PhD Studentships - Process Industries: Net Zero - Decarbonisation of Thermal Separation Processes for Removing Water and Organic Solvents from High-performance Ingredients

Award Summary

100% fees (UK home only), a minimum tax-free annual living allowance of £19,237 (2024/25 UKRI rate), and a research training support grant of £20,000. 

Overview

This PhD project is part of the CDT in Process Industries: Net Zero. The successful PhD student will be co-supervised by academics from the Process Intensification Group at Newcastle University. Established in 1925, Croda is the name behind sustainable, high-performance ingredients and technologies in some of the world’s most successful brands: creating, making and selling speciality chemicals that are relied on by industries and consumers everywhere. This project will help to support Croda’s “Net Zero by 2050” strategy, enabling them to invest in low-carbon, intensified processes that meet their future manufacturing needs,

A range of thermal separation processes are applied across Croda, and these are estimated to contribute significantly towards Croda’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Croda is setting ambitious sustainability targets, and it is essential that manufacturing sites have visibility of technologies that can reduce the energy consumption of processes such as distillation, that are heavily reliant on natural gas.

This project will first review the various thermal separation processes employed at manufacturing sites across Croda and then determine where alternative technologies can provide a material improvement in carbon emissions without affecting product quality. Experimental and trial work will follow, to ultimately provide recommendations for potential improvements to current manufacturing processes, with the aim of reducing GHG emissions

Number Of Awards

1

Start Date

15th September 2025

Award Duration

4 Years

Application Closing Date

26th January 2025

Sponsor

EPSRC

Supervisors

Lead Supervisor: Dr Jonathan Lee 

Co-Supervisor: Dr Greg Mutch 

Industry Supervisor: James Birbeck

Eligibility Criteria

You must have, or expect to gain, a minimum 2:1 Honours degree or international equivalent in a subject relevant to the proposed PhD project (usually chemical engineering or chemistry, but please get in touch if you think your qualification may be relevant). Enthusiasm for research, the ability to think and work independently, excellent analytical skills and strong verbal and written communication skills are also essential requirements.

This studentship is available to home students only. 

How To Apply

You must apply through the University’s Apply to Newcastle Portal. Once registered select ‘Create a Postgraduate Application’. 

 Use ‘Course Search’ to identify your programme of study: 

• Search for the ‘Course Title’ using the programme code: 8856F 
• Leave the 'Research Area' field blank 
• Select ‘PhD in Process Industries; Net Zero (PINZ’) as the programme of study 

You will then need to provide the following information in the ‘Further Details’ section: 

• A ‘Personal Statement’ (this is a mandatory field) - upload a document or write a statement directly in to the application form 
• The studentship code PINZ08-25 in the ‘Studentship/Partnership Reference’ field 
• ‘Research Proposal’ - when prompted for how you are providing your research proposal –select ‘Write Proposal’. You should then type in the title of the research project from this advert. You do not need to upload a research proposal. 

You must submit one application per studentship, you cannot apply for multiple studentships on one application. 

Contact Details

pinzcdt@ncl.ac.uk 

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