PhD: Electrified heating in COconversion – optimization & economics

Position: PhD: Electrified heating in CO2 conversion – optimization & economics
Your job  Join the HyCARB programme and contribute to the future of sustainable chemistry by developing and optimizing electrified CO2 conversion processes together with leading academic and industrial partners.
This PhD position is part of the large Dutch research project ‘HyCARB:
Green Hydrogen and Electrons for Carbon-based Chemistry’ set up with Industry, the Dutch research council (NWO), Groenvermogen

NL, and academia. HyCARB brings Netherlands-based companies, SMEs, and knowledge and research institutes together to develop the technology base for industrial end users worldwide for carbon-based chemicals production using hydrogen, green electrons and captured CO2. Research using the latest generation of analytical equipment is combined with techno-economic and lifecycle assessments of a range of technologies to help the chemical industry to decarbonise.
Research Focus  Within HyCARB, this PhD position will focus on process design, optimisation, and techno-economic assessment of technologies for direct use of electrons to heat up chemical conversion processes. More specifically, three different technologies will be researched and compared: resistive, impedance/inductive, and plasma heating. A specific challenge is to develop flexible heating technologies that can deal with energy supply fluctuations. The overarching objective of this PhD project is to facilitate and speed up the development of novel electrified technologies by providing key techno-economic insights from process and system level perspective.

This will be achieved by developing and applying a model-based process and system optimisation framework. The PhD candidate will apply, and where required develop, mathematical methods to support the design and the understanding of the critical phenomena inside and outside the proposed technologies. The process design will identify the spectrum of technologies that must be coupled to the core electrified technologies.

The system design will co‑optimize size and operation of the envisioned processes when connected to the external energy (electricity) and material (CO2, H2) feed stocks, while also identifying in terms of design and operation the energy system associated to the different production routes. Finally, a detailed techno‑economic assessment will integrate the technical (mass & energy balances, equipment lists) and production cost information into a detailed bottom‑up engineering‑economic analysis.

Therefore, in this PhD project, the optimal process synthesis and techno‑economic analysis will be bridged to broader, time‑discrete system‑level evaluations.
Societal relevance  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 feed stocks.

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‑fossilisation of the chemical industry is a cornerstone for a net‑zero society. In this pursue, electrification of process heating is expected to play a major role in enabling the transition from a fossil‑based to a renewable‑based primary energy input.

To ensure that the HyCARB results are broadly applicable and thus help achieve sustainability goals as soon as possible, the focus of the research is on products with large volume potential such as fuels for hard‑to‑electrify applications and widely used platform chemicals.
Your qualities  We are seeking an outstanding and highly motivated candidate with interest in the fundamental and applied aspects of process synthesis and optimisation. The ideal candidate has a master degree in Engineering (possibly Chemical, Process, Mechanical, Energy or Electrical), Applied Physics, or related field.
Candidate requirements   Possess excellent understanding of thermodynamics, reactor engineering, and…