Plastic upcycling using renewable hydrogen sources

These projects are open to students worldwide, but have no funding attached. Therefore, the successful applicant will be expected to fund tuition fees at the relevant level (home or international) and any applicable additional research costs. Please consider this before applying.

This experimental project will deal with the global challenge of reducing plastic wastes impact on the environment by using waste plastics to produce value-added chemicals and/or fuels, creating a so-called circular economy. It will involve the synthesis of catalysts, their characterisation and catalytic test under reaction conditions.

Hydrocracking of waste plastics has been identified as a promising option for waste plastic upcycling. However, this technology requires the use of high pressure of hydrogen, which is still mostly obtained from fossil fuels. Therefore, finding a more sustainable hydrogen source is of major importance to increase the sustainability of the process.

The main goals of this project will be, thus, to develop heterogeneous catalysts with exceptional performance for the one-pot upcycling of waste plastics using sustainable biomass-derived hydrogen sources, understand the behaviour of the catalysts and study the reaction mechanisms and kinetics involved. Catalysts will be optimised to achieve high conversion and selectivity for the desired products and to be active at relatively low temperature and pressures.

Beyond conventional thermal catalysis, the project can be expanded to include the development and use of innovative and future emerging energy technologies for the catalytic activation of molecules. These techniques will be used with the target of promoting heat and mass transfer and reducing energy input.

Decisions will be based on academic merit. The successful applicant should have, or expect to obtain, a UK Honours Degree at 2.1 (or equivalent) MEng/BEng in Chemical Engineering or any related discipline, such as BSc in Chemistry, Materials Science.

Essential background: Chemical Engineering, Reaction Engineering, Renewable Energy Engineering, Chemistry, Materials Science.

Desirable knowledge: Materials synthesis, materials characterisation, namely N2 physisorption, TGA, FTIR, XRD, gas chromatography, etc., reactor design and kinetics, heterogeneous catalysis. Microsoft Office package (especially Excel).

Application Procedure:

Formal applications can be completed online: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/pgap/login.php.

You should apply for PhD in Engineering to ensure your application is passed to the correct team for processing.

Please clearly note the name of the lead supervisor and project titleon the application form. If you do not include these details, it may not be considered for the studentship.

Your application must include: A personal statement, an up-to-date copy of your academic CV, and clear copies of your educational certificates and transcripts.

Please note: you do not need to provide a research proposal with this application.

Informal enquiries can be made by contacting Dr I Graca at i.graca@abdn.ac.uk. If you require any additional assistance in submitting your application or have any queries about the application process, please don't hesitate to contact us at researchadmissions@abdn.ac.uk