Project Description

This project will be integral to a larger project on 'Waste Biomass to Renewable Hydrogen', funded by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. It aims to develop-and test-a biomass preconditioning reactor which converts sugars and starches to intermediaries (such as HMF) for later use in a flow electrolyser cell. An innovative component of the project will be optimising the design of a packed-bed which serves as both a thermal storage unit (to regulate solar inputs) and as a catalyst bed (with high selectivity and efficiency). 

Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate would meet the following two essential criteria:

(1) The candidate needs to have a strong fundamental background in Engineering, specifically in the areas of thermal energy systems and/or thermochemical catalysis. Preference will be given to candidates with industry experience in these related fields since we are aiming for the eventual commercial implementation of the technologies developed during the course of the project.
(2) The candidate must be a very good communicator, with evidence of both verbal and written communication in the items of mentioned in (1). In particularly, we hope that the candidate will obtain at least 3 high impact academic outputs from this work and that the candidate can assist in presenting the technology to potential industrial partners and to the larger community.

Supervisory team: A/Prof Robert Taylor, A/Prof Jason Scott, Dr Qiyuan Li 

For more information go to UNSW Scientia PhD Scholarships page