Design of ionic liquids for use in electrochemical purification of fuels (industrial CASE)

This is a fully funded Industrial CASE project with Dr Jason Hallett (Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College, [Email Address Removed], www.imperial.ac.uk/people/j.hallett), Prof Paul Fennell and Prof Geoff Kelsall. The project will focus on the use of ionic liquids for in the fuel industry, with a focus on purification using extraction and electrodeposition to remove trace impurities from transport fuels.

The project will include a selection of topics from the following areas:

• Economic design of ILs/mixtures to target specific metals of interest including novel ILs
• Reaction condition studies for IL mixing – Temperature, Viscosity, interfacial tensions and densities
• Electrochemical visibility of metals in certain ILs
• Design of processes for mixing, phase separation and filtration on a large scale
• Computational thermodynamic modelling of IL-metal systems

It is expected that the project will evolve around the design, synthesis and testing of novel ionic liquids for the extraction of trace (ppb-to-ppm) level metallic impurities from fuel streams, and the electrochemical recovery of those metals for purification and solvent recycling.

The position will be located within the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College, and co-supervised through the industrial partner Shell. A successful candidate would be expected to have experience in either chemical engineering, chemistry, or within related disciplines.

As part of the degree programme, the student may have a short industrial placement at Shell.