Postdoctoral research position in processes, equipment and technologies for biorefinery

Czech Technical University in Prague now offers a new fellowship program, the CTU Global Postdoc Fellowship. This new and attractive two-year fellowship-program offers excellent researchers who have recently completed their PhD the chance to continue their research career at CTU. Fellows receive a two year fellowship and become members of a team led by a mentor.

The biorefinery concept represents a promising direction of material-energy, economically profitable and environmentally friendly technology to convert waste into advanced biofuels and noble chemicals. The technology itself consists of several technological units, i.e. (1) pretreatment of raw material, (2) primary processing (production of primary products), (3) secondary processing (use of residues after production of primary products) and (3) separation, purification and refining of products. The mentor offers the following R&D topics in this area: • Grinding and milling of lignocellulosic biomass or minerals for the production of mineral carbonates - modelling specific energy requirement for its size reduction, the influence of process parameters on the quality of milled material. Rules of scaling and technology design, technical and economic feasibility studies, risk analysis. • CO2 capture and purification from emission gases - experimental analyzes of CO2 separation from industrial flue gases by absorption, adsorption, membrane processes and their mutual combinations. Rules for scaling up and designing hybrid technologies, technical and economic feasibility studies, risk analysis. • Pretreatment of biomass with lignocellulosic base - alkaline hydrolysis, acid hydrolysis, hydrothermal treatment. Experimental analysis of the influence of process conditions on the quality of the raw material, the influence on the increased yield of biogas/bioethanol. Rules of scaling and technology design, technical and economic feasibility studies, risk analysis. • Photobioreactors - experimental and CFD analyzes transfer phenomena in microalgal photobioreactors (plate, tube, CouetteTaylor), modelling of CO2 conversion and O2 degassing in the context of RTD, system hydrodynamics and mass transfer, intensification of transfer phenomena, thin-film photobioreactors. Rules of scaling and technology design, technical and economic feasibility studies, risk analysis. • Separation of microalgae from the aqueous environment - study and modelling of the influence of experimental conditions on the efficiency of separation of microalgae from the aqueous environment using methods such as flocculation, flotation, filtration, centrifugation and their combinations. Rules of scaling and technology design, technical and economic feasibility studies, risk analysis. • Microalgal disintegration - experimental analysis and modelling of processes needed to disconnect the cell wall of microalgae, e.g. using a ball mill, bead mill, high-speed stator-rotor system, ultrasound, expansion nozzles and their combinations. Rules of scaling and technology design, technical and economic feasibility studies, risk analysis. • Microalgae drying - experimental analysis of spray dryer potential for drying microalgae suspension, design, experimental analysis and modelling of spray dryer nozzles depending on the rheological behaviour of microalgae aqueous suspension. Rules of scaling and technology design, technical and economic feasibility studies, risk analysis.

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering - https://www.fs.cvut.cz/en/home/