KTP Associate – Environmental Engineer

The Post

This project aims to address a long-standing whisky/spirits industry challenge, specifically effluent management, and establish Loch Lomond Distillers (LLD) as a sector leader in environmental sustainability. With both batch and continuous grain and malt operations, the business produces varying effluent streams with fluctuating pH, Biological and Chemical Oxygen Demand (BOD/COD). AD plant being explored as a potential part of the solution, however, will not resolve spikes in all beforementioned compositions. The company would also like to explore cleaning of water streams as a separate process (cleaning of spent lees instead of feeding to AD; CIP streams, etc.). Current effluent management and off-site processing by Scottish Water presents a risk and cost to the business and the environment.

The project aligns with LLD’s 2023 Sustainability Strategy and Net Zero 2045 target by applying real-time monitoring, process simulation, and data analytics, informed by AI, to characterise, treat, reduce and reuse the materials and energy contained within effluent streams: enhancing operational efficiency, releasing capacity, improving environmental sustainability and ensuring regulatory compliance. Adoption of new knowledge, technologies, systems and processes within LLD, will position the business as a leader in their sector and enable commercial exploitation of project outputs both internally and externally via consultancy.

This post is a practical, hands-on role, initially funded as part of a 30-month Knowledge Transfer Partnership linking staff in the Schools of Computing Engineering and Physical Sciences at UWS with Loch Lomond Distillers Limited.

The Associate will be tasked with enhancing operational efficiency, reduce carbon emissions and improve environmental sustainability through improved waste management – unlocking cost savings, releasing capacity and ensuring alignment with current and future regulatory requirements..

What you’ll be doing

Develop full system understanding of wastewater production across multiple distillery operations to characterise and identify indicators, benchmark wastewater processing operations and enable hybrid artificial intelligence (AI) model development.

Derive links from process operations to effluent production, composition and treatment options in forecasting, diagnosing process disruptions and scoping options for resource recovery. Specifically, to: evaluate current complex process flows; determine potential of new technology to improve process connectivity and efficiency and identify resource recovery gains; improve, innovate and standardise data collection and analysis with real-time monitoring and feed process operations from materials and information flow.

• Specification and procurement of process-wide infrastructure, monitoring and improvements to process footprint (e.g. carbon, water), delivery to multiple sites driving company strategy to environmental sustainability.
• Engaging and managing multiple stakeholders (internal and external, including regulatory bodies and compliance schemes).
• Delivering change and embedding operational improvements to address sustainability goals.
• Building expertise within a business with good technical support (process engineering, laboratory technicians) to go beyond compliance to understand and improve process influence on effluents and opportunities for resource recovery.
• Development of business cases for process improvements and investments in monitoring, plant and infrastructure to maximise productivity on site and within group operations.

What we’re looking for

Essential

• Minimum MSc in Chemical/ Environmental Engineering, and/or environmental management or process industry related (science/engineering) subject.
• Experience of chemical analysis, fluid modelling, application of AI.

Desirable

• Chartered Membership of appropriate professional body (IChemE, IMechE, CIWEM etc).
• Ideally experience of working in cross-disciplinary teams of varying expertise and experience.
• Process operation optimization, energy improvement and waste reduction, materials and process optimisation, Data management / processing ensuring integrity.

What you’ll get

• £5000 personal training budget + access to national KTP leadership training.
• Dedicated support from both academic experts and senior company leaders.
• The chance to publish academic work and attend conferences (if that interests you).

This position forms part of the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) funded by Innovate UK. It’s essential you understand how KTP works with business and the University, and the vital role you will play if you successfully secure a KTP Associate position.