Research Fellow in Materials Degradation in Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage

Location: Leeds - Main Campus

Working time: 37.5 hours per week

Contract type: Fixed term (Up to 30 months, starting from 1^st August 2026 and to end by 31^st December 2028)

Downloads: Candidate Brief (PDF)

Are you interested in safeguarding the integrity of CO₂ storage infrastructure? Do you have a strong technical background in Corrosion assessment? Are you interested in working with the industry to develop testing methodologies and protocols to assess the steel-cement interface characteristics required to deliver resilient, safe CO2 storage infrastructure?

Capture and Storage (CCS) is critical to achieving net-zero targets. However, the long-term integrity of wells remains a major challenge, particularly in ensuring the reliability of storage infrastructure. Geological CO₂ storage is typically implemented through injection wells comprising steel casing and cementitious barriers. These materials are exposed to complex environments involving supercritical CO₂ and CO₂-saturated brines containing impurities, which can significantly influence corrosion processes, material degradation, and the performance of cement–steel interfaces. Such effects may ultimately compromise the long-term sealing of CCS systems.

As part of this role, you will join a major European consortium (SPECS) investigating the effects of CO₂ stream impurities on storage systems, working alongside leading universities, research organisations, and industry partners, including major energy companies across the UK and EU.

This role focuses on the experimental investigation and mechanistic understanding of degradation processes in cement–steel systems, directly contributing to the definition of safe impurity limits and material selection strategies for CCS wells. The project addresses the critical challenge of ensuring the durability and integrity of cementitious seals and cement–steel interfaces exposed to supercritical CO₂ containing impurities.

You will:

• Investigate degradation of steel-cement systems and study the interface with various steels and corrosion-resistant alloys (CRAs);
• Evaluate corrosion performance of steel-cement systems exposed to both clean and impure CO₂ compositions;
• Assess the integrity of cement–steel interfaces in CO₂–brine environments to help define safe impurity thresholds for CCS well materials.

We are open to discussing flexible working arrangements.

To explore the post further or for any queries you may have, please contact: 

Dr. Yuvaraj Dhandapani, Lecturer, Institute of Functional Surfaces

Email: Y.Dhandapani@leeds.ac.uk 

Please note that this post may be suitable for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker visa route but first-time applicants might need to qualify for salary concessions. For more information, please visit the Government’s Skilled Worker visa page.

For research and academic posts, we will consider eligibility under the Global Talent visa. For more information, please visit the Government’s page, Apply for the Global Talent visa.

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