2 PhD: Process intensification and Electrification in the Chemical Industry

Job description

The two PhD-positions are part of the large Dutch research project ‘CO2URAGE: CO2 Utilisation via Reactive Adsorption based on intermittent Green Electricity’, built on a private-public partnership with Industry, the Dutch research council (NWO), and academia.

Your job

The CO2URAGE program addresses the major societal challenge of transitioning the process industry from fossil fuels to natural resources powered by green electricity. It develops advanced reactors that use process intensification and electrification, and new materials for CO2 capture and react it with electricity-based hydrogen. Since the supply of green energy fluctuates, these reactors must operate dynamically, radically different from current industrial practices. In CO2URAGE, new process control schemes are developed to tailor production to dynamic operations, and system modeling and simulations are performed on different system scales to assess their feasibility in terms of economics and ecological performance.
Research Focus
: The transition to renewable electricity is reshaping the conditions under which the chemical industry operates. Electricity and hydrogen prices will fluctuate, at times even turning negative, so processes that can adjust their operation to these signals may become more competitive and better prepared for a future with high renewable surplus electricity.
PhD-position 1 – Process and system design and optimization
This first PhD-project aims at directly supporting the technology development carried out in CO2URAGE by understanding the technology optimal operation in future systems and by identifying the key properties that make them competitive. Accordingly, you will develop optimization models (mixed-integer linear programming) that capture the essential dynamic behaviour of these technologies, such as part-load performance, ramping limits, operating windows, and startup and shutdown behaviour, in a form suitable for time and space-resolved system optimization. You will use these models to determine the optimal design and operation of production systems under electricity and hydrogen price scenarios for 2030, 2040 and 2050. The research will move across the plant, cluster and the system level. It will examine how these processes interact with local renewable generation, batteries, hydrogen storage, electrolysers and heat supply in a (Dutch) industrial cluster. It also explores how large, flexible chemical plants can support national electricity, hydrogen and CO2 infrastructures. You will work closely with fellow PhD candidates and with industrial partners including RWE, DNV, TenneT and Gasunie.
PhD-position 2 – Value chain design and life cycle assessment
Whether new technologies for converting CO2 into base chemicals succeed depends not only on the technologies themselves, but also on the value chains around them. These chains run from CO2 sources and renewable power supply to the end users of the products. Understanding how these technologies could be deployed at scale therefore requires linking energy system modelling with value chain design. Accordingly, this PhD-project will develop deployment scenarios together with industrial partners. You will build a new hybrid modelling framework that combines agent-based modelling, which simulates how heterogeneous actors make decisions and adapt to change, with mixed-integer linear optimization, which identifies high-quality system configurations. The framework will be used to explore questions such as centralized versus decentralized deployment and the infrastructure requirements. It will then be applied to selected case studies for the technologies developed in the project. Finally, you will assess the environmental consequences of large-scale deployment through consequential life cycle assessment. This will reveal how growing demand and the corresponding expansion of the technologies affect the environmental performance of the system as a whole. This position will be co-supervised by Prof. Andrea Ramirez at TU Delft, including the possibility to work part-time at TU Delft.
Societal relevance of the project
: The transition to a CO2 net-zero society requires a major rethinking of the energy system, with coordinated, timely deployment of several technologies. Among the different sectors that need to become CO2 neutral, the chemical industry will be confronted with a daunting, yet existential challenge: to produce large amounts of carbon-based platform molecules starting from renewable energy and non-fossil material feedstocks. Given the scale of production and associated CO2 emissions, the large capital investments of plants, and the limited time available for the transition, the de-fossilization of the chemical industry is a cornerstone for a net-zero society. Many of the new unit operations required for a sustainable chemical industry are based on conventional chemical practices, for example hydrogen-base CO2 conversion. However, beyond feedstock changes, current chemical processes are not yet adapted to accommodate the dynamic nature of sustainable energy sources such as solar and wind. The main challenge will be matching the intermittent supply of green natural resources with product demand. CO2URAGE will help transforming the chemical industry into a key enabler for the energy transition.

Requirements

We are seeking two outstanding and highly motivated candidates with interest in the fundamental and applied aspects of process synthesis and system optimization. The ideal candidate has a master degree in Engineering (possibly Chemical, Process, Mechanical, Energy or Electrical), Applied Physics, or related field.
Moreover, the candidate should:
Possess excellent understanding of thermodynamics, process engineering, chemical and energy conversion technologies coupled with good mathematical and programming skills (process and system engineering);
Have hands-on experience in programming languages such as Python, Matlab, Julia;
Have hands-on experience with linear and mixed-integer linear programming (nice-to-have for PhD-position 1);
Have hands-on experience with agent-based modelling and life cycle assessment (nice-to-have for PhD-position 2);
Have experience with statistics and large data analytics;
Have strong affinity with sustainable development;
Have excellent communication skills;
Have work proficiency in English;
Enjoy working in an interdisciplinary and international, diverse environment.
You are not sure if you qualify for this position, but it triggered your interest? Contact us at the address given below.
We equally encourage applications from candidates interested in an academic and/or industry career.

Conditions of employment

We offer:

two positions (1.0 FTE) for 1 year, with an extension to a total of four years upon a successful assessment in the first year, and with the specific intent that it results in a doctorate within this period;
a working week of 32 - 40 hours and a gross monthly salary between €3.204,- and €4.051,- (salary scale P under the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO NU), job profile PhD Candidate). The salary is based on a 38-hour working week;
8% holiday pay and 8.3% year-end bonus;
a pension scheme, partially paid parental leave and flexible terms of employment based on the CAO NU.
In addition to the terms of employment set out in our collective labour agreement, we offer attractive additional benefits, including opportunities for personal and professional growth
, flexible leave arrangements, and extra vacation days. Through the UU Terms of Employment Options Model, you can tailor your employment package to your needs. In this way, we encourage you to grow in what you do, both in your work and in your development. Read more about our terms of employment
.

Employer
Universiteit Utrecht
A better future for everyone. This ambition motivates our scientists in executing their leading research and inspiring teaching. At
Utrecht University
, the various disciplines collaborate intensively towards major strategic themes
. Our focus is on Dynamics of Youth, Institutions for Open Societies, Life Sciences and Pathways to Sustainability.
Sharing science, shaping tomorrow
.
Utrecht University’s
Faculty of Geosciences studies the Earth: from the Earth’s core to its surface, including man’s spatial and material utilisation of the Earth – always with a focus on sustainability and innovation. With 3,400 students (BSc and MSc) and 720 staff, the faculty is a strong and challenging organisation. The Faculty of Geosciences is organised in four Departments: Earth Sciences, Human Geography & Spatial Planning, Physical Geography, and Sustainable Development.
The two PhD-positions will be hosted at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University. The Copernicus is an internationally-renowned institute in the domain of energy, environmental and sustainability sciences. Within the Sustainable Development department, the Energy & Resources group focuses on transitioning to a sustainable energy and resource system, with special attention to integrating the efficient use of energy and resources with renewable energy supply solutions, at various scales. In the E&R group the challenges are analyzed in a variety of dimensions: from fundamental material sciences, technology assessment, to governance, and combining bottom-up and top-down approaches. The group has a strong track record in areas such as energy efficiency, sustainable biobased production of energy and materials, low-carbon energy solutions (including wind, photovoltaics, hydrogen and carbon capture and storage), and process and energy system modelling.
The second PhD-position will be co-supervised by
Prof. Andrea Ramirez at the Department of Chemical Engineering, TU Delft.

Additional information

For more information about this position, please contact
Matteo Gazzani at m.gazzani@uu.nl
Candidates for this vacancy will be recruited by Utrecht University.