Professor Xiaoyu Yan
Professor
Engineering
Xiaoyu is a Professor in Sustainable Energy Systems at the University of Exeter and was previously a Research Associate at the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford and London, with a PhD in Mechanical Engineering. He is a member of the Renewable Energy Group in the Engineering Department and also part of the interdisciplinary Environment and Sustainability Institute, both within the Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy. Xiaoyu is Co-Founder and Scientific Advisor of Minviro Ltd, a mining sustainability solutions specialist, and Co-Founder and Chief Scientist of Near Zero by Design, a space sustainability start-up. He also advises many businesses in a wide range of sectors including energy, transport, water, food, space, manufacturing critical raw materials and infrastructure on their journey to Net Zero.
PhD and Postdoc opportunities
- Students from China can apply for the China Scholarship Council and University of Exeter PhD Scholarship. The University of Exeter is proud to offer up to 50 full-time PhD scholarships in collaboration with the China Scholarship Council (CSC) for Chinese students starting in the academic year 2024-2025. Applications for 2025 entry will soon open. Deadline for receipt of application to the University of Exeter is likely to be early January 2025.
- International students from outside of UK and EU can apply for a range of different funding schemes.
You will have the opportunity to be involved in some of the large interdisciplinary research projects shown below. Please contact me for project proposals.
Current research projects
- 2023-2025 MineMT software tool to strengthen the UK REE magnet supply chain by enhancing and ensuring strong sustainability credentials (Innovate UK, £435K) Co-I
- 2023-2026 Wessex Live Labs - Net Zero Corridors, part of ADEPT Live Labs 2: Decarbonising Local Roads in the UK (Department for Transport, £4.5M) Co-I
- 2022-2025 SeaCURE - Sea Carbon Unlocking and Removal (BEIS, £3M) Co-I
- 2022-2026 Renewing biodiversity through a people-in-nature approach (RENEW) (NERC, £10M) Co-I
- 2021-2024 UKRI Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Centre for Technology Metals (Met4Tech) (EPSRC, £4.4M) Co-I
- 2020-2024 GREENPEG: New Exploration Tools for European Pegmatite Green-Tech Resources (EU H2020, €8M) Co-I
Completed research projects
- 2021-2023 Off-grid rural EV charger with bioheat (EU ESIF, £858K) Co-I & WP leader
- 2021-2023 Global Forest Management to Reap Triple Benefits for Economy, Health and Climate (CUHK-Exeter Joint Centre for Environmental Sustainability and Resilience, £108K from Exeter and HK$1M from CUHK) Co-I & WP leader
- 2020-2023 Future Focus 2 (EU ESIF, £1.4M) Co-I
- 2020-2021 CLIP: Circular and Low Impact Processed Food (EU ESIF, £114K) PI
- 2018-2021 NEXT-AG: NEXus Thinking for sustainable AGricultural development in Andean countries (NERC/Newton Fund-CONICYT/Chile, £730K) Co-I & WP leader
- 2018-2021 Tevi: Environmental Growth for Business (EU ESIF, £3M) Co-I & WP leader
- 2016-2021 ICE: Intelligent Community Energy (EU INTERREG, €8M) Co-I
- 2019-2020 Global Food Security, Climate Change and Resilience: An International Perspective (CUHK-Exeter Joint Centre for Environmental Sustainability and Resilience (ENSURE), £135K from Exeter and HK$1M from CUHK) Co-I & WP leader
- 2016-2020 IMP@ACT: Integrated Mobile modularised Plant and Containerised Tools for Selective, Low-impact Mining of Small High-grade Deposits (EU H2020, €7M) Co-I
- 2019-2020 Exeter Multidisciplinary Plastics Research hub: ExeMPLaR (EPSRC, £985K) Co-I & WP leader
- 2016-2020 Integrating marine ecosystem services into macroeconomic modelling (NERC GW4+ DTP CASE studentship, £75K) Co-I
- 2016-2019 CEReS: Co-processing of coal mine and electronic wastes: Novel resources for a sustainable future (EU RFCS, €2M) Co-I
- 2017-2019 Embedded systems for Integrated Photovoltaics in Rural Buildings: E-IPB (Innovate UK Newton Fund – China-UK Research and Innovation Bridges, £900K) Co-I
- 2018-2018 Availability of technology metals in expansive markets (British Council/Newton Fund UK-China Joint Research and Innovation Partnership Fund PhD Placement, £13K) PI
- 2017-2017 The key energy consumption technology and environmental benefits of biomass based levulinate esters fuel (The Key Technologies R&D Program of Henan Province, China–International Cooperation, ¥300K/~£34K) UK PI
- 2016-2017 Unpacking China’s Water-Energy-Food-Environment nexus (EPSRC GCRF, £15K) PI
- 2016-2017 An innovative framework for sustainability assessment of renewable energies based on life-cycle analysis and ecosystem services evaluation (British Council/Newton Fund UK-China Joint Research and Innovation Partnership Fund PhD Placement, £13K) PI
- 2015-2018 “Water Energy Food” WEFWEBS: Mapping the WEF Nexus at Multiple Scales and Across Sectors (EPSRC, £1.4M) Co-I
- 2015-2015 Dynamic spatio-temporal hybrid life cycle analysis (LCA) as a novel tool to assess the impact of energy system transitions on ecosystem services (PML & University of Exeter Research Collaboration Fund, £12K) PI
- 2014-2015 AVaRICE: Algal Valorisation & Remediation of metal Ion Contaminated Effluents (GW4+ Initiator and Accelerator Fund, £7K and £70K) Co-I
- 2013-2016 RAINSAFE Safe Drinking Water from Harvested Rain Water (EU H2020, €1.5M) Co-I