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Friday, March 26, 2010

UK: EPSRC EngD project in Process Intensification for Sustainable Products, University of Birmingham

Overview

Unilever is a research intensive Fast Moving Consumer Goods company with many well known global brands. Unilever's vision is to double the size of it business without increasing its carbon footprint. To achieve this effectively means that the carbon footprint of individual products must be reduced by 50%. To nurture such innovation, Unilever invests significantly in R&D to maintain a worldwide network of innovation centres, one in Port Sunlight (host) and one in The Netherlands near Rotterdam (co-host).

The responsibilities of these Groups are to provide manufacturing excellence and outstanding product innovation. The quality & performance of chemically structured products (e.g. food and drink, fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, lubricants) is ensured by design & operation of effective & efficient processes. A characteristic of chemical products is that the product value as experienced by the user depends partly on the chemical ingredients (formulation) and partly on the physical properties (rheology, optical properties, etc.). The way we bring materials together in a process can have an enormous influence on the properties (i.e. particle size and distribution, stability, appearance, viscosity, molecular weight) of a chemical product and hence on its performance. Consequently if we are to realise the full value of the product, process and product must, in fact, be designed concurrently.


The project examines the use of Process Intensification in order to manipulate the structures formed during manufacture. In particular the project is interested in how process engineering innovation can improve the cost structure of products, supply chain efficiency and environmental and sustainability profiles without a negative impact on the consumer appeal of new products. Such process innovations are required to meet the ever increasing demands of new product innovations which are increasingly harder to manufacture, have shorter innovation and product life cycles and improved sustainability of manufacturing processes and products. Much of PI is concerned with the use of mechanical devices to produce high deformation rates to create smaller structures more quickly. However these processes are very energy inefficient with less that 1% of the energy being converted into the desired structures. Consequently there is a growing interest in new technologies which work synergistically with the materials to produce the desired structures in a much more efficient and targeted way. These technologies include the use of new or different force fields such as electromagnetic fields, ultrasonics and microwaves as well as revisiting techniques such as membranes and microfluidics where advances in materials of construction and mechanical forming techniques promise to address the limitations of these technologies.

Benefits

Tax free bursary of £19,800 p.a. plus fees paid

Eligible Candidates

To be considered for the post candidates must meet the EPSRC eligibility of at least a 2(i) or a 2(ii) plus MSc in a relevant discipline and be a UK national, or be an EU national who has studied in the UK for the last three years. If interested please e mail your cv to r.w.greenwood@bham.ac.uk


Please kindly mention Scholarization.blogspot.com when applying for this opportunity


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Scholarship Team: Ph.D Scholar Krisstofferson Joniel Scholarship Adviser, PhD Scholar Chea Vitom Scholarship Adviser and Senior Lecturer, PhD Scholar Rebecca T. Dalisay Scholarship Adviser, Ph.D Student Jiao Wang Scholarship Coordinator, MSc Student Dennise Maricel Scholarship Coordinator