MSc by Research funding for EU & UK Students 2020 at University of Hull, UK

As part of the THYME project, a collaboration between Hull, Teesside and York, together working towards finding greener solutions to utilise waste for energy or the production of fuels. As well, as build upon regional assets and boosting the local bioeconomies of areas such as the Humber Estuary and the Tees Valley.

In the transition away from fossil fuels, lignocellulosic wastes such as woods and barley straw have become a hot topic for valorisation.

Currently, enzymatic hydrolysis is used to breakdown biomass waste to generate sugars for bioethanol production.

Although an efficient process, a waste product is generated in the form of a lignin rich sludge. Often the resulting sludge is assumed to be ‘unusable’ for further valorisation and committed for agricultural use (secondary waste).

This project, in collaboration with the Biorenewable Development Centre (York) and a local SME, Jesmond Engineering, aims to repurpose the waste lignin rich sludge produced. This will involve various physical/physicochemical pre-treatment technologies to generate a suitable solid fuel (pellet) that will be used for pyrolysis/gasification and/or combustion.

The material will undergo pelletization and will be tested in a flexible thermochemical reactor system designed and developed by the B3 Challenge Group in Hull, as well as utilise equipment and learn various techniques in our newly established Bioenergy, Solid Fuels and Catalysis laboratory.

The successful candidate will gain experience in solid fuels characterisation such as ultimate and proximate analysis, PXRD, FTIR, UV-Vis, N2 physisorption, Karl Fischer titrations, Electron Microscopy, Elemental Analysis and thermogravimetric analysis.

These skills are transferable, allowing full versatility in any future lab based role, especially in the bioenergy sector.

Supervisors