PhD Studentship; Decarbonising the North of England: designing business models for CCUS

We are seeking to recruit a PhD student interested in the following project. Candidates are encouraged to contact the supervisors for an informal discussion before a formal application. This is one of the 3 potential PhD topics that are available, but we will only fund 2. Refer to more details on the projects.

The UK government has recently announced multibillion funding for two carbon capture clusters located in England’s industrial heartlands in the North West (Merseyside) and North East (Teesside). Carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) is considered a critical option in the energy transition to meet global climate targets. During their initial phases, the proposed clusters will largely involve projects to generate electricity and hydrogen from natural gas (blue hydrogen). While the clusters will contribute to reduce costs and emissions by sharing CCUS infrastructure (e.g. pipelines, storage locations, etc.), the companies involved so far are mostly large energy and petroleum companies seeking to decarbonise and diversify their activities. The high cost of CCUS technologies has so far hindered wider deployment, although the number of CCUS facilities is increasing worldwide. In this respect, there has been a call for competitive business models that can lower costs (specifically in relation to the transition from blue to green hydrogen), accelerate investment across sectors, and allow the entry of innovative smaller local actors. Secondary to cost concerns, public perception and misinformation have hindered stakeholder collaboration and community support of CCUS. To address these key barriers, this project will involve three mutually complementary and iterative components: (1) systematic literature review of existing business models to typologise viable business and effective policy support models; (2) stakeholder engagement with local authorities and businesses to identify and design feasible models in the North West and North East clusters; (3) surveys on public perception and expectation of benefits (or costs) to local communities. This PhD will be supervised by an interdisciplinary supervisory team, drawing from their expertise in economics, politics and human geography. The results of this PhD will positively influence policy making and effective deployment of government investment, which would open career opportunities in academia, environmental policy, and the private sector alike.

Please be aware this position is available to UK students only.

Applications are due by 31 Jan 2025.

For more information, please contact Dr. Marco Sakai (marco.sakai@york.ac.uk).

EPSRC funding will provide fees for 3 years and a stipend for 3.5 years for a HOME student (View Website). These studentships are not available for overseas students.