Profile
Dr Xiaoyu Yan
Senior Lecturer in Energy and Environment
Telephone: 01326 259485
Xiaoyu is a Senior Lecturer in Energy and Environment 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 College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences and also part of the interdisciplinary Environment and Sustainability Institute, where he serves as Associate Director for Internationalisation & Partnerships. Xiaoyu is Co-Founder and Scientific Advisor of Minviro Ltd, a mining sustainability solutions specialist.
Research
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Xiaoyu has a broad interest in Water, Energy, Food and the Environment and worked in a wide range of interdisciplinary areas. The overarching aim of his research is to develop quantitative analytical models and tools to help governments, industry and the public make more informed decisions with respect to environmental sustainability. He is interested in supervising PhD students and working with academic visitors in the following areas:
- Environmental sustainability assessment of bioenergy pathways, electricity generation technologies, transport options, water systems and minerals sourcing using life cycle assessment (LCA)
- Novel dynamical spatiotemporal LCA methods
- Impact of energy systems on ecosystem services
- Water-Energy-Food-Environment nexus
- Circular Economy
- Energy and transport systems modelling to support strategy making
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 2021-2022. Applications for 2021 entry are now open. Deadline for receipt of application to the University of Exeter is Monday 11th January 2021.
- 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
- 2021-2024 UKRI Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Centre for Technology Metals (TechMet) (EPSRC, £4.4M) Co-I
- 2020-2021 CLIP: Circular and Low Impact Processed Food (EU ESIF, £114K) PI
- 2020-2024 GREENPEG: New Exploration Tools for European Pegmatite Green-Tech Resources (EU H2020, €8M) Co-I
- 2019-2020 Exeter Multidisciplinary Plastics Research hub: ExeMPLaR (EPSRC, £985K) Co-I & WP leader
- 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
- 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
- 2016-2020 IMP@ACT: Integrated Mobile modularised Plant and Containerised Tools for Selective, Low-impact Mining of Small High-grade Deposits (EU H2020, €7M) Co-I
- 2016-2021 ICE: Intelligent Community Energy (EU INTERREG, €8M) Co-I
- 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
Research collaborations and links
Within Exeter
- Camborne School of Mines (CSM), College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences
- Centre for Water Systems (CWS), College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation (CEC), College of Life and Environmental Sciences
- Energy Policy Group (EPG), College of Life and Environmental Sciences
- European Centre for Environment and Human Health (ECEHH), Medical School
- Exeter Centre for Circular Economy, Business School
- Global Systems Institute (GSI)
- Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (IDSAI)
Beyond Exeter
- UK: UCL, Imperial College London, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Glasgow, Nottingham, Newcastle, East Anglia, Bristol, Bath, Cardiff, Reading, Cranfield, Southampton, Lancaster and Plymouth, and the Royal College of Art.
- China: Tsinghua University, Peking University, Beijing Normal University, Nanjing University, Nanjing Agricultural University, Sichuan University, Tongji University, Wuhan University, Xiamen University, Henan Agricultural University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Henan Academy of Sciences and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
- Australia: Universities of Sydney and Queensland
- US: University of Michigan
- Malaysia: University of Nottingham Malaysia, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu
- Colombia: Universidad de los Andes, Humboldt Institute
Teaching
- ENEM105 Low Carbon Vehicles and Transport (MSc)
- ENE3004 Life Cycle Analysis (BSc, BEng/MEng year 3)
- CSM1032 Renewable Energy Systems 1 (BSc, BEng/MEng year 1)
- CSMM432 Economics, Energy and Environment (MSc)