PhD Project: Verifying Biochar Permanence for Carbon Capture and Sequestration using Raman Spec[...]

This fully funded PhD project is part of the QUARTILES Doctoral Landscape Award, a BBSRC and NERC-funded research and training programme designed to equip PhD students with the skills, expertise, outlook, and real-world experience needed to become the next generation of scientific leaders capable of addressing pressing environmental grand challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss and sustainability.

Are you interested in mitigating climate change through carbon capture and storage? Do you want to define the gold standard in biochar production and evaluation? This programme offers an opportunity to explore the permanence of biochar and its effectiveness in storing carbon, utilising innovative experimental techniques and international fieldwork with an interdisciplinary focus.

Biochar is a unique emerging nature-based solution for carbon capture and storage, re-using biomass waste to generate a stable solid form of carbon. For biochar to remain a worthwhile solution it must be resilient to environmental degradation, which depends on the nanoscale chemistry of its carbon nanocrystallites. Traditional techniques to measure this chemistry are expensive, time-consuming and lack sufficient detail, limiting their ability to inform best practices or support carbon credit schemes.

At the University of Aberdeen we pioneered the use of Raman spectroscopy to study experimental and natural wildfire chars. We now seek an inquisitive, creative and ambitious individual to join our team and explore the capabilities of Raman spectroscopy in evaluating biochar permanence.

As part of this project, you will:

• Develop innovative methods and protocols to study biochar using Raman spectroscopy, working closely with global biochar manufacturers.
• Evaluate existing techniques in biochar study and establish the relationships between Raman spectroscopy and other advanced laboratory techniques such as Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Fourier-Transform Infra-Red spectroscopy (FT-IR).
• Conduct international fieldwork across a variety of ecosystems (e.g., boreal peatlands, sub-tropical grasslands, tropical wetlands) to collect natural chars within modern, pre-historic and geological deposits, exploring how and why natural chars remain stable throughout millennia.
• Design and implement long-term experiments to replicate biochar sequestration and alteration pathways during environmental exposure.

These aims support the development of the first open-source database of chemical data across multiple techniques for biochar from global manufacturers, representing an opportunity to set a new industry standard and publish critical guidance for biochar manufacturers, carbon-credit auditors and investors.

This 45-month (NERC) opportunity is open to UK and international students (the proportion of international students appointed to the QUARTILES DLA is capped at 30% by UKRI). QUARTILES studentships include a tax-free UKRI doctoral stipend (£19,795 for the 2025/26 academic year, 2026/27 pending) and a training grant of £9,000 to support data collection activities throughout the PhD. Visa and associated health surcharges are not covered for international students.

How to apply: Visit QUARTILES DLA: Verifying Biochar Permanence for Carbon Capture and Sequestration using Raman Spectroscopy at University of Aberdeen on FindAPhD.com for project details and application instructions.