MPhil Energy

Newcastle University

MPhil Energy

  • Country United Kingdom
  • Course Duration 12 month
  • Course Type Full Time
  • Courses Campus On Campus
  • Language Specification IELTS
  • Program Level Post-Graduate
  • Education Required Graduate
  • Admission intake SEP
  • Minimum GPA 3.3
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Application Charges

Application Fee Tution Fee
Free GBP 26,700

Application Date

Application Start Date Application Closing Date
2022-12-08
2023-01-10

Program Description

By pursuing research in the School of Engineering, you'll join a successful research group. Our focus is on energy. Our mission is to foster, promote and conduct research of international quality. We attract high-quality graduates and researchers and train them to international standards.This research degree and our other energy programmes focus on topics, including:
  • novel geo-energy
  • power electronics
  • drives and machines
  • the sustainable development and use of key resources
We can supervise MPhil and PhD projects in topics that relate to our main areas of research, which are:
Bio-energy
Our research spans the whole supply chain:
  • growing novel feedstocks (various biomass crops, algae etc)
  • processing feedstocks in novel ways
  • converting feedstocks into fuels and chemical feedstocks
  • developing new engines to use the products
Cockle Park Farm has an innovative anaerobic digestion facility. Work at the farm will develop, integrate and exploit technologies. These will link with the generation and efficient use of renewable energy from land-based resources. This includes biomass, biofuel and agricultural residues.We also develop novel technologies for gasification and pyrolysis. This large multidisciplinary project brings together expertise in:
  • agronomy
  • land use
  • social science with process technologists and engineers
It is complemented by molecular studies on the biology of non-edible oilseeds as sources for production of biodiesel. 
Novel geo-energy
New ways of obtaining clean energy from the geosphere is a vital area of research. Particularly given current concerns over the limited remaining resources of fossil fuels.Newcastle University won a Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher Education award. This was for its world-renowned Hydrogeochemical Engineering Research and Outreach (HERO) programme. The Sir Joseph Swan Centre for Energy Research seeks to build on its record of excellence and place the North East at the forefront of research in:
  • ground-source heat pump systems
  • other larger-scale sources of carbon-free geothermal energy
  • developing more responsible modes of fossil fuel use
Our fossil fuel research encompasses both the use of a:
  • novel microbial process (recently patented by Newcastle University). This is to convert heavy oil (and, by extension, coal) to methane
  • coupling of carbon capture and storage (CCS) to underground coal gasification (UCG) using drilled boreholes
This hybrid technology (UCG-CCS) is well suited to early development in the North East. It still has 75% of its total coal resources in place.
Sustainable power
We undertake fundamental and applied research. This is in various aspects of power generation and energy systems, including:
  • the application of alternative fuels, such as hydrogen and biofuels to engines and dual-fuel engines
  • domestic combined heat and power (CHP), and combined cooling, heating and power (trigeneration) systems. Both using waste vegetable oil and/or raw inedible oils
  • biowaste methanisation
  • biomass and biowaste combustion, gasification
  • biomass co-combustion with coal in thermal power plants
  • CO2 capture and storage for thermal power systems
  • trigeneration with novel energy storage systems. This includes the storage of electrical energy, heat and cooling energy
  • engine and power plant emissions monitoring and reduction technology
  • novel engine configurations such as free-piston engines and the reciprocating Joule cycle engine
Fuel cell and hydrogen technologies
We are recognised as world leaders in hydrogen storage research. Our work covers the entire range of fuel cell technologies, from:
  • high-temperature hydrogen cells
  • low-temperature microbial fuel cells
We address some of the complex challenges which are slowing the uptake and impact of fuel cell technology.Key areas of research include:
  • biomineralisation
  • liquid organic hydrides
  • adsorption onto solid phase, nano-porous metallo-carbon complexes
Sustainable development and use of key resources
Our research in this area has resulted in the development and commercialisation of novel gasifier technology. This is for hydrogen production and subsequent energy generation.We have developed ways to produce alternative fuels. In particular, a novel biodiesel pilot plant that has attracted an Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) AspenTech Innovative Business Practice Award.Major funding has been awarded for the development of fuel cells for commercial application. This has led to both patent activity and highly-cited research. Newcastle University is a key member of the SUPERGEN Fuel Cell Consortium. Significant developments have been made in:
  • fuel cell modelling
  • membrane technology
  • anode development
  • catalyst and fuel cell performance improvements