Jobs and Opportunities

2024 OpenAir Carbon Removal Challenge

Deadline: 15 December 2023
The OpenAir Carbon Removal Challenge is a worldwide challenge for students to create new processes, approaches and prototypes to remove carbon from the land, waters, or air.

Student teams will design and build creative solutions to the carbon pollution problem.  The very best approaches will be selected as finalists for an in-person showcase at the Carbon Unbound conference in May 2024.

The Carbon Removal Challenge provides students from colleges and universities around the world an opportunity to work towards safeguarding their future. They will not only design and build solutions that remove excess carbon from the environment, which will help accelerate carbon tech innovation, but also build connections that will bring the next generation of talented engineers, thinkers, and designers into this important sector.

Join the challenge now!

Links:

Carbon Unbound conference

OpenAir Carbon Removal Challenge

PhD studentship: Multiphase flow in responsive media: Hydrate formation in Carbon Geosequestration

Deadline: 15 January 2024
Fully-funded PhD studentship (all applicants, UK & International), jointly supervised between Coventry U., Nottingham Trent U., British Geological Survey.


Project details:



Fluids moving through natural materials like sandstone can dissolve or precipitate solids as they travel.  The alteration and damage caused by this type of reactive flow are behind several urgent and seemingly disparate challenges, including in the subsurface storage of carbon and hydrogen, the formation of methane hydrates, and even in the weathering of historic buildings.  However, the overarching difficulty is the same in each of these cases: upscaling predictions from the lab to the application scales.

This interdisciplinary project aims to improve understanding of the physics of reactive flows underlying hydrate formation in porous media.   For example, liquid CO2 injected for long-term storage into deep reservoirs can generate hydrates as it mixes with groundwater, forming crustal fingers by the so-called "chemical garden" phenomena. This is a self-arresting process, which slows down any further mixing, by blocking up the pore space.

In this project you will use cutting-edge numerical and experimental methods to explore the interplay between fluid dynamics and hydrate formation.  Your aim will be to develop a computationally-efficient pore-network model, which can scale up the physics of how alteration happens at the scale of micron-sized pores, in order to accurately predict effects that are only seen at scales of metres and above.  You will also be responsible for training and experimentally validating this model by laboratory experiments conducted at the extreme conditions representative of reservoirs several km deep underground.

This degree will provide you with access to a broad spectrum of expertise and facilities, under the supervision of Dr. Holtzman (Coventry University), Prof. Goehring (Nottingham Trent University, NTU), and Dr. Rochelle (British Geological Survey, BGS, Nottingham).  Within this collaborative project, partially funded by the BGS (NERC), part of this PhD will be embedded in Nottingham with the BGS/NTU, exploiting their world-class experimental facilities. You will develop experiments of hydrate formation during the pumping of CO2 into water-saturated porous media. The BGS Hydrates and Ices Laboratory will allow simulating natural, high-pressure conditions, whereas NTU’s advanced imaging facilities, including MRI and micro-computed tomography, will provide live images of the growing hydrates.


Further details and application

Contacts:
Dr. Holtzman
Prof. Goehring

Links:
BGS (CCS)
BGS Hydrates and Ices Laboratory

 

Call for abstracts: GHGT-17

Deadline: 16 January 2024
IEAGHG have announced a Call for Abstracts for GHGT-17.  This will take place in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, in October 2024.

Submissions of abstracts should align with the conference's technical themes. Abstracts should provide detailed information to facilitate fair assessment and accurately represent the content of the proposed paper. Special attention will be given to presentations showcasing results and developments in CCS, CCUS, and clean energy technologies.

Please note that substitution of papers will not be accepted, and submitted abstracts must reflect the intended presentation at GHGT-17.

Find out more and submit your abstract

 

IGNITE Network+: Pre-announcement - Flexible Funding Sandpit to Diversify the number of PIs applying to UKRI/ EPSRC Energy theme (FA1)

Deadline: 09 February 2024
IGNITE Network+ will be inviting Expressions of Interest to attend a sandpit event (in collaboration with C-DICE - Centre for Postdoctoral Development in Infrastructure Cities and Energy).

The flexible funding call is to directly address the low number of PIs applying from under-represented backgrounds to EPSRC’s Energy programme.


The sandpit event is designed for participants to leverage their experience and expertise to design collaborative proof-of-concept research projects, intended to result in larger multi-partner EPSRC grant submissions under the EPSRC’s Energy and Decarbonisation Theme or other relevant UKRI funding schemes with an energy focus. The Principal Investigator must attend the sandpit on Tuesday 16 and Wednesday 17 April 2024 to be eligible to apply for the funding call. There will be up to 30 places available, and all accommodation and meal costs will be covered by IGNITE Network+.


 The call for Expressions of Interest to attend the sandpit opens 8 January 2024.  More information can be found on the funding web page


 

PhD Studentship: Control and operation of advanced modular chemical looping process

Deadline: No expiration date
The Department of Chemical Engineering at The University of Manchester are offering a PhD Project (UK Students Only).

Chemical looping reforming in packed bed reactors is among the most promising technologies in the area of syngas and hydrogen production. The University of Manchester is currently building a pilot-scale process to operate the gas-solid reaction close to industrial operations. The plant will be fully integrated with sensors, data recording, inline instrumentation that could provide an incredible amount of data to fully demonstrate the feasibility of the technology towards commercial application.

The main objective of this PhD project is to develop a smart platform towards the digitalisation of chemical looping reforming to optimise the performance of the process.

Further information and details on how to apply can be found here

SCCS online course – Climate Change: Carbon Capture and Storage MOOC

Deadline: No expiration date
Scottish Carbon Capture and Storage is launching the newest version of their popular massive open online course (MOOC) on the 21st of November.

The massive open online course (MOOC) CCS is available free to learners worldwide. This course requires no prior knowledge of the subject, and runs for five weeks, starting on the 21st November. Developed and delivered by leading academics at the University of Edinburgh the course offers a comprehensive journey from fundamental concepts to intricate details. It includes real-world case studies, hands-on exercises, and ample opportunities for questions and discussions.

Registration is currently open in both English and Mandarin languages and both languages are available on edX and Coursera.

Find out more and enroll.