Surrey University and Recycling Technologies join forces to reduce landfill waste.
The University of Surrey is recruiting a Research Engineer in Sustainability for Engineering and Energy Systems with the backing of a private technology company, Recycling Technologies Ltd.
Academics have agreed to work with Recycling Technologies on its pyrolysis system which takes plastic waste, destined for landfill, and turns it into a fuel suitable for running in a static diesel engine.
This system allows companies with plastic waste to use it to supply significant proportions of their electricity and heat requirements instead of sending it to landfill sites.
The programme, which is funded by EPSRC, will see the recruitment of an engineer to the Industrial Doctorate Centre at the University, offering an EngD.
Adrian Griffiths, Managing Director of Recycling Technologies, said: “We are delighted to enter into this programme with Surrey University. The company has nurtured similar relationships with others that are already proving beneficial, and so we are confident that this EngD program will be good for us, the University and crucially the researcher. It’s an honour to get the backing of the EPSRC initiative and to work with Professor Seville and Professor Thorpe”.
Prof Jonathan Seville comments:“EngD programmes are an excellent way for the University and Business sectors to collaborate. It’s very exciting to conduct research projects in a technical area that is showing real potential to make a significant contribution to energy sustainability and resource efficiency”.
“There are many environmental benefits to this process, including reducing the transportation of bailed plastics and landfill. Using waste to create electricity rather than using virgin fossil fuels is clearly a contributor to the need for sustainability” adds Griffiths.
Suitable candidates to undertake the four-year project are now being sought. For further information about this opportunity, visit the careers area on www.recyclingtechnologies.co.uk; contact [email protected].
Notes to Editors
Professor Jonathan Seville is Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of Surrey. He has degrees in Chemical Engineering from the Universities of Cambridge and Surrey and has held visiting appointments at the University of British Columbia and the Technical University of Denmark. He is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Elsevier journal Powder Technology, the leading international journal for the study of granular materials
Professor Rex Thorpe is the Head of Chemical and Process Engineering at the University of Surrey. He gained his MEng and PhD at the University of Cambridge where, after a year at Brown and Root (UK), he joined the lecturing staff in chemical engineering. He is a regular collaborator with industry across a wide range of Chemical Engineering projects working with companies such as Marathon Oil, UKAEA, Thames Water and Rolls Royce.
Editorial Contacts
Head of Marketing: Arthur op den Brouw [email protected] 07776 230 950
Recycling Technologies Ltd
Around 2.4Mt of plastic is still being landfilled each year in the UK [Plastic Europe], enough to supply all the domestic electrical demand of Wales using Recycling Technologies flagship machine, the WarwickFBRTM. Rather than constructing large facilities and transporting the waste to them, with all the intrinsic waste that this implies, the WarwickFBR™ machine will typically process around 7000t of plastic per year and power a 3 Megawatt generator.