Depending on how you meet the EPSRC’s eligibility criteria, a full award covers tuition fees at the UK/EU rate for the three-year duration of your PhD and an annual stipend of £13,863 (2014/15 rate). A partial award covers fees at the UK/EU rate only.

Project Start Date: September 2015

Sponsor

Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council EPSRC (DTA)

Project Description

This PhD project will explore the development of more efficient economic and environmentally friendly hydrogen production processes
Hydrogen is increasingly becoming an integral part of the economy as it is essential in many industrial processes as well as an emerging fuel for internal combustion engines and fuel cell technology. One promising method is chemical looping, which is a process in which a solid oxygen carrier is cyclically reduced and oxidised. In our group, chemical looping is used to produce hydrogen via water splitting performed over a reduced oxygen carrier. The main challenges to this method of hydrogen production are finding an oxygen carrier with a high oxygen capacity, good cyclic stability, and reactivity. In this project, novel and composite materials will be developed to compete with conventional oxygen carriers. The aim is to study these novel materials to better understand the effect of structure and composition on oxygen carrier performance as well as to demonstrate that these materials are viable candidates for hydrogen production via chemical looping.

Name of the Supervisor

Professor IS Metcalfe, School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials

Person Specification and Eligibility Criteria

You should have an upper-second-class Honours degree or higher or international equivalent, in chemical engineering, chemistry, materials science or a related subject.

The award is available to UK/EU applicants. In the case of outstanding International candidates it may be possible that the University will make an award to cover the difference in tuition fees. If English is not your first language, you should have IELTS 6.5 or equivalent.

You must also have the potential for performing original research.

How to Apply

If you are interested in the above project and meet the criteria you should send a C.V, covering letter plus two references to i.metcalfe<στο>ncl.ac.uk.

The successful applicant will then be asked to apply for University admission using the University’s online postgraduate application form. Unsuccessful applications will not receive an acknowledgement.

• Insert the program code 8030F in the program of study section.
• Select ‘PhD School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials - Chemical Engineering' as the programme of study.
• Insert the studentship code CE043 in the studentship/partnership reference.  
• Attach a covering letter and C.V. The covering letter must state the title of the studentship, quote reference code CE043 and state how your interests and experience relate to the project.
• Attach degree transcripts and certificates and, if English is not your first language, a copy of your English language qualifications

Closing Date for Applications 

Prompt application is advised as this position is only available until a suitable candidate is found.

Further Information

For further details, please contact:

Professor IS Metcalfe 
School of Chemical Engineering and Advanced Materials
E-mail i.metcalfe<στο>ncl.ac.uk