UK/EU Studentship: Linking fluid flow to cleaning performance via tailored food-grade soils

(3.5 year fully-funded PhD CASE studentship with Professor Ian Wilson (CEB) and Professor Stewart Cant (Department of Engineering); industrial partner TetraPak (www.tetrapak.com). Project to start 1 October 2020.)

EPSRC funds are available to fund a 3.5 year PhD studentship under the DTP CASE Conversion Scheme. The Scheme requires that the student spend a minimum of 3 months on placement with an industry sponsor during the course of the studentship. In addition EPSRC conditions relating to collection of research outcomes will apply: https://epsrc.ukri.org/funding/managing/ros/

There are eligibility conditions for EPSRC-funded students and only applicants who fulfil these conditions (i.e. Home/EU students resident in the UK for the last 3 years) will be considered for this studentship: https://epsrc.ukri.org/skills/students/guidance-on-epsrc-studentships/eligibility/

Cleaning is a critically important operation in the food, pharmaceutical and other sectors. Many cleaning in place (CIP) systems employed in manufacturing industry rely on the flow of cleaning solutions or solvents to achieve removal of the soiling layer. It would be highly desirable to be able to predict the cleanability of an item of process equipment or a production line at the design stage, so that plant and CIP processes can be designed for efficient cleaning. The potential impact is significant: cleaning consumes large quantities of fresh, potable water as well as thermal energy and chemicals, all of which influence the financial and ecological sustainability of food manufacturing operations. Advances in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods mean that the flow behaviour can be estimated with good levels of accuracy for many of the geometries and flow configurations which arise in practice. The link to cleanability lies in the rheology of the deposit and how it responds to the forces imposed by the fluid both instantaneously and over time. This project brings together expertise in CFD (Prof. Cant) with rheology (Prof. Wilson) to develop methods for predicting the cleaning performance of a range of food types.

The industrial collaborator on the project is Tetra Pak (www.tetrapak.com), one of the leading manufacturers of food processing equipment and factories worldwide. It is well known for its food packaging systems. This project is with Tetra Pak (UK) and the company’s researchers in Lund, Sweden. This partnership provides a route for the fundamental outputs of the research to be applied directly to industrial systems. There is a requirement for the student to spend 3 months over the 3.5 year period with the sponsoring company.

Applicants for the studentship should have a First Class (or a high 2:1) degree in a relevant discipline such as chemical or mechanical engineering, mathematics or physics. Knowledge of fluid mechanics and experience in numerical methods is highly desirable. Training in rheological methods will be given. Standard admissions criteria apply; please see: https://www.graduate.study.cam.ac.uk/courses/directory/egcepdcng/requirements

To apply for the studentship:

Please ensure that you are eligible by visiting: https://www.graduate.study.cam.ac.uk/finance/fees/what-my-fee-status

Submit a formal application for admission to study Chemical Engineering via the University’s Graduate Admissions Office (https://www.graduate.study.cam.ac.uk/), noting Prof. Ian Wilson (CEB) and Prof. Stewart Cant (CUED) as the prospective supervisors and quoting reference NQ23037 in the research proposal, by 05 June 2020.