University College Cork
PhD Position
Awarded each academic year in:-
GreenGrass: Developing grass for sustainable renewable energy generation and value added products
Environmental Research Institute
Biofuels Research,
Sustainable Energy Research Group,
Environmental Research Institute,
University College Cork,
Cork,
Ireland

Funded by The Department of Agriculture, Stimulus Fund

This project requires a PhD student for a 3 and a half year period. The work is in collaboration with Teagasc (Agricultural Research Centre) and The Questor Centre, Queens University Belfast. The concept of the €1.2million collaborative project is to ascertain the potential biogas production from grass, to examine the separation of fibre from grass/silage for use as an insulation material and to establish the reduced biogas potential associated with the fibre-less grass silage. The concept of this PhD study is to design a series of sizeable rigs (ca 60L each) which are optimized for digestion of grass silage. These rigs may operate in up-flow, down-flow or two stage mode. The project starts December 2007/January 2008. The role carries a tax free stipend of €18,000/a; is based in the Environmental Research Institute (http://www.ucc.ie/en/ERI/) under the supervision of Dr Jerry D Murphy (www.ucc.ie/serg/jerry.html). The biofuels research team will comprise a principle investigator, a senior Post Doc, three PhD students and three masters students. The suitable candidate will have a Masters Degree or at least a first class honours degree in Civil, Process or Mechanical Engineering/Microbiology/Biotechnology.

Written applications including CV, and details of two academic referees to Dr Jerry D Murphy, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University College Cork, Ireland; email: jerry.murphy@ucc.ie, who will also be available for informal discussion.