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How do prisoners experience life on remand in England, and how do prison chaplains offer them pastoral care in this setting? This thesis explores the question of how prison chaplains deliver pastoral care in a remand prison, and how this care is received and experienced by prisoners. With my own experience as a remand prison chaplain as a catalyst, I engage with literature around practical theological approaches to exploring prison experience, criminological studies of remand, and prison chaplaincy. Using a grounded theory methodology, I explore the challenges of being on remand and the role of prison chaplains in meeting the needs of remandees, as well as chaplains' own understandings of their vocation and ministry. Chaplains and prisoners were interviewed at three Local prisons in the North of England, and the major themes from these interviews explored thematically and theologically. I discuss issues of trust building and the precarious nature of the prisoner-chaplain relationship, and the core theme of liminality in the role of the chaplain and the experience of the remand prisoner. Liminality is explored as a key theme linking the limbo-like nature of remand life, the challenges of navigating the prison environment, and the status of the chaplain on the thresholds of prison life and ministry. The liminality of the chaplain is considered as a positive characteristic that enables a flexible ministry in a remand context. This leads to a theological analysis of remand chaplaincy through the lens of Walter Brueggemann's concepts of the disorientation of lament and the notion of prophetic imagination. Remand chaplaincy is explored through the lens of a ministry of presence as 'being with' in conversation with the work of Samuel Wells. The thesis concludes with new understandings of remand chaplaincy in light of the liminality of the role and of the remand prisoner, and considers the challenges of the practical and theological aspects of providing pastoral care in this complex context.

Glacial runoff often contains nitrate far in excess of nitrogen (N) concentrations in snow. ‘Excess’ nitrate is likely produced by nitrifying bacteria in subglacial environments, yet the source of the additional N has not been identified. In this thesis, rocks are investigated as an N source to subglacial microbial ecosystems following their comminution by glacial erosion and leaching with meltwater. Weathering processes involving the release of N and micronutrients, iron (Fe) and manganese (Mn), from rock to glacial environments were evaluated using a combination of field studies in Adventdalen (Svalbard) and rock weathering experiments. Attempts were also made to constrain isotope fractionation during weathering to improve the use of stable isotopes to trace N provenance. The sedimentary geological succession underlying glaciers in the study area contained significant N (up to 0.21 wt. %), particularly in organic rich, siltstones and shales. Fe and Mn were largely found within oxide and carbonate minerals while significant pyrite bound Fe (max. 5.2 wt. %) was present in organic rich sediments. In simulated glacial weathering experiments, nitrogen was almost entirely liberated as ammonium with much of it absorbed to mineral surfaces rather than dissolved in solution. Pyrite oxidation liberated Fe and generated acidity which drove i) silicate dissolution releasing N and ii) carbonate dissolution yielding dissolved Mn. The largest N yields were associated with rocks containing abundant organic N which may have been liberated via oxidative weathering, protonation of amines and/or organic matter degradation by free radicals produced during crushing. Liberated ammonium was partly lost as ammonia gas when the solution pH exceeded 8 and also absorbed to sediment, particularly when clay minerals were abundant. Further experiments demonstrated an isotope enrichment in adsorbed ammonium of up to 10‰ δ15N relative to bedrock N, caused by fractionation from a combination of adsorption and volatilisation processes. In Svalbard, up to 89% of nitrate in glacial runoff was derived from non-snowpack sources. Solute was acquired into snowmelt via chemical weathering of rock talus in ice marginal moraines largely via coupled sulphide oxidation and silicate dissolution. When oxygen was available, ammonium released from rock was converted to nitrate via microbial nitrification. This assertion is supported by nitrate δ18O values of close to 0‰, vastly different from atmospheric oxygen. However, when flowpaths were anoxic, nitrate was absent likely due to microbial denitrification. Geological variations may control the magnitude of nutrient export by weathering in glacial catchments. For instance, N and Mn were particularly enriched in water from the Longyearbreen catchment which overlies shales enriched in these elements. Furthermore, clay minerals in bedrock significantly influences the distribution of N (as ammonium) between dissolved and particulate phases through ion exchange reactions.

Exhaust gas reforming is a technology that has the potential to serve as an intermediate technology between the current fossil fuel vehicle fleet, and future hydrogen-fueled and battery-powered systems, analogous to the role played by hybrid electric vehicles. The technology involves reacting a portion of the primary fuel with the exhaust gases of an internal combustion engine, in the presence of a catalyst, yielding a reformed exhaust gas containing hydrogen that can be recirculated back into the engine of the vehicle. If operation is optimized, such a system can operate as an energy recover system, therefore improving miles to the gallon, while also improving engine emissions. The barrier to entry for this technology is the availability of attractively priced, active and durable catalytic materials. The common catalytic candidates for exhaust gas reforming are precious metal based formulations, but their cost is often prohibitive if the loading of the precious metal is high. Base metal formulations have more competitive pricing, however can present issues with activity and durability. This work was designed as a compare and contrast study of precious metal and base metal catalysts in the exhaust gas reforming of gaseous and liquid hydrocarbon fuels, under conditions typical of those found in the exhaust of a spark ignition internal combustion engine. The key aim was to determine whether base metal catalysts could show suitable catalytic activity and durability during exhaust gas reforming, both in absolute terms, but also relative to a commercial precious metal reforming catalyst, and hence whether such a formulation had the potential for use in a real vehicle. A 10% Ni/CeO2-ZrO2 catalyst formulation was prepared via wet impregnation, as the first phase base metal formulation. Its performance was compared to a commercial precious metal based reforming catalyst, and a 1% Rh/CeO2-ZrO2 formulation, under a range of realistic exhaust conditions expected from spark ignition internal combustion engines. The testing was carried out using a reactor set up that required modification in order to be able to test with liquid hydrocarbon fuels. The surrogate fuels for gasoline used in this work were propane and iso-octane. The key factors for consideration were activity, in terms of quantity of hydrogen in the reformed gas, and resistance to deactivation. Catalysts were characterized pre and post-testing using TPR, BET, TGA and XRD techniques. The results presented here show that the activity, in terms of hydrogen production, of the nickel based catalyst was comparable to that of the precious metal catalysts with both gaseous and liquid fuels, and produced hydrogen in quantities sufficient to be of benefit when fed back into an internal combustion engine. However, significant issues remained with the nickel catalyst with respect to its stability and durability. The rate of coking with the heavier feedstock was a significant issue. Additionally, the nickel catalyst showed sensitivity to the atmosphere it was exposed to during the post-operation cooling phase of testing. Exposing the hot catalyst to an oxidizing atmosphere during this phase was found to be severely deactivating. This is important because this would be the situation expected in a real vehicle once the engine has been switched off and the exhaust is exposed to air while still hot. This was assigned to a thermal sintering effect, initiated by the oxidation of surface carbon deposited under reaction conditions, hence highlighting that the thermal stability of the catalyst was also inadequate. The rate of coking with the heavier feedstock was found to be of lesser problem with the precious metal catalysts, and the sensitivity to the post-operation cooling conditions was not observed. Three avenues of further work were therefore suggested, with particular focus on optimizing the nickel catalyst in an attempt to overcome the aforementioned durability issues, since as this work makes clear, these are the key roadblocks that need to be overcome for an exhaust gas reforming system to be competitive for use in real vehicles.