Background:  
Climate change driven by greenhouse gases emissions is currently one of the greatest global challenges. Rising global temperatures are already causing a largescale shift in weather patterns, in turn leading to significant ramifications for society. Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) “is an important technological option for reducing CO2 emissions in the energy sector and will be essential to achieving the goal of net-zero emissions.” [1] Advanced adsorption-based carbon capture systems can be a promising technology to meet CO2 capture requirements while minimising energy consumption. Traditionally, adsorptive pellets are randomly packed in columns. However, this gives rise to large pressure drops and mass transfer issues. Structured monolithic adsorbents have been proposed to overcome the shortcoming associated with randomly packed beds, improving the efficiency and economic attractiveness of the carbon capture process.  
 
Project description:  
This project will be run in partnership with Lithoz (Austria), global leader of printing of high performance ceramic materials. Their pioneering 3D printing techniques will be tuned and employed to create perfectly ordered structured adsorbents for CO2. New materials, including highly porous zeolites and porous organic polymers (POPs), will be developed and optimised to enable fabrication of three dimensional models at high resolution (100 μm). The structured adsorbents will be then characterised for their adsorption properties, e.g. capacity, kinetics and selectivity for CO2.
The candidate will be using the 3D printing suite (Dr. Dimartino) for material development and be supported from Lithoz (internship periods to Austria will be negotiated).
The carbon capture group at The University of Edinburgh is one of the largest in the United Kingdom, and is a partner of the Scottish Carbon Capture and Storage Centre, SCCS. The successful candidate will have access to state-of-the-art, world-leading, equipment for adsorption characterisation in the ‘Advanced Adsorption Lab’ (Dr. Mangano), including Dual Piston Pressure Swing Adsorption System, Zero Length Column systems as well as low and high-pressure volumetric apparatuses.  
The results obtained will be disseminated to industry and academic partners, as well as to the wider society. The project is expected to produce significant socio-economic impact and will help address the great global challenge of climate change.
 
 
Please note, the position will be filled once a suitable candidate has been identified
 

References:  
[1] IEA, “CCUS in Clean Energy Transitions, IEA, Paris,” 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.iea.org/reports/ccus-in-clean-energy-transitions/ccus-in-the....