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Prof R Scott
Applications accepted all year round
Self-Funded PhD Students Only
About the Project
Supervisors: Prof. Rod J. Scott (Biology and Biochemistry) & Dr Chris Chuck (Chemical Engineering)
The replacement of diminishing supplies of fossil fuels, delivering fuel security and addressing man-made climate change are key global scientific and engineering challenges for the next century. This will require a substantial reduction in the dependency on petrochemical liquid fuels. Any solution must provide a fuel that is affordable, available at the required volumes, and acceptable both in terms of performance and the environmental impact of production. A promising approach is to use oleaginous microalgae grown in open raceway ponds that make use of renewable feedstocks derived from inexpensive or no-cost waste streams.
Open raceway ponds (see are the only economically viable means of producing algal biomass for biofuel, but are vulnerable to contamination. This PhD project focuses on Chlorella sp. that grows well at high pH, and therefore resists contamination from competing microorganisms, which is a major problem in open systems. A low cost production method has been developed that uses waste feedstock such as wastewater from a sewage treatment plant, CO2 and permeate (a nitrate and phosphate rich bi-product of anaerobic digestion).
Critical to the commercial viability of microalgae derived biodiesel is improved productivity by the algae in the open pond system. The project will develop genetic modification methods that will be used to relieve bottlenecks in fatty acid production identified from metabolic profiling data produced by our collaborators in India. The modified strains will be rigorously evaluated for improved productivity in open pond culture.
Techniques/Skills acquired during the PhD: microalgal culture; flow cytometry for cell counting and lipid quantification; large scale open pond culture; lipid extraction and biodiesel production via transesterification; handling metabolic profiling data; molecular biology techniques relevant to genetic transformation of microalgae.
The replacement of diminishing supplies of fossil fuels, delivering fuel security and addressing man-made climate change are key global scientific and engineering challenges for the next century. This will require a substantial reduction in the dependency on petrochemical liquid fuels. Any solution must provide a fuel that is affordable, available at the required volumes, and acceptable both in terms of performance and the environmental impact of production. A promising approach is to use oleaginous microalgae grown in open raceway ponds that make use of renewable feedstocks derived from inexpensive or no-cost waste streams.
Open raceway ponds (see are the only economically viable means of producing algal biomass for biofuel, but are vulnerable to contamination. This PhD project focuses on Chlorella sp. that grows well at high pH, and therefore resists contamination from competing microorganisms, which is a major problem in open systems. A low cost production method has been developed that uses waste feedstock such as wastewater from a sewage treatment plant, CO2 and permeate (a nitrate and phosphate rich bi-product of anaerobic digestion).
Critical to the commercial viability of microalgae derived biodiesel is improved productivity by the algae in the open pond system. The project will develop genetic modification methods that will be used to relieve bottlenecks in fatty acid production identified from metabolic profiling data produced by our collaborators in India. The modified strains will be rigorously evaluated for improved productivity in open pond culture.
Techniques/Skills acquired during the PhD: microalgal culture; flow cytometry for cell counting and lipid quantification; large scale open pond culture; lipid extraction and biodiesel production via transesterification; handling metabolic profiling data; molecular biology techniques relevant to genetic transformation of microalgae.
Funding Notes
**We welcome year-round applications from self-funded students and applicants seeking their own funding**
There may be some highly-competitive tuition fee waiver scholarships available for excellent candidates, but these are very limited and will only cover a portion of the tuition fees. The successful candidates would need to demonstrate that they can cover their own living costs through the whole duration of their studies.
For more information about available PhD projects in the department of Biology and Biochemistry at the University of Bath, please see: http://www.bath.ac.uk/bio-sci/postgraduate/phd-projects/
There may be some highly-competitive tuition fee waiver scholarships available for excellent candidates, but these are very limited and will only cover a portion of the tuition fees. The successful candidates would need to demonstrate that they can cover their own living costs through the whole duration of their studies.
For more information about available PhD projects in the department of Biology and Biochemistry at the University of Bath, please see: http://www.bath.ac.uk/bio-sci/postgraduate/phd-projects/
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