I might go back to leeds Uni now and get involved in this! did atmospheric sciences and meteorology there, and did fuel studies...this looks kinda cool!
As for how much are they paying, its Leeds Uni, gets its money from research companies, energy companies, and my tuition fees.
It's all about finding more energy efficient ways to get Hydrogen, for fuel cells. Since the oil has been processed once and is a waste product, it has a low carbon foot print, but also takes less energy to get hydrogen from hydrocarbons than water, which you get at the end. Plug the reactor into a wind turbine (plenty of wind in Leeds) and you're good to go, less waste, more fuel.
And yeah, get rid of BP, the oil company that has spent more on clean and reusable fuel sources (after Shell, another british oil giant) than all the American oil companies put together. fuck off bashing BP, it was a halliburton well and a trans ocean rig!