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Project Description

Recruitment for student start date of October 2021 

The current market conditions are such that combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plants are now considering double two-shift operation, so potentially accruing upwards of 600 stats per year. This increased thermal cycling has a detrimental effect on component life. One critical component is the gas turbine rotor. The ability to accurately calculate the remaining life of the rotors through prediction of creep and fatigue damage will enable reduction of financial and environmental costs associated with premature replacement. Ultimately these cost reductions could benefit the consumer and the economy.

RWE Generation operates gas (CCGT), biofuel and coal power stations across Europe. It is one of the largest electricity generation companies within Europe. Since its power station components operate at high temperatures and pressures, RWE has technical interest in component life prediction and extension through modelling, plant performance optimisation, metallurgy, welding and new materials.

A previous research programme, conducted over the last 3 years at Nottingham, has involved development of a visco-plastic material model for one of the rotor steels, determination of the material model parameters through experimental testing and development of a finite element model of the rotor with some limited life prediction capability.   

The aim of the current project is to continue this research to fully develop a model which can provide accurate life predictions for the rotor given the correct thermal boundary conditions.

Specific objectives will include:

1. Further development of a 3D finite element model of the rotor including all potential high damage regions (e.g. including blade root to rotor contact).
2. Refinement of the visco-plastic model to better simulate creep-fatigue interaction during turbine start up and shut down.
3. Extension of the visco-plastic model to include damage/life prediction.
4. Material testing to provide model parameters for the second rotor material.

High temperature mechanical testing and physical characterization will be carried out using well-established facility. The theoretical and modelling work will be carried out using finite element package ABAQUS through user defined subroutines.

We are seeking applicants to start in September 2020.

Candidates should have a first or high 2.1 class honours degree in an engineering or science discipline (e.g. mechanical engineering, applied mechanics or applied mathematics). A strong background of Mechanics of Solids, Mathematics and Computational Modelling is preferable.

The scholarship on offer (to eligible students) comprises a tax-free stipend of £15,285 (2020/2021) a year for four years, and paid UK/EU tuition fees. Due to funding restrictions, this position is only available for UK or EU candidates.

This project will be partly funded by RWE UK. The student will have opportunity to work with RWE experts. The Industrial Supervisor is Dr Jeremy Hughes at RWE UK.

The PhD student will work within the EPSRC Centre for Doctor Training (CDT) “Resilient decarbonised Fuel Energy Systems”

Informal enquiries may be sent to Dr Tao Liu. Please note that applications sent directly to this email address will not be accepted.

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This project is open to UK students only

The deployment of industrial clusters for decarbonisation is key to the UK’s transition to a net zero economy. Since the large scale deployment of CCUS requires the development of significant and expensive infrastructure for both CO2 transport and storage, detailed consideration of policy and economic impacts as well as cost reduction of these elements of the CCUS value chain is key for the viability of a cluster. This exciting project will combine expertise from both economics and engineering to address this challenge, and will benefit from significant input from industrial stakeholders.

This project will seek to develop a novel approach to understand the design and evolution of CCUS clusters in the UK. The design of the required transportation system requires a detailed cost benefit analysis and optimisation of the cluster CO2 transportation network over long time scales, minimising the total costs for CO2 transport and storage, whilst considering potential capacity expansion or contraction over time.

The project will seek to characterise and incorporate individual industrial actors’ strategic behaviour within clusters. This will include long-term economic and business models to understand the drivers of firms’ investments in the CCUS infrastructure as well as the role of the policy-maker in setting policies to encourage or facilitate the development of the network. This will be used to provide strategic and policy recommendations for the development and evolution of CCUS clusters.

The project will be part of the EPSRC-supported Centre for Doctoral Training in Resilient Decarbonised Fuel Energy Systems. The student who undertakes it will be one of a cohort of over 50 students in a broad range of disciplines across the Universities of Sheffield, Nottingham and Cardiff. In addition to the standard EPSRC stipend and payment of UK fees, there will be a stipend enhancement of £3750 per annum for 4 years, with £6000 per annum of funding for research costs and travel.

Applicants are expected to have obtained (or be heading for) a First or Upper-second degree at Master’s level (or equivalent) in an Engineering, Mathematical or Physical Science discipline and be highly motivated. They should have broad interests in renewable and low carbon technologies, and in the economics surrounding them. Furthermore, the applicant should have a desire to gain international industrial experience during the course of the EngD. Applicants should also be able to demonstrate excellent written and oral communication skills, which will be essential for collaborations, disseminating the results via journal publications and attendance at international conferences.

Informal enquiries may be sent to Dr Solomon Brown. Please note that applications sent directly to this email address will not be accepted.

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Application Deadline: 31 July 2021. This project is open to UK students only 

Project Description 

CPL Industries Limited is the UK’s market leader in the manufacture and supply of smokeless solid fuel used in domestic heating. CPL also produces a range of fuels that include renewable materials.  

CPL is currently undergoing a big push to produce solid fuels produced purely from renewable precursors. This is due to number of reasons, one main reason being stricter legislation around carbon emissions being put in place with more expected in the near future to meet emission targets. Ever increasingly biomass is being sought for using as a fuel source. Biomass can be problematic in terms of storage and low energy density means much more needs to be burnt to produce the same energy as coal. Combustion of raw biomasses can also be bad for emissions targets especially in producing particulates lowering air quality. One way to limit the volume required to burn and therefore particulate emissions is to undergo pyrolysis which de-volatises the biomass and increases the fixed carbon content and in doing so, energy density. Pyrolysis is also a step required in activated carbon production that CPL are looking towards. During pyrolysis oil and gases are produced. The oils have potential to be used for other applications, one example of this is the use the bio oils as a binder in the production of renewable smokeless solid fuel briquettes.  

This brings us to another technology Hydrothermal Carbonisation (HTC) that CPL are working to commercialise. CPL have the first pilot scale plant in the UK at its site in Immingham. HTC is a wet biomass conversion technology. It mimics the natural process of coal formation in just a few hours. The benefits of hydrothermal carbonisation is that biomass with a high moisture content is considered ideal whereas in the majority of cases they aren’t favoured due to this moisture causing issues without undergoing pre drying steps. Low quality biomass that is considered a waste can undergo hydrothermal carbonisation which occurs in the liquid phase and produces a carbon with comparable energy density as seen in wood pellets. The by-product of this is HTC process liquor which can possibly be used as a fertiliser if it is found to contain valuable nutrients.  

The project is geared towards the chosen student taking these pyrolysis oils and HTC effluent and seeing what value and uses can be extracted from them. This will include a large range of laboratory testing for composition analysis and also real-life application testing such as a potential renewable binder mention above. The student will be heavily interactive with the company working alongside the R&D team whom along with Nottingham University will give support and project direction. 

We are seeking applicants to start in October 2021. 

Candidates should have: 

•  a first or high 2.1 class honours degree in chemistry (analytical, applied, industrial, organic or synthetic) or equivalent (MEng) 

• Good technical written and verbal communication skills 

• Time management and ability to meet deadlines 

• Ability to work independently and in a team 

In addition to the standard EPSRC stipend and payment of UK fees, there will be a stipend enhancement of £3750 per annum for 4 years, with £6000 per annum of funding for research costs and travel. 

The PhD student will work within the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) “Resilient Decarbonised Fuel Energy Systems”. 
 

Informal enquiries may be sent to Dr Robin Irons or Dr Andy Gill. Please note that applications sent directly to those email addresses will not be accepted. 

Complete an application for this role