{"id":145812,"date":"2026-07-01T08:58:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T00:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/research\/?post_type=hdr-r-projects&p=145812"},"modified":"2026-07-01T08:58:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T00:58:21","slug":"making-academic-distillation-models-and-results-fit-for-industry-applications","status":"publish","type":"hdr-r-projects","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/research\/hdr-r-projects\/making-academic-distillation-models-and-results-fit-for-industry-applications\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Academic Distillation Models and Results Fit for Industry Applications"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Distillation has existed for millennia at the homebrew scale, and for over a century at the industrial scale. It has become a standard part of chemical engineering education, and there are several commercial software tools for simulating distillation columns that are well-established and well-trusted by industry. Yet, difficulties still exist when attempting to design or simulate a distillation process to perform a desired multicomponent separation. While there have been several research advances over the past decades, the understanding and usage of these advances remains largely restricted to academia and have not been adopted by industry. Throughout this PhD, you will be discovering new results and enhancing the applicability of existing results, to aid industrial practitioners designing and simulating distillation processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aim  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Discovering new results or creating new methods in distillation process design that are of industrial relevance
\u2022 Enhancing the accessibility of recent research advances in distillation process design for industry to bridge the gap with academia<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Objectives <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The specific objectives will be refined during discussions over the course of the PhD, but these are some example directions
\u2022 Developing improved methods for designing the initial guess when simulating distillation columns in process simulators (such as Aspen Plus or Aspen HYSYS)
\u2022 Discovering new insights and correlations about distillation columns by analysing their operating conditions
\u2022 Developing methods, which utilise existing published results, that industrial practitioners can employ in the design of distillation configurations for multicomponent separations
\u2022 Developing a structured method for guiding practitioners on how to improve a given distillation configuration using techniques of process intensification<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Significance <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Distillation is the predominant separations technology in the chemical and petrochemical industries. It is also estimated that 40-60% of the total cost for a chemical plant is due to separations, with 90-95% of liquid feed separations performed using distillation and operating cost being a dominant component. In the petrochemical industry, where roughly 81.6 million barrels of crude oil petroleum are processed each day across the world, distillation is the first unit operation, and it is estimated that crude oil refineries are responsible for 1.9% of the total greenhouse gas emissions in U.S.A. Distillation contributes to these emissions through fossil fuel combustion which is needed to supply heat for boiling. Lowering the energy consumption of distillation therefore lowers both separation cost (through reduced fossil fuel requirements) as well as greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, this project will contribute to meeting three sustainability development goals: # 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), # 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure) and # 13 (Climate Action).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ideal Candidate <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essential Characteristics
\u2022 Has a Bachelor’s degree or higher having undertaken a substantial number of units involving a mixture of applied mathematical and computational analysis
\u2022 Is interested in coding mathematical algorithms
\u2022 Is willing to learn the concepts and gain the perspectives required to confidently tackle upgrading the industrial relevance of the research advances
\u2022 Must be eligible to enrol in PhD programs at Curtin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preferred Characteristics
\u2022 Has a Bachelor’s degree majoring in Chemical Engineering, and has comfortable understanding of basic distillation
\u2022 Has good theoretical background in the concepts of mass and energy balance, chemical process flowsheets, algebraic analysis, and algorithm development
\u2022 Has undertaken research projects during their bachelor’s degree
\u2022 Is comfortable in engaging in critical thinking, rationalising and justifying the choices made as well as undertaking reflection and self-analysis
\u2022 Is interested in discovering or deepening understanding of behaviours that the given mathematical model of the real-world can exhibit
\u2022 Has strong verbal and written communication skills<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, the applicants should meet the eligibility criteria for entry into a PhD program at Curtin University. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This project is open to Domestic applicants only. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scholarship  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are identified as the preferred candidate for this project, you may be considered for an RTP scholarship<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enquires and How to Apply <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For enquires about this opportunity contact Dr Tony Mathew at Tony.Mathew@curtin.edu.au<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To formally apply submit an Expression of Interest<\/a> to Dr Tony Mathew during the Central Scholarship round (July 1st – July 31st 2026) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"template":"","faculties":[51],"hdr_types":[5487],"research_areas":[39],"class_list":["post-145812","hdr-r-projects","type-hdr-r-projects","status-publish","hentry","faculties-science-and-engineering","hdr_types-rtp-scholarship","research_areas-energy-transition"],"acf":false,"featured_image":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hdr-r-projects\/145812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hdr-r-projects"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/hdr-r-projects"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hdr-r-projects\/145812\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"faculties","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/faculties?post=145812"},{"taxonomy":"hdr_types","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hdr_types?post=145812"},{"taxonomy":"research_areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research_areas?post=145812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}