, the working of the material etc, the treatment of the wood to resist the environment, all this and probably more is certainly not carbon neutral.
This is just a buzz-word that really means nothing.

[Dan]

The idea is that it the use of solar panels etc. allows the building to pay back its carbon footprint in carbon credits over 25 years.

This what they say: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/estates/developments/csc.aspx
I think the implication that the building is exempt from the first law of thermodynamics is more of a typo than an oversight.

There is obviously a healthy dose of PR and publicity associated with the building, but I think it's fundamentally a good idea to try constructing labs like this and test out technology for better energy efficiency. It's not my intention to bad mouth the project, but terms like "green" and "carbon neutral" should always be taken with a pinch of salt.

[discodermolide]

Sure trying the technology is not a bad thing, but in 25 years will you have trees that can be used for construction? In that 25 years trees can consume a lot of CO₂.
For a university to imply that it is exempt from the first law, well what can you say to that
What is the cost in carbon of constructing solar panels? Not to mention attaching them to the national grid and their maintenance.
Anyway the entire destruction is a terrible thing and I'm sorry for the university and the students and staff that were looking forward to the new building.

[Dan]

Sure trying the technology is not a bad thing, but in 25 years will you have trees that can be used for construction? In that 25 years trees can consume a lot of CO₂.

What is the cost in carbon of constructing solar panels? Not to mention attaching them to the national grid and their maintenance.

I would assume that these calculations have been done and that the books balance favourably (but I don't know for sure).

Anyway the entire destruction is a terrible thing and I'm sorry for the university and the students and staff that were looking forward to the new building.

Absolutely, this is the main thing. It's always sad to see a lab go down and hopefully the project will recover from the setback.