课题:Could plastic eating insects help save our environment?
Polystyrene is a non-biodegradable persistent plastic that is accumulating at alarming rates on land and in rivers, lakes and oceans.
To address this, The University of Western Australia (UWA) will unite with Woodside Energy Ltd to investigate the use of insect technology as a means of converting polystyrene waste into high value protein products.
Preliminary studies suggest that larvae of yellow mealworms are capable of degrading polystyrene and polyethylene via enzymatic processes in the larval gut.
We seek a student to investigate the process by which this occurs, and explore other insects that could be intensively farmed for plastic removal.
As part of this project the successful applicant will use mealworms as a test species to:
• Investigate polystyrene to biomass conversion rates
• Investigate mealworms ability to degrade other plastics (i.e. polyethylene)
• Explore larval rearing optimisation (e.g. temperature, larval density and dietary factors) to improve conversion rates
• Perform chemical analyses of larvae and frass to determine nutritional profile
• Prototype a “biodegradation unit” design for deployment to site
奖学金:3,3000 Au per year.
导师Prof. Rob Atkin: (引用次数13094;H指数 58, i10指数146,)
Rob Atkin is a physical chemist with research interests that span fundamental to applied areas including ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents, break down of plastics using insects, surfactant and polymer adsorption, surface coatings, lubricants, electrolytes, production of biofuels from coal and biomass, microencapsulation, preparation of 2D materials, and protein droplet formation in cells. Atkin makes extensive use of cutting edge facilities in the UWA Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis, such as atomic force microscopy and external radiation scattering facilities such as ANSTO and the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source. Rob has collaborations with academics and industry partners in Australia and internationally.
西澳大学是澳洲八大之一,QS全球百强名校,位于澳大利亚西澳洲首府珀斯(Perth)。珀斯是全球著名宜居城市,风景秀丽,气候宜人,与北京在同一时区,与国内没有时差。疫情前南航有广州-珀斯直达航班。西澳洲预计2022年2月疫苗接种率达到90%,并预计在同一时间解除国际国内旅行限制。
语言申请基本要求:TOEFL (paper-based) 570 with a Test of Written English (TWE) of no less than 4.5 Scholarship applicants require 580, with 45 in the Test of Spoken English (TSE) and 4.5 in the Test of Written English (TWE)或者IELTS (Academic) 6.5 (no band lower than 6.0).
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