Daniel Chernick

Background: I graduated from Lancaster University in 2018 with an MEng in Chemical Engineering. The course allowed me to learn about a breadth of different topics – from wastewater treatment, catalysis, electrochemical reactors amongst others. My team design project in my third year looked, purely theoretically, at developing a process to extract precious metals from WEEE and catalytic converters; where I individually designed a Plug Flow Reactor to leach the precious metals from the solids. In my fourth year my dissertation project investigated the extraction of polyphenols from beetroot pulp with enzymes.

Outside of academics, I liked to do what I could to represent students at Lancaster (at a department and faculty level) while also helping to run a refugee society (LU Red Rose Refugees).

 Research Interests:

My interests lie on quite a broad scale. I’m interested in developing my chemical engineering knowledge while also exploring new avenues. At the moment, I am now trying to look into areas with systemic issues – how the current energy infrastructure has led to this issue, and how it can potentially be improved in the future whilst investigating the technical processes (using my chemical engineering knowledge) that could help with these problems

 Why I chose the CDT in Bioenergy:

The opportunity to join the Bioenergy CDT combined my interests in research (from my degree) and the extra-curriculars from Lancaster. The prospect of being able to collaborate with other researchers in the field and industry, and the focus on my Transferable Skills development also interested me. On a personal note, progressing through an MSc/PhD with a cohort alleviated any fears of feeling that I would be doing this process alone.