PhD Studentship
Keeping Britain on the Move in Winter: Understanding the Cold-Flow Behaviour of Bio-Diesel Fuels
Institute of Particle Science and Engineering
Applications are invited for a 42 month industrially-funded PhD research studentship to work on a project entitled "An Examination of Methyl Fatty Ester Crystallisation in Relation to Improving the Cold-flow Behaviour of Pure and Formulated Bio-diesel Fuels" under the supervision of Professor Kevin Roberts in the Institute of Particle Science and Engineering, University of Leeds. The project is funded via an industrial studentship from Infineum (a joint venture company owned 50:50 by ExxonMobil and Shell) involved in the development and manufacture of speciality petrochemical products.

You will have the opportunity to undertake work in laboratories of the industrial sponsor and will be encouraged to attend national and international training courses and conferences. You will receive a stipend of £12,600 per year, and in turn will be encouraged to contribute towards publication of work and defining opportunities within the project. You will work in a grade 5*-rated research school in the Institute of Particle Science and Engineering, one of the University's gold-star rated centres of research excellence, enjoying access to state of the art instrumentation and computation in recently refurbished laboratories.

The backdrop to the project reflects the fact that modern environmental factors, driven by global warming considerations, has seen a significant shift in recent years towards a low-carbon economy and concomitant demand for the use of more sustainable fuel sources, notably through the increased use of bio-diesel fuels. However, there are challenges to the routine use of such fuel sources, notably related their behaviour under cold weather conditions, due to the crystallisation within the fuel of waxy bio-fuel components, notably long-chain methyl fatty esters.

This project will focus around this theme aiming to develop a fundamental understanding of such deleterious crystallisation behaviour together with the concomitant impact on the flow properties of the fuel. The planned research work will involve molecular and crystallographic studies adopting surface engineering approaches for potential crystallisation control coupled to experimental studies of their crystallisation using laboratory techniques.

This studentship is only open to UK/EU applicants (due to funding body restrictions).

For further details please contact Prof. Kevin Roberts at k.j.roberts@leeds.ac.uk.

Interested candidates should send a letter of application and a detailed CV with the names and addresses of three referees to him at:

Professor Kevin J Roberts
Brotherton Professor of Chemical Engineering
Institute of Particle Science and Engineering
School of Process, Environmental & Materials Engineering
University of Leeds
Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.