Novel fluidised bed reactors for hydrogen reduction of industrial iron ores

Description: A fully-funded PhD studentship (NZ$35,000 pa + all university fees) is available to work on the development of a novel hydrogen fluidised bed process for the reduction of iron ores within our world-leading research group in New Zealand.

Background: Steel is an essential material in the modern economy, but steelmaking is the largest single industrial source of CO₂ emissions, accounting for ~7% of total global emissions. This is because fossil carbon (either coal or natural gas) is used as the chemical reductant to extract iron metal from oxide ores. Hydrogen-DRI is an emerging approach which substitutes ‘green hydrogen’ as the chemical reductant (instead of coal), thus offering the potential to eliminate CO₂ emissions from the steelmaking process. However, new types of process reactor are required to perform hydrogen reduction at industrial scale, with fluidised bed reactors offering significant advantages for certain types of iron ore.

Project outline: The student will work alongside experienced scientists within our group, to characterise the hydrogen reduction behaviour of various industrial iron ores from Australia and New Zealand, utilising the unique custom-built fluidised bed laboratory reactors available in our laboratory. The student will then progress to testing these feedstocks in a novel continuous-flow pilot reactor currently under construction, and compare these experimental results with computational finite-element simulations.

Over the course of this scholarship the student will develop a wide range of research and engineering skills, as well as being exposed to a variety of industrial and academic partners. The Robinson Research Institute offers world-leading facilities for hydrogen-DRI research, and graduates are highly sought after by both academia and industry.

This project is part of an NZ government-funded research programme led by Prof Chris Bumby at the Robinson Institute within Victoria University of Wellington, and involves collaborations with the University of Canterbury, Callaghan Innovation and GNS Ltd. The successful student will also have the opportunity to engage with the MacDiarmid Institute (www.macdarmid.ac.nz) and the HILT-CRC (www.hiltcrc.com.au).

Eligibility: The successful candidate will be enthusiastic about the prospect of contributing to the development of an entirely new ‘zero-CO₂’ industrial technology, and comfortable working on practical engineering problems. They will hold a first-class honours degree (or a high 2:1 from a UK university) in Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Applied Physics or a related discipline. Candidates must be highly proficient in English and academic writing. Previous experience of engineering design using CAD software would be advantageous, but is not essential.

Candidates must also meet all criteria for PhD admission at Victoria University of Wellington. See here: https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/fgr/apply/how/entry-requirements

Funding: A tax-free PhD scholarship stipend of NZ$35,000 pa for 3 years is available, as well as the payment of all university fees.

Application process: For more information, please contact Prof Chris Bumby [email protected] , enclosing a copy of your CV and academic transcripts.