PhD Research Student

Email: d.bernasko14@imperial.ac.uk

Office RDH149, Roderick Hill Building
Imperial College London South Kensington Campus

Department of Chemical Engineering 

 

Biography

Research

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) has come to prominence because has been identified as the most prevalent greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. It is a colourless, odourless gas and forms approximately 0.04%, or 400 parts per million, of the Earth’s atmosphere by volume. (By comparison, the atmosphere is 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen.) This research aims to:

1. Model the reaction of carbon dioxide to methanol using a continuous stirred tank reactor, commission a bubble column and model the reaction in a bubble column
2. Propose a method for continuous manufacture of the catalyst used in methanol manufacture
3. Model the production of dimethyl ether, gasoline and diesel from the methanol manufactured
4. Optimise the reaction solvent to enable concurrent carbon capture and catalysis to transform CO₂ to the product.

This project is novel in using waste carbon dioxide as a feed for a valuable product. So often, environmentally ‘green’ processes require hefty government subsidies to make them financially viable. This process is new in that carbon dioxide is relatively cheap and methanol retails for close to the price of crude oil.