Construction materials in extreme chemical and thermal processing environments

Overview

Investigate and identify materials that can be used to construct chemical plants using extreme chemicals and processing conditions.

Australia has the potential to lead globally in supplying critical minerals for current and emerging energy technologies, however the extraction and recovery of these minerals are requiring more aggressive chemicals and processing requirements that are not suitable for traditionally used construction materials, such as stainless steel.

Thus, this project will perform experimental material testing on a range of construction materials under extreme chemically corrosive environments at temperatures over 1000°C.

Research activities

Key responsibilities include performing experimental material testing trials for a range of materials and conditions to develop a materials performance database based on the characterisation of the materials before and after experimentation.

The data collected will then be used in plant infrastructure lifting studies to better understand the technoeconomic of a mineral processing plant using alternative processing methods to recover critical minerals from obstinate ores.

Skills and experience

The research group is seeking a highly motivated and talented PhD student to join the research team in the field of metallurgy, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering or in a similar research field aligned to the research project.

Scholarships

You may be eligible to apply for a research scholarship.

Explore our research scholarships

Keywords

• corrosion
• materials testing

Contact

Contact the supervisor Professor Sara Couperthwaite via email sara.couperthwaite@qut.edu.au.