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4x PhD Opportunities - School of Chemical Engineering

Employer
Global Academy Jobs
Location
Australia
Closing date
Oct 2, 2017

Job Details

The School of Chemical Engineering

The School of Chemical Engineering is an international leader in the chemical engineering field and has an excellent international reputation which has been built over four decades at the University. With 35 academic staff, including 17 professors, the School provides quality programs and leadership in chemical engineering education, research and development, and expert consulting to support the process industries. In addition to core technical areas, research is undertaken on a range of interdisciplinary problems, in collaboration with science, business, economics and other disciplines.  Information about the Faculty and the School may be accessed on the Faculty's web site at http://www.uq.edu.au/eait.

 

The role

Carbon dioxide (CO2) becomes increasingly notorious as a cause of global warming. As the primary greenhouse emissions from human activities, carbon dioxide are majorly emitted from fossil fuels combustion for energy. The iron and steel industry is the key sector providing a fundamental material to society, but is also the largest energy consuming manufacturing sector. The iron making process is the most CO2 emissions intensive part for steel production. In 2010, about 2,500 million tons of CO2 in total (over 5% of the total CO2 emission) were emitted from steel production, and this value is projected to grow by 2050 to a level of 2,800 million tonnes. On average, around 2 tonnes of CO2 will be emitted to the atmosphere to produce one tonne of steel through blast furnace route, which is the most common steel making process and accounts for nearly 70% of steel produced worldwide. Therefore, mitigating CO2 emission levels especially from iron and steel industry is critical to alleviate greenhouse impacts on our environment and society sustainability. This project aims to develop technologies for our industrial partners to capture and electrochemically convert CO2 from steel making processes to product with high commercial value. Four PhD positions are currently available within this project:

 

Position 1: Electrocatalyst Development for CO2 conversion

This role is mainly focused on material syntheses, catalysts screening and development, electrochemical performance and stability evaluations, and material characterisations cathode to deliver fundamental insights and suitable catalyst candidates for CO2 electrochemical conversion applications.

 

Position 2: Electrode Structure Design and Transport Phenomena Study

This role will mainly evaluate and investigate various factors such as electrolyte mass transfer and electrode structures on the performance and stability CO2 electrochemical conversion applications through experiment and simulations, and provide strategies to design optimal electrode for large-scale CO2 electrochemical conversion.

 

Position 3: Reactor Design and Process Optimisation

This role is majorly responsible for flow-temperature-kinetics computational modelling aspects to inform scale-up design and processes optimisation.

 

Position 4: Carbon Footprint Mapping and Modelling

This project mainly involves techno-economic evaluations through process modelling and simulations as well as financial analysis to map carbon footprint of the industrial processes, evaluate energy efficiencies, and review the technical and economical feasibilities of integrating CO2 electrochemical conversion technologies. 

 

The person

We are seeking talented students with background in material science, chemistry, electrochemistry, modelling or engineering to work with an industrial project related to carbon dioxide emissions reduction for iron and steel manufacturing industry.

Applicants must have excellent critical thinking skills and very good written and spoken communication are required, and you must be able to analyse and synthesize information from across a range of disciplines.

Applicants must fulfill the PhD admission criteria for the University of Queensland, and demonstrate excellent capacity and potential for research. 

The University of Queensland values diversity and inclusion and offers flexible working arrangements. Applications are particularly encouraged from women, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

 

Remuneration

Prospective students will be provided with assistance to apply for a competitive UQ scholarship, or a domestic equivalent scholarship, for stipend and tuition support https://graduate-school.uq.edu.au/scholarships. Award of a scholarship will be conditional upon the applicant applying for and obtaining an unconditional offer for entry to the PhD program at UQ and being assessed in the next available UQ scholarship round. The duration of the candidacy is 3 years with 2 possible extensions each for up to 6 months.

 

Enquiries

To discuss these roles please contact Professor Geoff Wang (gxwang@uq.edu.au)  or Professor Victor Rudolph (v.rudolph@uq.edu.au).

To submit an application for this role, use the Apply button below. All applicants must supply the following documents

  • Cover letter, please indicate which project you are applying for;

  • CV, including a list of published works and contact details of two referees;

  • an academic transcript;

Reference: 500912

Company

Global Academy Jobs works with over 250 universities worldwide to promote academic mobility and international research collaboration. Global problems need international solutions. Our jobs board and emails reach the academics and researchers who can help.

"The globalisation of higher education continues apace, driving in turn the ongoing development of the global knowledge economy, striving for solutions to the world’s problems and educating a next generation of leaders and contributors."

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