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PhD Studentship in Environmental / Chemical / Energy Engineering – (Ph.D.)
The University of Edinburgh
College of Science & Engineering| Application Deadline: | Open until filled | ||
| Location: | Edinburgh / United Kingdom / View location on map ▾ Hide location on map ▴ | ||
| Duration: | 36 months | Start Date: | Anytime |
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| Languages: | English | ||
Location of The University of Edinburgh
Scotland has installed 82 water treatment plants based on membrane filtration and with a capacity of 3 to 44,000 m3/day since 1994. The operation of these plants often provides challenges with regards to water quality, maintenance, costs and – most importantly – energy consumption.
This project will, firstly, carry out an in-depth analysis of challenges in system operation, maintenance requirements, component failures, and energy consumption. Secondly, based on the gathered data, the potential of powering these systems from renewable microgeneration will be investigated. This builds on recent work from the UoE/HWU research team has demonstrated that a membrane treatment system can be successfully powered by either wind or solar energy and does NOT require battery storage for achieving safe operation. This has important implications for operation in very remote areas.
Extending from this work, we therefore seek to determine what system performance could have been achieved for the existing water treatment plants if they had been powered by a mixture of photovoltaics and small wind turbine(s) and how this would have impacted on both capital and O&M costs. Finally, this will enable us to design a number of different sized systems for possible future deployment in Scotland, as opening up the opportunity to further implement the technology for application in both disaster relief areas and developing countries.
The milestones for this PhD research project will be centred around the following areas and require a strong sense of project delivery to required deadlines, interaction with team partners and ability to publish research findings in high impact journals;
Milestone 1 Data collection
Milestone 2 Analysis of system water performance
Milestone 3 Analysis of system energy performance
Milestone 4 Analysis of system operation and maintenance
Milestone 5 Analysis of system failures
Milestone 6 Energy Optimisation
Milestone 7 Implications for global development
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Requirements
The successful PhD candidate will have a strong background in a relevant (chemical/process/energy) engineering or science discipline (or equivalent) and a strong interest in academic research. A first class honours or upper second is the minimum qualification requirement. Evidence of time management, ability to deliver on deadlines, independent work, strong self-motivation, eagerness to publish in high ranking journals, awareness of equality and diversity, good team spirit and excellent
communication skills are important assets of the successful candidate. In addition, the successful candidate will need to formulate the necessary research questions (hypotheses) that are then addressed within the thesis.
Interested candidates are encouraged to prepare a brief 2-3 page research proposal outlining their research motivation and citing current literature on the topic as well as sending curriculum vitae (including three academic referees and publication list) as well as academic transcripts and should contact (preferably via email) to:
*** Professor Bryce Richards, Director of Scottish Institute for Solar Energy Research (b.s.richards@hw.ac.uk)
*** Professor Andrea Schäfer, Chair of Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering, (Andrea.Schaefer@ed.ac.uk)
Additional Requirements
| Minimal degree required: | Bachelor's degree |
| Minimal amount of work experience | Not specified |
Language Proficiency
| IELTS Band: | 6.5 |
| TOEFL Internet-based: | 92 |
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You can contact Andrea Schäfer to ask a question about PhD Studentship in Environmental / Chemical / Energy Engineering at The University of Edinburgh.
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