Industrial partner: SSE Thermal
Background:
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) consists of a series of climate change mitigation technologies. It is essential to achieve the carbon neutrality of the Paris Climate Change agreement (find out more here). It is a key technology of the UK government Clean Growth Strategy with an ambitious programme consisting of establishing low-carbon industrial clusters aiming to capture 20-30 Million tonnes of CO 2 per year by 2030. It is supported by a first phase of eight commercial scale projects across multiple industrial sectors aiming to start operation before 2030.
One key application of Carbon Capture and Storage technologies is the removal of carbon dioxide from industrial and combustion gases before they enter the atmosphere, e.g. from combined cycle gas turbine power plants, energy from waste plants and industrial facilities in cement, steel, chemical, glass, paper and ceramic.
This 4-year experimental EngD project focuses on existing and emerging instrumentation techniques for the monitoring of CO2 capture solvent technologies. It is industrially relevant and is at the forefront of commercial deployment.
Long term testing of solvents is now part of the guidance by the UK Environmental Agencies for the permitting of new post-combustion CO2 capture facilities.
The project is experimental and uses a laboratory test rig operated at industrially representative process conditions over a long period of testing, supported with data and samples provided by UK commercial projects.
The test rig is built to address a knowledge and capacity gap in the long-term testing of solvent management techniques, such as online monitoring of solvent degradation, effective reclaiming of used solvents and the control of atmospheric emissions. It uses open-access solvent technology to allow for publication of the results in the public domain, with transferrable learnings applicable to commercial, proprietary solvents.
The industrial sponsor is SSE Thermal, who owns and operates combined cycle gas turbine power plants in the UK. A 3-month secondment to SSE will take place in the 2nd year of the project to increase industrial relevance, knowledge transfer and establish further collaboration opportunities.
Expected outcomes:
- Improved monitoring of solvent, process performance, and atmospheric emissions.
- Optimized solvent monitoring strategies, leading to more efficient and environmentally sustainable CCS operations.
- Advance knowledge and understanding of relevant instrumentation techniques to support the permitting of new post-combustion CO2 capture facilities.
Supervisors: Prof Mathieu Lucquiaud, Dr Abby Samson, Prof Jon Gibbins, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Sheffield
Industrial supervisors: Dr Xiaomian Baxter, Daniel Mullen, SSE Thermal
The research environment:
The research work will be based in the Energy Research Group within the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Translational Energy Research Centre (TERC) at Sheffield which is a brand new, high profile, innovation focused national research facility. You will be working within an exciting and dynamic group with approximately over 60 researchers undertaking a broad area of energy research with approximately three years' extensive research time in industry, preparing for high-level careers in the energy sector.
Start date:
We are seeking applicants to start in September 2023 but could accept a starting date no later than February 2024 for the right applicant.
The applicant:
Applications are welcome from graduates with chemical engineering or chemistry background. Other relevant STEM or engineering background or industrial experience will be considered, if relevant.
The studentship is open to UK candidates only, due to restrictions from the EPSRC.
We would like you to start in October 2023. Applications are welcome from graduates
with a relevant STEM or engineering background. You will work closely with your industry sponsor
giving you plenty of opportunity to gain more industry experience.
Please apply to the
University of Sheffield.
Informal enquiries may be sent to Prof. Mathieu Lucquiaud
(m.lucquiaud@sheffield.ac.uk). Please note that applications
sent directly to this email address will not be accepted.
Funding notes:
The studentship will cover full university fees and a tax-free, enhanced annual stipend for four years. The stipend rate for the academic year 2023/24 from the EPSRC is £18,622. This stipend will rise with inflation each academic year. In addition, students receive a stipend enhancement of £3,750 per year.
The studentship is open to UK candidates only, due to restrictions from the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council.
Background:
Transitioning chemicals and fuels production towards net
zero ambitions requires securing abundant, affordable, low carbon, and
renewable feedstocks. This requires consideration of competition for limited
feedstock sources between a diversity of applications, and careful balancing of
objectives related to land and resource management.
This PhD project will develop novel life cycle assessment
and techno-economic approaches to assess potential feedstock supply chains for
low carbon and renewable chemicals production. The comprehensive approach
undertaken will consider: current and future availability of feedstock sources
in UK and globally; emerging process technologies for the pre-treatment and
conversion of feedstocks; the competitiveness of end users and alternative
decarbonisation strategies to anticipate best uses of limited feedstocks. You
will have the opportunity to develop expertise in innovative tools and
methodologies for assessing the environmental and financial implications of
deploying emerging technologies in the chemicals sector.
During the PhD, you will work closely with industrial
partner Mitsubishi Chemical Group and an interdisciplinary research team at
University of Nottingham and University College London, providing exciting
opportunities to better understand the potential role of renewable chemicals in
meeting industrial and national net zero ambitions.
Key requirements:
- A degree in chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, or equivalent (MEng high 2:1 or above; exception BEng candidates will also be considered)
- Excellent technical written and verbal skills
- Strong time management and ability to meet deadlines
- Ability to work both independently and as part of a team
Funding notes:
The project
will be part of the EPSRC-supported Centre for Doctoral Training in Resilient
Decarbonised Fuel Energy Systems. The student who undertakes it will be one of
a cohort of over 50 students in a broad range of disciplines across the
Universities of Sheffield, Nottingham and Cardiff. In addition to the standard
EPSRC stipend and payment of UK fees, there will be a stipend enhancement of
£3750 per annum for 4 years, with £6000 per annum of funding for research costs
and travel.
Please apply to the
University of Nottingham.
Informal
enquiries may be sent to Prof Jon McKechnie (jon.mckechnie@nottingham.ac.uk). Please note that applications sent
directly to this email address will not be accepted.
Background:
This
project aims to advance clean air technology for combustion gas management of exhaust
from current engines fuelled by gasoline and diesel, but also for new and
future generation technology. Vehicle emissions legislation is tightening
around the world, including the recently published EUVII standards, and there
is a continuing focus on the health consequences of particulate emissions from
internal combustion engines (ICE). To meet legislation over the whole range of driving
conditions, exhaust filters for current diesel and gasoline exhaust
applications may face the challenging requirement of greater than 99.9%
filtration efficiency without negatively affecting catalytic performance and
fuel efficiency. This stringent filtration target can only be met by gaining a deep
understanding of fluid flows in the porous filter medium, both of catalytic
coating liquids during manufacturing, and of exhaust gases during operation.
The
generated know how will be applicable to alternative fuels including systems
causing particulate matter from synthetic fuels, to capture unburned NH3
in NH3-ICE or urea particulates from selective catalytic reduction (SCR)
on H2-ICE. This project will utilize state of the art magnetic
resonance technology, such as rheo-NMR techniques to study the flow of
catalytic washcoat slurry into the porous walls of the ceramic material, as
arises during fabrication of the monolith, to understand deposition patterns
and resultant pore structure. It will also use hyperpolarised xenon MRI, an
emerging technology at the forefront of airway imaging in medicine, to study
the gas flow patterns in finished monoliths to understand the impact of mass
transport heterogeneity on the efficiency of filtration and the activity of the
catalyst
Funding notes:
The project will be part of the EPSRC-supported
Centre for Doctoral Training in Resilient Decarbonised Fuel Energy Systems. The
student who undertakes it will be one of a cohort of over 50 students in a
broad range of disciplines across the Universities of Sheffield, Nottingham and
Cardiff. In addition to the standard EPSRC stipend and payment of UK fees,
there will be a stipend enhancement of £3750 per annum for 4 years, with £6000
per annum of funding for research costs and travel.
Do you have a first degree in chemical engineering,
mechanical/materials engineering, physics, or chemistry?
Please apply to the
University of Nottingham
.
Informal enquiries may be sent to Prof Sean
Rigby (sean.rigby@nottingham.ac.uk) and Prof Thomas Meersmann (thomas.meersmann@nottingham.ac.uk). Please
note that applications sent directly to this email address will not be
accepted.
About Durham Filtration:
Durham Filtration Ltd. has the strategic intent to
become a renowned technical authority in the field of flue-gas filtration for
large-scale industrial combustion plants, particularly in the Energy-from-Waste
and Biomass Energy markets of the UK and Europe. We have invested heavily in
R&D to support this aim over the past 5 years with projects placed at
Universities of Newcastle, Teesside and Sheffield in addition to KTP
collaborations.
Our main business lies in providing filtration services
to waste to energy and biomass plant operated by Viridor, Veolia, Sembcorp,
Suez and E.On using combustion and gasification technologies.
We aim to provide best practice filtration technologies,
continuous improvement and innovative solutions for financial and environmental
benefits. In return, we have access to plant and commercial data and the
ability to trial our innovations using industrial samples or at full commercial
scale.
R & D plans:
DF have plans to recruit 4 PhD students in total on an
annual basis to assist in developing our R & D effort in support of our
commercial activities. DF envisage, should the opportunities arise, that these
students could grow with the company as it expands its activities in this
expanding sector as the UK engages with technologies that assist in reducing
CO2 emissions. DF have benefited from this recruitment route in recent years.
We have a plan to enhance our capability at our Jarrow
Facility and have constructed a filtration characterisation and testing
laboratory, which allows us to conduct all the current industry standard
measurements for post-operational flue gas filtration media. We are aware of
the plans of Sheffield University to recover from the flooding at Beighton and
we are committed to enhancing our current lab capabilities by constructing a
new filtration and combustion characterisation laboratory. This new facility
will leverage the existing knowhow within Sheffield University and will serve
to replace much of the capability formerly located at the Beighton pilot facility,
whilst also evolving the University’s capability to reflect current industrial
needs. We have allowed for a significant footprint of our Jarrow facility to be
used for this purpose, with room for expansion in mind.
Durham Filtration intends to work with Sheffield
University to develop our next-generation of innovations for our customers.
This includes a commitment to support EngD and PhD candidates with industrial
placements, supervise and mentor final year undergraduates with industrially
relevant research, and fund KTP associates. We will also commit to jointly
pursuing additional funding and grants as may be relevant to the research, and
to jointly deliver all impacts, outputs and deliverables required to fulfil the
conditions of the same.
We
envisage that this phase in our growth strategy will last at least four years,
during which time we will actively pursue, fund and support commercialisation
and publication of our jointly developed innovations.
EngD proposal:
Currently, there is an expansion in the UK for the
provision of power and heat from waste to energy and biomass combustion plant
which assist the UK Government in its goal to reduce CO2 emissions while
solving disposal problems. However, this type of plant generates particulate
emissions,
particularly
PM2.5, which provides technological challenges in their control due to their
size and health hazard potential. Increasingly stringent emissions control
legislation means that existing technology will need to be improved while
maintaining operational efficiency. This provides challenges to minimise outage
caused by filter failures in baghouses where higher performance filter
installation can highlight weaknesses in designs related to optimisation of flue
gas flow patterns as well as identification of regions of high material
stresses by simulation work.
It
is recognised that particulate control from biomass gasification processes
presents different sets of challenges and we will work with customers using
this technology to offer improved systems as an outcome from the areas of
research proposed below.
To assist in developing these high specification
systems, DF would like to sponsor an EngD student to start in September 2023
from the Resilient Decarbonisation CDT at Sheffield. DF have plans to fund up
to 4 PhD students and we have outlined below the proposed topics. All projects
are related to particulate emissions control from energy from waste and biomass
combustion/gasification plant.
The exact project will be decided
after interview with students to match interests and capabilities.
Topics:
1. Develop a predictive toolkit for
filtration asset owners to give quantitative predicted time-to-failure or
optimal regions of operation (economic or environmental optima). Analyse,
interpret, and visualise a high volume of data from a filtration specific sensor
platform installed in a UK biomass combustion and gasification plant. Integrate
with existing plant data collection methods and provide a structured model for
plant performance. Develop a reporting package to deliver data visualisations
to the end user in a meaningful way, reporting on the benefit of any corrective
action predicted by the model.
2. To run experimental programmes on
the new combustion test facility hosted by DF at their Jarrow facility. The
project will investigate the generation of particulate material under pilot
plant operating conditions from a range of fuel blends that are typical of
energy from waste and biomass energy plant. The controlled conditions of the
CTF will be used to focus on issues created by particular fuel blends which is
not possible by the analysis of industrially harvested samples from full scale
plant. The results will be complimentary and combined they will offer insight
into design solutions that can be offered by DF to the industry.
3. Develop new marketable products or
services to address the common issues found across plants. Provide the
mechanical design, simulation, prototyping and validation of any developed
equipment and assist in its commercialisation. Initially, a sorbent
distribution nozzle is envisaged to address the issue of poor sorbent mixing in
the flue gas treatment stream.
4. Develop new test methods and metrics
for quantifying ‘filter health’ with meaningful interpretations for end users.
Evolve the current ISO testing standards, based on old textile manufacture
methods, to bring about a new, market-specific testing standard and industrial
best practice. Using a wealth of industrial samples, build a library of data
and assist with model-based predictions of filter performance.
5. Develop our understanding of
Computational Fluid Dynamics, bringing our market offering up to the state of
the art. Simulate filter media at the micro- and macro-scale, and provide
approximations at the plant scale. Simulate filtration cleaning systems
dynamically, at high spaciotemporal resolution. Develop CFD integrated
optimisation frameworks or generative design methods to optimise geometries and
develop novel solutions for common plant issues.
Please apply to the
University of Sheffield.
Informal enquiries may be sent to Prof Bill Nimmo (w.nimmo@sheffield.ac.uk) and Dr Abby Samson (a.samson@sheffield.ac.uk). Please note that applications sent directly to this email address will not be accepted.
About the project:
It is essential to decarbonise carbon
dioxide emissions from fossil fuels to achieve the carbon neutrality of the
Paris Climate Change agreement. One key application of Carbon Capture and
Storage technologies is the removal of carbon dioxide from industrial and
combustion gases before they enter the atmosphere.
The project aims to design and optimise a
novel concept for contacting combustion gases with solvents used for CO2 capture in
combined cycle gas turbines. It uses a first of a kind prototype system to
obtain experimental data and combines the data with process modelling to obtain
the first optimised configuration. The project has three objectives:
1. Generate data on the pressure drop, hydrodynamics and mass
transfer of novel packing geometries used for contacting industrial gases with
CO2 capture
solvents.
2. Characterise the operation of the prototype contact for a range
of CO2 capture
solvent physical properties, such as density, viscosity and surface tension.
3. Develop engineering guidelines for process optimisation and
scale-up with open-access 35%wt MEA solvent supported by new packing data from
this project.
The output of the project will inform
commercial decisions by the industrial partner to decarbonise offshore
platforms. It will also explore configurations for other applications related
to CO2 capture.
Supervisors: Prof Mathieu
Lucquiaud, Dr Abby Samson, Prof Jon Gibbins, Department of Mechanical
Engineering, University of Sheffield
Industrial supervisors: Alexandre
Pactat, Veronique Pugnet, Total Energies Research & Development
The research environment
The research work will be based
in the Energy Research Group within the Department of Mechanical Engineering
and the Translational Energy Research Centre (TERC) at Sheffield which is a
brand new, high profile, innovation focused national research facility. You
will be working within an exciting and dynamic group with approximately over 60
researchers undertaking a broad area of energy research with approximately three
years' extensive research time in industry, preparing for high-level careers in
the energy sector.
The project will be part of the
EPSRC-supported Centre for Doctoral Training in Resilient Decarbonised Fuel
Energy Systems. The student who undertakes it will be one of a cohort of over
50 students in a broad range of disciplines across the Universities of
Sheffield, Nottingham and Cardiff.
Funding
The studentship will cover full
university fees and a tax-free, enhanced annual stipend for four years. The stipend
rate for the academic year 2023/24 from the EPSRC is £18,622. This stipend will
rise with inflation each academic year. In addition, students receive a stipend
enhancement of £3,750 per year.
Start date
We are seeking applicants to
start in September 2023 but could accept a starting date no
later than February 2024 for the right applicant.
The applicant
Applications are welcome from
graduates with a mechanical or chemical engineering background. Other relevant
STEM or engineering background will be considered.
The studentship is open to UK
candidates only, due to restrictions from the EPSRC.
Please apply to the
University of Sheffield.
Informal enquiries may be sent to Prof Mathieu Lucquiaud (m.lucquiaud@sheffield.ac.uk). Please note that applications sent directly to this email address will not be accepted.