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ICEC-MCM provides opportunities for PhD students to work together across our focus areas.
The ICEC-MCM has a large programme for PhD studentships across different universities and expect to recruit a cohort that will commence their doctoral studies in January 2024. It is preferred that the PhD studentships are supported by an industry partner and apply to UK home students at UCL and Imperial College and to UK home or overseas students at Loughborough university. If you are interested to take on a new challenge in the area of circular economy and mineral based construction materials, please do get in touch.
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ICEC-MCM Doctoral Research Topics
- Resilience of net zero UK utilities over the whole asset life cycle
How UK utilities can maximise the capacity of assets and improve resilience and reduce carbon, throughout the whole asset life cycle.
Contact Information
UCL Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering
Primary Supervisor: Aiduan Borrion
Email: a.borrion@ucl.ac.ukIsles Utilities
Industrial Supervisor: Blanca Antizar
Email: blanca.antizar@isleutilities.comBackground
The Utility sector in the UK, specifically Water & Energy, is transitioning through a period of significant change and is facing strategic challenges unlike those seen before. The UK Environment Act has placed new legislative pressures on companies and the stated ambition of achieving Net-Zero for carbon emissions by 2050, with the water sector pledging to achieve this target by 2030, means that the utility operators have to find new and innovative approaches to delivering their services. Population growth provides further challenges across all infrastructure capacity, for example in 2016 the Office for National Statistics stated that “the UK population is projected to pass 70 million by mid-2029 and be 72.9 million in mid-2041”, from approximately 67.4 million in 2022.
As much as 90% of our future infrastructure exists today, therefore these are challenges that we cannot simply “build our way out of”. There is a need to develop greater understanding of opportunities to maximise the capacity of our existing assets, and improve resilience and reduce carbon emissions, throughout the whole asset life cycle.
It is clear that the traditional linear (‘take, use, dispose’) economic model is reaching its limits due to the waste of finite resources that is inherent to its extractive nature. To transition to a Circular Economy, there is a need to focus on systemic and whole-life considerations of the asset life cycle, entailing the use of engineering knowledge, eco-design principles and building on Circular Economy approaches, e.g., in alignment with those developed and promoted by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/).
Aims & Objectives
The specific topic of the PhD will be decided in alignment with the interests of the successful candidate, focusing on investigation of one or a combination of the following topics:
- the impediments posed by existing design codes and standards to the transition to net zero and a Circular Economy.
- use of digital material libraries and a carbon management system to make the best decisions in eco-design of the whole life of infrastructure.
- minimization of new construction by using digital technologies to increase the capacity of existing infrastructure.
- the role of eco-design principles in the development of nature-based solutions.
- Impact of probiotic tiles in indoor spaces
Contact Information
UCL Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering
Primary Supervisor: Lena Ciric
Email: L l.ciric@ucl.ac.ukBartlett school of Energy, Environment and Resources (BSEER)
Co-Supervisor: Richard Beckett
Email: richard.beckett@ucl.ac.ukBackground
Microbes are present in all environments, including the indoor spaces we spend our time in. Over evolutionary time, humans have lived in close contact with a huge diversity of microbial life due to constant interaction with the natural world including plants, soil and animals. We now spend a great majority of our time indoors and our indoor spaces lack biodiversity. There is now a significant body of evidence that suggests that lack of exposure to a diverse microbial community in childhood leads to an immune system that does not respond well when challenged, resulting in susceptibility to allergies in later life. But how do we reintroduce microbes associated with natural environments back into our indoor spaces? One possibility is to use building and interior design materials inoculated with soil or plants. The supervisors have worked together previously on a proof-of-concept project where we showed that novel ceramic wall tiles inoculated with a soil suspension could make the indoor microbiome significantly more diverse. This approach builds on a body of work exploring bio integrated design methodologies that have incorporated living organisms into materials for buildings that seek to address a range of built environment challenges. Through this focus on the indoor microbiome and health, probiotic materials have the potential to shape indoor microbiomes towards a healthier state, by serving as a direct source and sink of evolutionary beneficial microbes for indoor spaces in urban and other areas of low biodiversity.Aims & Objectives
We want to build on our preliminary results through the following objectives:
- Use different mineral based materials to manufacture probiotic tiles including re-used and remanufactured tiles.
- Test the structural integrity of tiles.
- Investigate the ability of the materials to support microbial communities they are inoculated with.
- Investigate the impact of the probiotic tiles on indoor spaces over time and space.
- Post-fire material and structural properties of “green” concrete
Contact Information
UCL Civil, Environmental and Geomatic EngineeringPrimary Supervisor: Katherine Cashell
Email: K.cashell@ucl.ac.ukCo-Supervisor: Mingzhong Zhang
Email: Mingzhong.zhang@ucl.ac.ukBackground
There is growing interest, and pressure, to reduce the carbon footprint of concrete materials and structures in the built environment, and also to improve the circularity in construction. This has led to a number of different avenues of research, including considerable efforts towards reducing/replacing the cement content in typical concrete mixes (with fly ash, GGBS, etc.) and also employing recycled products in concrete mixes (e.g. recycled aggregates) to promote circularity. Whilst much of the work to date has focussed on material performance, there is more limited information on the corresponding structural performance. In addition, there is almost no existing information on the residual properties of these concrete mixes (designed with low carbon, circularity in mind) following an extreme event like a fire. We know concrete structures behave well after a fire, and maybe doesn’t need to be demolished as often as is typically normal, but we know almost nothing about newer concrete mixes.
Accordingly, the focus in this work will be on the post-fire residual properties and strength of “green” concrete (designed with low carbon and circularity in mind) materials and structures.
This project has stemmed from early conversations with London Concrete, who are interested in pursuing a collaboration with UCL. Our conversations are in the very initial stages (too early for this call) but they are interested in studying the structural properties of concrete elements made using a range of cement replacement products as well as recycled aggregates (to promote circularity).
Aims & Objectives
- To develop a good understanding of the different cement replacement products currently used, and under development, both at research and industry level and to also understand the existing extent to which circular principles are employed;
- To understand the recycled products, and their circular credentials, used in concrete mixes;
- To develop a good understanding of the behaviour of concrete materials with these replacement/recycled products both during and following a fire (where the information is available); and
- To develop a good understanding of the structural behaviour of concrete elements with these replacement/recycled products both during and following a fire (where the information is available);
- Identification of materials recovery potential through pre-demolition audits
Contact Information
Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resource
Primary Supervisor: Teresa Domenech
Email: t.domenech@ucl.ac.ukBackground
Construction and demolition waste (CDW) is the largest fraction of all waste generated in the UK. In 2020, CDW accounted for around 59 million tonnes. C&D waste contains an array of different materials including metals, concrete, bricks, glass, wood, plaster board, plastics and other fractions. While the recovery rates of CDW in the UK are very high, with 92.6% reported in 2020, and the value of some of these resources is potentially high, current models and practices of demolition mean that the value is marginal and recovery of materials, while high, is not aligned with CE principle of keeping material at their highest value.
The current waste regulation specifies the preparing for re-use, recycling and other material recovery of non-hazardous construction and demolition shall be increased to a minimum of 70 % by weight, which is already widely achieved in construction and demolition projects, but the next step is to move towards achieving high quality recycling of those materials, so that they can substitute primary materials and help construction material organisations achieve higher fractions of recycled content, which is increasingly being specified by clients.
To be able to extract and convert demolition waste into resources, a whole life cycle perspective needs to be considered, ensuring buildings and infrastructures are seen as material banks. This requires changes along the design phase, construction/ installation and ensuring full traceability of materials through material passports integrated into BIM models. It also requires understanding of the processes required to perform modular demolition, clean up of key materials and business models that ensure recovered materials are of sufficient quality, and thus value, to be used as secondary materials. The project will focus on plasterboard to explore avenues of recovery from waste so that it can be recycled back into new products.
Aims & Objectives
The specific scope of the PhD project will be defined in collaboration with the industrial sponsor to ensure that the project is relevant and aligns with the organisations main priority areas:
- Define procedures for pre-demolition audits that help to identify key value materials and define strategies for segregated recovery
- Characterise the nature of recovered materials, levels of cross contamination and identify processes for cleaning-up and homogenising secondary material
- Identify potential business opportunities and costs of selected demolition and recovery
- Reverse logistics systems to ensure recovered material finds its way to manufacturers
- Identify design and installation procedures that enable recovery of materials at the end of life
- Explore the role of material passports to enhance traceability of materials in buildings and help to assess recovery potential
- Pathways to low carbon cement and concrete in the UK: a techno-economic assessment
Contact Information
Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources
Primary Supervisor: Alvaro Calzadilla Rivera
Email: a.calzadilla@ucl.ac.ukCo-Supervisor: Teresa Domenech
Email: t.domenech@ucl.ac.ukBackground
To meet its net zero target by 2050, the UK government needs to drastically reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in all sectors of the economy. 0.5-0.9 tonnes of CO2 are emitted for every tonne of cement produced, with this industry accounting for approximately 8% of global CO 2 emissions. While the contribution of the cement and concrete industry to UK GHG emissions is comparatively small, around 1.5%, improvements will still make an important contribution and set a positive example for global practice. Around 60% of the CO2 emissions from concrete and cement in the UK are process emissions from clinker production. Therefore, one way to reduce CO2 emissions in the cement and concrete industry is to substitute clinker with other materials, that either arise as industrial by-products, or are specifically manufactured
The UK Cement and Concrete Industry Roadmap to Beyond Net Zero also includes energy efficiency, fuel switching, low carbon cements and concretes, and carbon capture, use and storage.
Aims & Objectives
- Assess current and future available options for substitution of clinker, accounting for decarbonisation commitments in the sectors providing them.
- Assess the potential technical and economic feasibility of substituting clinker with other products.
- Assess the resource, environmental, economic implications of low carbon cement and concrete.
- Assess the physical and economic implications along the whole supply chain of cement, concrete and related industries.
- Design optimisation approaches to minimise the embodied carbon of 3D concrete printed shells
Contact Information
School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, Loughborough University
Primary Supervisor: Sergio Cavalaro
Email: s.cavalaro@lboro.ac.uk- A Circular Economy Maturity Model (CircMature) for the mineral-based construction materials’ sector
Contact Information
School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, Loughborough University
Primary Supervisor: Mohamed Osmani
Email: M.Osmani@lboro.ac.ukBackground
A characteristic of the traditional industrial economy has often been a linear model of resource consumption that followed a ‘take-make-dispose’ paradigm. In sharp contrast Circular Economy enables the retention of the added value in materials and products, which are kept within the economy for as long as possible through closing loops in industrial ecosystems and minimising waste. The shift from product and process linearity to circularity offers an industrial system that is regenerative by design.
Despite strong policy focus and compelling economic and business drivers, the opportunities for implementing Circular Economy thinking in the construction sector are embryonic, piecemeal, and largely underexploited.
To address this gap, this project explores pathways, processes, and sequential performance levels to transition mineral-based construction materials’ organisation to Circular Economy.
Aims & Objectives
The aim of the project is to adopt the principles of Total Quality Management (TQM) to develop a continuous Circular Economy improvement maturity roadmap in the mineral-based construction materials (MCM) sector. It will provide MCM organizations with a structured approach to assess their Circular Economy performance level; and devise a long-term maturity pathway to integrate circularity into organisational processes, decision-making and behaviour that would enable continuous improvement to meet current and future challenges and demands.
- Assess current and emerging Circular Economy models, frameworks, and technologies in the construction industry.
- Appraise existing Circular Economy organisational strategies in the MCM industry.
- Examine constraints and enablers for the implementation of Circular Economy in the MCM sector.
- Identify and evaluate the key components for the development of a Circular Economy improvement maturity roadmap in MCM projects.
- Devise a Circular Economy Conceptual Flywheel for the MCM sector based on the principles of Total Quality Management.
- Develop a Circular Economy improvement maturity model and apply it to an MCM case study.
- The cybernetics of Circular Economy platforms in construction
Contact Information
Business School, Loughborough University
Primary Supervisor: Peter Kawalek
Email: p.kawalek@lboro.ac.uk- The role of accounting in reducing whole-life carbon in new build projects in the construction sector
Contact Information
Business School, Loughborough University
Primary Supervisor: Suzana Grubnic
Email: s.grubnic@lboro.ac.ukCo-Supervisor: Andrew Vivian
Email: a.j.vivian@lboro.ac.ukBackground
Reducing carbon in the built environment, classed as a major emitter of GHGs, is actively promoted by the Construction Leadership Council (see ‘Zero Avoidable Waste Routemap’ (2021) produced in collaboration with the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)), and the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC).
The role of sustainability control systems (SCSs) in forming and implementing sustainability strategies within organisations is well documented in the academic literature (Gond et al., 2012; Arjaliés and Mundy, 2013; Rodrigues et al., 2013; Bui and de Villiers, 2017; Beusch et al., 2021). While management control systems (MCSs) are focused on achieving the economic goals of an organisation, SCSs are orientated toward progressing environmental and social goals (Gond et al., 2012). SCSs are defined by Johnstone (2019) as: “management accounting tools that connect organisational strategy with operations in a given context by providing information and direction, as well as monitoring and motivating employees to continually develop sustainable practices and procedures for future improved sustainability performance” (p.34). As argued by Gond et al. (2012), the nature and mode of integration between SCSs and MCSs lead to different outcomes in terms of sustainable strategy making.
The focus of the PhD study is on reducing carbon emissions over the life of new build projects. Specifically, the study seeks to investigate a shift by the UK Construction industry to a low carbon economy. This is timely given the recent introduction of Government policies, and agreements made at the 2021 COP26 Summit (Glasgow). Ministers published the ‘Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener’, and ‘Heat and Building Strategy’, in October 2021, and committed the economy to lower carbon emissions. The draft agreement published during COP26 explicitly acknowledges the advice of the IPCC on cutting emissions by 45% by 2030, and welcomes “commitments to reduce emissions in high-emitting sectors and achieve net zero emissions by or around mid-century” (paragraph 25).
Aims & Objectives
- Based on a literature review, to understand how circular economy principles can support whole-life carbon reductions;
- Based on case research, to understand how sustainability control systems are designed and developed to reduce carbon in new build projects;
- Based on case research, to examine the facilitators and inhibitors of producing carbon-related information in sustainability control systems across the whole life of a new build project; and,
- To consider the extent to which sustainability control systems impact upon decision-making relating to new build projects.
- Understanding the socioeconomic implications of resource emergencies and associated mitigation policies using Bayesian material flow analysis
Contact Information
Imperial College London
Primary Supervisor: Rupert J. Myers
Email: r.myers@imperial.ac.ukCo-Supervisor: Pablo Brito-Parada
Email: p.brito-parada@imperial.ac.ukCo-Supervisor: Yves Plancherel
Email: y.plancherel@imperial.ac.ukCo-Supervisor: Dr. Kolyan Ray
Email: kolyan.ray@imperial.ac.ukBackground
Demand for materials and energy are increasing. Decarbonisation ambitions such as the Paris Agreement imply a radical longer-term shift from fossil materials utilisation (e.g. fuels for energy, feedstock for chemicals) to minerals (e.g. metals for renewable energy technologies) and biomass (e.g. bio-derived chemicals). Shorter-term shifts in resource flows can also have huge socioeconomic implications, such as the UK ‘energy crisis’ (2022). However, the socioeconomic impacts of these issues, which often arise from significant supply-demand mismatches, remain poorly understood. Hence, there is a growing and urgent need to systemically quantify and analyse how resources are used in the economy, to discover sustainable production-usage patterns that avoid supply-demand mismatches in the shorter and longer terms. This information then needs to be disseminated to policymakers, industry, and the resource community, so the necessary systemic actions can be taken to mitigate undesirable impacts. Previous research by Myers and colleagues on this topic, funded by the UKRI Circular Economy Centre in Mineral-Based Construction Materials [1], the Office for National Statistics, and as part of the Imperial-X Resources Observatory (RO) [2], has developed the Bayesian material flow analysis methodology needed for a quantitative digital twin of the physical economy [3]. This research involves comprehensive mapping of resource stocks and flows from extraction through to end-of-life, and then application of this systemic quantitative evidence to inform policymaking and business strategy. The vision for its application is to focus on resource emergencies and black swan events (UK energy crisis, semiconductor chip shortage, trade partner import/export bans such as the Rare Earth Crisis [4], etc.), to better understand these and to both propose mitigating policies and understand their efficacy – much like COVID-19 epidemiological modelling in SAGES [5], which showed effects of individual measures like social distancing on COVID-19 infections/mortality and demand for health services [6]. This approach was initially demonstrated by its application to understand the supply/demand balance of construction aggregates in England until 2030. We are now seeking to enhance its capability by applying it to other material systems and important current resource issues.
Project description:
This PhD project will focus on improving the capability of Bayesian material flow analysis methodology to include multi-regional systems and energy stocks and flows (by incorporating energy balances). This will include application of statistics and scientific programming in our existing Python code. The improved methodology and code will be applied to analyse the supply/demand balance of energy materials in UK and its major trading partners. We plan to focus on the current ‘energy crisis’ and understand the landscape of energy material supply scenarios available to the UK and how these marry up to its demand. This will include the major energy production sites (and their processing steps) that supply (refined) energy materials to the UK.
Aims & Objectives
- Development of datasets describing the material and energy compositions of products and production/waste treatment/recycling process inputs and outputs
- Improvement of our Python code (on our Imperial-hosted github repository) so it can ingest both material and energy data, and splice its outputs by region (e.g. UK), material or energy cycle, and product (or product category, e.g. electricity generation).
- We expect that these advancements will be demonstrated by modelling different competing technology options within the same product category, e.g. different energy sources for electricity generation, to understand their resource implications. Dissemination of these research outcomes to key stakeholders such as policymakers will also be key.
- Building a circular economy together: from organizational commitments to whole systems change
Contact Information
UCL Civil and Environmental Engineering
Primary Supervisor: Stijn Van Ewik
Email: s.vanewijk@ucl.ac.ukBackground
The circular economy requires a deep systemic shift in production and consumption. Whilst a transition can be accelerated by the efforts of individual organizations (such as businesses, industry associations, and local governments) it also requires national or global coordination to ensure that individual actions add up to a collective shift towards a circular economy. However, organizations naturally specify circular economy ambitions in the context of their operations only, since these are within their direct control. These individual commitments have unknown consequences for the wider systemic shift towards circularity. For example, whereas many businesses aim for products that are recyclable at the end of life, fewer businesses aim for a high recycled content in their products, leading to a potential inconsistency between secondary material demand and supply. This project seeks to identify the synergies and tradeoffs between circular economy ambitions across organizational boundaries with a focus on the built environment. It will systematically review the plans set out by key organizations and model the potential combined outcomes of the implementation of all plans. Based on the analysis, the study will identify best practices for coordinating the circular economy and leveraging individual commitments to achieve a collective shift towards circularity. The study will contribute to a theoretical understanding of change processes and generate practical insights into making the construction sector and the built environment more circular.
Aims & Objectives
- To collate plans, targets, roadmaps and similar that specify the circular economy commitment of organizations in the built environment, at a variety of levels and scales.
- To qualitatively and quantitatively model the interactions between different organizational ambitions for the circular economy.
- To identify the major tensions, synergies, and coordination requirements to leverage individual commitments for achieving systems change.