Postgraduate research opportunities Optical Imaging of Combustion Processes, focussed of Sustainable and Hydrogen Fuels

Laser-based absorption spectroscopy can be utilised in numerous industrial applications to measure species concentrations for process control, combustion diagnostics, environmental monitoring and emissions measurement, and can be applied in various forms (wavelength modulation spectroscopy - WMS, cavity ringdown spectroscopy - CRDS, photo-acoustic spectroscopy – PAS).  The Centre for Applied High Resolution Spectroscopy (CAHRS), within the Centre for Microsystems and Photonics in the EEE department has over 20 years of experience implementing these techniques with a number of industrial and academic partners, including Rolls-Royce, Siemens, NPL, Emerson, Fraunhofer UK, LG Fuel Cells, Optosci Ltd, M Squared Lasers.

The CAHRS team have been awarded an EPSRC Programme Grant with the Universities of Edinburgh, Manchester, Sheffield, Southampton and Loughborough (with Faculty support for three studentships - letter attached) and have recently brought NPL in as a new partner.  One of the main goals of this project is to develop fast-rate (10-50 kHz), multi-channel measurements of temperature, water vapour and carbon dioxide for both combustion diagnostics.  The developed technology can also be applied to other key strategic areas, most importantly agricultural emissions measurement.

The student will begin by understanding the complexities of high accuracy, fast repetition measurements of spectroscopic parameters in complex environments.  They will then carry out field trials on combustors at Sheffield and Loughborough Universities and cattle at the Scottish Rural College.