Innovative, cost-effective renewable fuel for large energy users

University of Manchester

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The University of Manchester is the largest university by student enrolment number in the United Kingdom (~40.000 students). The University of Manchester (UNIMAN) is among world’s top 30 universities. Research is at the heart of the University, no fewer than 20 former staff and students have gone on to be Nobel laureates and the university currently has 4 Nobel laureates as members of the academic staff.

In 2023, The Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Manchester was ranked 15th globally and 4th in the UK according to the QS World University ranking. The Department of Chemical Engineering is the largest of its kind by student numbers (about 1000 undergraduate and postgraduate students) and it has more than 50 faculty members. It has been confirmed as one of the research power houses in chemical engineering in the UK during the 2023 Research Excellence Framework (REF).

Set in the heart of the University’s Science and Engineering quarter, and close to other key centres like the new Manchester Engineering Campus Development, the National Graphene Institute, the Graphene Engineering innovation Centre and the Henry Royce Institute (the UK’s national institute for materials science research and innovation) – the Department of Chemical Engineering’s current pilot plant is based in the James Chadwick Building, home to world-class research facilities and boasting an impressive range of laboratory space, dedicated computer suites and a pilot scale area containing a range of large-scale industrial processing equipment.

The James Chadwick Building has a large Pilot Hall area which has been recently reconverted and repurposed to accommodate new demonstration plants as part of the Sustainable Hub for Chemical Engineering. The building is fully integrated with an advanced control system based on Siemens SIMATIC PCS7 and it is piloting the use of new SIMATIC PCS neo. The industrial hub owns state of the art instrumentation to perform advanced research in the area of catalytic process, mixing and formulations.