PhD Fellowship/Scholarship in Circular Fuel Supply for Air Transport via Negative Emission Hydrothermal Liquefaction (CIRCULAIR)

Applicants are invited for a PhD Fellowship/Scholarship at Graduate School of Technical Sciences, Aarhus University, Denmark, within the Biological and Chemical Engineering programme. The position is available from 1 September 2023 or later.

Title:

PhD Fellowship/Scholarship in Circular Fuel Supply for Air Transport via Negative Emission Hydrothermal Liquefaction (CIRCULAIR)

Research area and project description:

Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a thermochemical processing technology that has been receiving increased interest for the production of sustainable aviation fuels from biomass. In a previous collaborative EU H2020 proeject (www.hyflexfuel.eu ) we showed the feasibility of the process to produce fuels from agricultural residues, but we also found that the process water entails a large loss of carbon which is a burden to deal with.

The ambition of the follow up Horizon Europe project CIRCULAIR is to produce carbon negative aviation fuels from manure and straw. This is achieved by several innovations that will avoid carbon losses in the process chain to the product phases: process water, gas and hydrochar.

The CIRCULAIR project has 10 partners from Italy, Spain, Denmark, Germany, France and Sweden, 7 academic and 3 industrial. The project will last for 4 years, starting 01.01.2023. It is a collaborative project so frequent exchange and collaboration with the other partners is essential.

The current PhD project has a key role in the overall CIRCULAIR process chain by investigating the wet oxidation process of HTL process waters in detail. The aim is to optimise the processing conditions of HTL and wet oxidation in order to provide sufficient heat to power both. This entails primarily experimental work in continuous flow reactors, some modelling aspects and heat exchanger design with the support from industrial partners. The industrial partner will construct an integration HTL-Wet oxidation reactor. Part of the PhD study is to operate this reactor and demonstrate the possibility of autothermal operation. The PhD student will also evaluate the gas phase for subsequent utilisation for methanol synthesis; how the gas phase is affected by varying process parameters and what cleaning steps may be required.

The PhD project will be divided in the following preliminary objectives:

For technical reasons, you must upload a project description. Please simply copy the project description above and upload it as a PDF in the application.

Qualifications and specific competences:

Applicants to the PhD position must have a recent, relevant Master’s degree (120 ECTS e.g. Chemical Engineering).
Prior experience operating chemical engineering laboratory equipment is desired. Knowledge on thermochemical processing technologies for biomass and/or hydrothermal liquefaction is an advantage.

The successful candidate has demonstrated excellent academic results. The ideal person has good collaboration skills and is also able to work independently.

Place of employment and place of work:

The place of employment is Aarhus University, and the place of work is Hangøvej 2, 8200 Aarhus N

Contacts:

Applicants seeking further information are invited to contact:

How to apply:

Please click the 'Apply' button.

Application deadline is 15 June 2023 at 23:59 CEST. Preferred starting date is 1 September 2023.

For information about application requirements and mandatory attachments, please see our application guide .