Professor Joe Wood B.Eng, DIS, PhD, CEng, FIChemE, PGCTLHE

• Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, University of Birmingham, 2003
• CEng, MIChemE, Institution of Chemical Engineers, 2002
• PhD in Chemical Engineering, University of Cambridge, 2001
• BEng in Chemical Engineering with Environmental Protection, University of Loughborough, 1995
• Diploma in Industrial Studies, Loughborough University, 1995

Joe Wood qualified with a BEng degree in Chemical Engineering with Environmental Protection from Loughborough University in 1995. He worked at Albright and Wilson in Whitehaven from 1995-97 as a Graduate Chemical Engineer. He then studied for a PhD at the University of Cambridge, with thesis topic Transport and Reaction in Porous Catalysts under the supervision of Professor Lynn Gladden, which was awarded in 2001. Since 2001 he has worked at the University of Birmingham as Lecturer (2001-2008), Senior Lecturer (2008-2010), Reader (2010-2012) and Professor (2012-Present).

Professor Wood held a Junior Research Fellowship at Hughes Hall Cambridge from 1998-2000 and an Exxon Mobil Teaching Fellowship from 2004-2007.

Professor Wood’s research focuses on the application of catalysis and reactor engineering to solve problems of energy supply, environmental concerns and to deliver chemical products in a more sustainable way.

He teaches on Chemical Engineering programmes in the School, is Examinations Officer and IChemE Liaison Officer.

Professor Wood is a member of the core teaching staff of the BEng/MEng degrees in Chemical Engineering and teaches the following modules:

• Reactors,  Catalysis and Thermodynamics, Level Intermediate, Year 2
• Advanced Reaction Systems and Thermodynamics, Level Higher, Year 3

He also supervises MEng students in the Research and Development Project, Level Masters, Year 4.

Topics of interest for supervision include:

• In-situ upgrading of heavy oils using Toe-to-Heel Air Injection (THAI) and Catalytic Process In-situ (CAPRI)
• Upgrading of biofuels via hydrodeoxygenation (HDO)
• Production of bio-based drop-in chemicals (5-hydroxymethylfurfural, 5HMF)
• Depolymerisation of renewable plastics such as polylactic acid (PLA)
• Catalysis using bio-nanoparticles
• Reaction-separation engineering including membrane reactors
• Development of adsorbents for carbon dioxide capture
• Modelling carbon capture at pre- and post combustion power plants.
• Catalysis for sustainable technologies

The Catalysis and Reaction Engineering group welcome speculative applications from prospective PhD students from home and overseas. For students from the European Union, grants are sometimes available (e.g. EPSRC, NERC, School funding). Overseas (non-EU) students may apply for funding from their home country or a scholarship. For further details please email Professor Joe Wood ( j.wood@bham.ac.uk ). For a full list of available Doctoral Research opportunities, please visit our Doctoral Research programme listings.

Research Themes

Catalysis and chemical reaction engineering lie at the core of many chemical and biochemical processes. Research activities cover the fundamental catalyst design, through formulation and catalyst manufacture, to operational issues and reactor design. The group aims to optimize reactor type, design and operating conditions to get the best performance and product selectivity in a particular reaction. Application areas have recently concentrated on energy, including upgrading of heavy oils and bitumen from the Canadian oilsands, capture of carbon dioxide from power station flue gases, bio-based drop-in chemicals and plastics recycling.

Research Activity

Current EPSRC Projects:

A Scalable Process for the Chemical Recycling of PET using Ionic Organocatalysts

There is an urgent need to devise processes for recycling plastics, with an estimated total of 8300 million metric tonnes of plastics produced to date, of which less than 10% have been recycled overall.  The end fate of polymers can include landfill, burning which contributes to CO2 production, global warming, and discarding into the environment, including rivers and oceans.  Of the materials which are recycled, mechanical or thermal recycling techniques typically produce a lower grade of polymer which can be used in applications such as clothing, insulation, garden and road furniture for example, and also has inferior properties (e.g. colour and mechanical specification) and value compared with virgin polymers.

This proposal aims to address these drawbacks by developing a scalable, continuous process for PET depolymerisation.  In particular we aim to study the effect of polymer additives and food contaminants in real wastes upon the depolymerisation, to understand how the catalyst/process can be made resilient to these issues.  Key considerations will be to fully understand reaction kinetics, enabling catalyst immobilisation to enable recycling of it and developing strategies for product recovery.

Previous EPSRC Research Projects

• Novel Membrane Catalytic Reactor for Waste Polylactic Acid Recycling and Valorisation
• Electromagnetically-assisted Catalytic-upgrading of Heavy Oil (ECHO)
• Towards Realisation of Untapped Oil Resources via Enhanced THAI-CAPRI Process Using Novel Catalysts.
• Bridging the Urban and Rural Divide: Rural Hybrid Energy Enterprise Systems.
• The Next Generation of Activated Carbon Adsorbents for the Pre-Combustion Capture of Carbon Dioxide.
• Novel Precious Metal Nanocatalyst Made by Biofabrication.
• Understanding Bio-Induced Selectivity in Nanoparticle Catalyst Manufacture.
• Novel Precious Metal Nanocatalyst Made by Biofabrication.
• Step Change Adsorbents and Processes for CO2 Capture. Sponsors EPSRC and E.ON.
• In-Situ Catalytic Upgrading of Heavy Crude and Bitumen: Optimisation of Novel CAPRI Reactor.
• Functional Bionanomaterials and Novel Processing for Targeted Catalytic Applications.
• C-Cycle.
• Heterogeneous Catalysis in Supercritical Fluids: The Enhancement of Catalytic Stability to Coking.
• Discipline Hopping Award: Interfacing Novel Reactor Technologies with Molecular Discovery.
• Infrared Spectroscopy Applied to the Characterization of Catalysts and Online Analysis of Reactors.

• Chair of the IChemE Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Special Interest Group
• Member of EPSRC review college