Doctoral Training Partnerships: a range of postgraduate training is funded by the Research Councils. For information on current funding routes, see the common terminology at https://www.ukri.org/apply-for-funding/how-we-fund-studentships/. Training grants may be to one organisation or to a consortia of research organisations. This portal will show the lead organisation only.

The UK engineering coatings industry is worth over £11bn and affects products worth £140bn. The vision of this project is to create internationally unique multi-purpose PVD/PECVD coatings system which will enable innovation in advanced science of future hybrid coatings. This new facility would be built on the existing Leeds coating platform capability and would create system with no similar functionality available internationally. Using existing Leeds coating platform we can already deposit carbides, nitrides and diamond-like carbide (DLC) coatings, and we are exploiting this mainly for tribological applications with automotive, energy and lubricant companies. With this investment, we will be able to additionally process novel nanocomposite coatings, next generation of DLC coatings (with incorporated nanoparticles), advanced optical coatings and sensor coatings, carry out functionalisation of powders, barrier layers, coatings on polymers and coatings on complex shapes. This proposal aligns with a major new initiative at the University of Leeds to create an integrated gateway to Physical Sciences and Engineering by investing in the collaborative Bragg Centre that will house new state-of-the-art research facilities for the integrated development, characterisation and exploitation of novel advanced functional materials. This proposal also coincides with Leeds University investment in the Nexus Centre - a hub for the local innovation community as well as national and international organisations looking to innovate and engage in world-leading research. The upgraded coating platform would play a strategic role in the UK Surface Engineering landscape and complement existing national facilities. It would form a part of the new Sir Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials, of which Leeds is a partner. The configuration of the new instrument is designed to be versatile and serve a wide range of internal and external users with widely different classes of advanced materials. A number of specific activities have been planned to ensure that potential beneficiaries have the opportunity to engage with new coating facility. The economic competitiveness of the UK's manufacturing industry will benefit from new, commercially exploitable IP in novel cutting-edge Surface Engineering technology. Members of an academic community and industry will be able to benefit directly from the proposed research and generated new knowledge. They will gain new skills and know-how related to the latest advancements of PVD technologies. Improved adoption of Surface Engineering will result in wider UK PLC economic and societal impacts associated with development of functional surfaces for automotive, aerospace, biomedical, healthcare, defence, agriculture, oil & gas and packaging industries.

In project BIOBEADS we propose to develop, in combination, new manufacturing routes to new products. Manufacturing will be based on a low-energy process that can be readily scaled up, or down, and the products will be biodegradable microbeads, microscapsules and microsponges, which share the performance characteristics of existing plastic microsphere products, but which will leave no lasting environmental trace. Using bio-based materials such as cellulose (from plants) and chitin (from crab or prawn shells), we will use continuous manufacturing methods to generate microspheres, hollow capsules and porous particles to replace the plastic microbeads currently in use in many applications. Cellulose and chitin are biodegradable and also part of the diet of many marine organisms, meaning they have straightforward natural breakdown routes and will not accumulate in the environment. BIOBEADS will be produced using membrane emulsification techniques. The project builds on our joint expertise in membrane emulsification for continuous production of tunable droplet sizes, dissolution of cellulose and chitin in green solvents and in characterization of nanoscale and microscale structures to study all aspects of particle formation from precursors, through formation processes, to degradation routes. Yhe primary focus will be spheres and capsules, for use in cosmetics and personal care formulations, but, by understanding the processes and mechanisms of formation of these spheres, we aim to be able to tailor particle properties to suit larger scale applications from paint stripping, to fillers in biodegradable plastics. The BIOBEADS research team will work with industrial partners, including very large manufacturers of personal care products, to ensure that the research conducted can be taken up and used, so having a real, positive impact on the manufacturing of new, more sustainble products.

The provision of low temperature industrial process heat in 2018 was responsible for over 30% of total industrial primary energy use in the UK. The majority of this, 75%, was produced by burning oil, gas and coal. Low temperature process heat is a major component of energy use in many industrial sectors including food and drink, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, manufacture of metal products and machinery, printing, and textiles. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with low temperature process heat generation and meet UK targets, in the long term, will require a transition to zero carbon electricity, fuels or renewable heat. In the short term this is not feasible. We propose an approach in which heat is more effectively used within the industrial process, and/or exported to meet heat demands in the neighbouring area allowing significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions per unit industrial production to be achieved and potentially provide an additional revenue source. We are going to perform a programme of research that will help provide a no regrets route through the transition to eventual full decarbonisation. The research consists of, i) fundamental and applied research to cost effectively improve components and systems performance for improved heat recovery, heat storage, heat upgrading, high temperature heat pumping and transporting heat with low loss, and ii) develop new temporal modelling approaches to predict how these technologies can be effectively integrated to utilise heat across a multi-vector energy system and evaluate a transactive modelling platform to address the complexity of how heat can be reutilised economically within energy systems. A series of case studies analysing the potential greenhouse gas reductions and cost benefits and revenues that may be achieved will be undertaken for selected industrial processes including a chemical production facility in Hull, to assess the benefits of i) individual technologies, ii) when optimally integrated within a heating/cooling network, or iii) when combined in a multi-vector energy system.