EPSRC Impact Prize winner

The College of Science and Engineering is pleased to announce the EPSRC DTP Impact competition winner for 2023

The competition is an annual opportunity to recognise and reward EPSRC supported researchers who have created or enabled outstanding impact. A prize funded by the EPSRC DTP is awarded for the best impact story arising from a PhD research project by an EPSRC funded student.

This year's winner is Eloise Bevan, a PhD student at the School of Engineering for her impactful work in field of Hydrothermal Carbonisation and Carbon Capture.

I am delighted to have been awarded the prestigious EPSRC Impact Prize award for 2023 for my contributions to the field of Hydrothermal Carbonisation and Carbon Capture. 

My research attempts to rethink how we “capture carbon”, by focusing on the carbonisation of biomass as an alternative to direct air capture. During my PhD, I have developed individual kinetic models for the hydrothermal carbonisation (HTC) of the three main macromolecular components that compose all types of biomass: cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. The problem is, each type of biomass has different compositions of these components, which result in different levels of carbonisation. By combining the individual models, I have now developed an overall kinetic model that can be applied to any type of lignocellulosic biomass in the world. This model will allow us to predict the carbon capture potential from any waste biomass producing industry through HTC and optimise the processing conditions.

I am currently investigating the feasibility of turning this model into a software that can be used to efficiently evaluate the level of carbonisation, lead to faster deployment of the HTC technology and contribute towards a net-zero and circular economy.

I would like to thank the awarding committee for selecting me as the recipient of this award, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council for the studentship to undertake my research at the University of Edinburgh, my project supervisors Dr. Giulio Santori and Dr. Mauro Luberti, and Dr. Ondrej Masek for his collaboration on this research to take place at the UK Biochar Center.