DC1: Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (NL)

Project title

Waste stream mild fractionation process intensification

(Co)tutors

  • Tutor: P. Deuss (RUG)
  • Co-Tutor: V. Placet (UMLP)
  • Industrial Supervisor: C. Kugge (SCA)

Objectives

  • Development of a flow-through setup and downstream processing to isolate high-quality modified lignin from forestry residues
  • Exploration of alcohol-based modification strategies of lignin integrating the developed flow methodology
  • Analysis of modified lignin streams to establish relationships between lignin characteristics and the process conditions
  • In-silico studies for process design to deliver input for techno-economics and LCA

Required education level

Master's degree in Chemistry, Industrial Chemistry, Chemical Engineering or related

Preferred background

Biomass conversion, (lignin) polymer chemistry, reactor/process engineering

Secondments

  • SCA (6 months) pre-treatment and extractive removal (C. Kugge)
  • UniGraz (6 months) protocols for amine functionalization that can be integrated into the flow-through extraction (K.Barta)

Interested in this PhD position?

We invite motivated candidates to apply for this PhD position and contribute to innovative research.