New Zealand’s wine industry faces growing pressure to reduce energy use, water demand and carbon emissions while maintaining product quality and production reliability. This PhD project will develop and validate a modular digital twin of winery operations in partnership with Indevin, New Zealand’s largest wine producer.
The digital twin will combine first-principles process models with operational plant data to represent key production and utility systems, including fermentation, refrigeration, hot-water systems, cleaning-in-place and water use. It will be used to investigate how process scheduling, utility control, thermal storage and renewable-energy integration can reduce peak energy demand, operating costs and emissions in highly seasonal industrial operations.
A key research focus will be determining the level of model detail and data integration required to support reliable operational and investment decisions. The project will also investigate how transferable the modelling framework is across different processes, vintages and winery sites.
The successful candidate will gain experience in process modelling, digital twins, energy and water systems, optimisation and industrial data analysis, using tools such as Python and OpenModelica. Through close engagement with Indevin engineers and site staff, the candidate will also gain practical exposure to winery operations, industrial utilities and real-world operational decision-making.
Supervisors
Primary Supervisor: Alfred Herritsch
Other Supervisor(s): Daniel Holland
Key qualifications and skills
- A strong academic background in chemical/process engineering, energy engineering, or a closely related discipline.
- Knowledge of process modelling, simulation and engineering fundamentals.
- Strong quantitative, analytical and problem-solving skills.
- Experience with data analysis and computational modelling.
- An interest in digital twins, industrial energy and water systems, optimisation and sustainable processing.
- Ability to work independently and collaboratively with academic and industry partners.
- Good written and verbal communication skills.
Does the project come with funding
Per annum: Stipend of $32,650 plus PhD tuition fees. The project also has up to $5,000 available for research expenses across the duration of the degree.
Funding duration: Three years (360 points)
Final date for receiving applications
27 October 2026
How to apply
This is a UC Commitments Doctoral Scholarship and applications must be made through the Scholarship Portal in your myUC account. Emailed applications will not be considered. Find out more here: University of Canterbury Scholarship Portal - UC Commitments - Digital twins for low-carbon winery energy and water systems
Keywords
digital twins; process modelling; energy systems; process optimisation; decarbonisation; water efficiency; wine production; food processing
