PhD in Life cycle assessment applied to chemicals production

No of positions: 1

Nationality eligible to apply: Home students 

This 3.5-year project is co-funded by The University of Manchester, BBSRC and industry and is open to home applicants. The successful candidate will receive an annual tax free stipend set at the UKRI rate (£20,780 for 2025/26) and tuition fees will be paid. We expect the stipend to increase each year. 

SuCCEED is a BBSRC-funded Prosperity Partnership multi-million project between The University of Manchester and Shell. Commodity chemicals are produced on a global scale and normally derived from finite geological sources. The Shell-UoM partnership seeks to re-imagine bulk chemicals manufacturing through industrial biotechnology, producing renewable chemical products from sustainable feedstocks and providing alternative scalable bioproduction routes to contribute to the global efforts to reduce CO₂ emissions.

An exciting PhD position is available as part of the SuCCEED project in the area of sustainable chemical engineering. We are seeking an enthusiastic candidate to join our interdisciplinary and highly collaborative research team, led by academic and industrial experts in chemicals production. 

This PhD project will contribute to the development of an integrated portfolio of technologies aimed at producing renewable chemical products from sustainable feedstocks that cannot otherwise be economically converted, ultimately helping to reduce the carbon intensity of these products. 

The project focuses on developing a systematic framework for the environmental sustainability assessment of fossil-derived and bio-based chemical production, using the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. The main objectives are to evaluate the environmental impacts of selected exemplar commodity chemicals, assess the potential impacts of bio-based chemicals developed within SuCCEED, identify opportunities to develop competitive bio-based alternatives, and support the selection of promising bio-based pathways for a net zero transition. 

Through this PhD, you will also gain valuable transferable skills, including the application of life cycle assessment following sector-specific and industrially relevant state-of-the-art guidelines. 

Prospective applicants are encouraged to contact the supervisors as early as possible to discuss their interests and suitability for the project.

The successful applicant will join a 5-year interdisciplinary project involving multiple group leaders, 8 post-doctoral research assistants, and a cohort of PhD students who joined during the first year of the project. The student will be based at the Nancy Rothwell Building, providing state-of-the art equipment and research environment in the area of sustainability assessment. The student will benefit from the structured and supportive UoM BBSRC DTP programme, close day-to-day support from the PDRA team and wide-ranging professional, personal and career development training with opportunities aligned to the Researcher Development Framework, co-supervision and industrial mentoring. 

Applicants should have, or expect to achieve, at least a 2.1 honours degree or a master’s in Chemical Engineering or engineering related discipline. 

To apply, please contact the supervisors; Dr Rosa Cuellar-Franca - rosa.cuellarfranca@manchester.ac.uk and Dr Winterburn - james.winterburn@manchester.ac.uk. Please include details of your current level of study, academic background and any relevant experience and include a paragraph about your motivation to study this PhD project. 

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