Phd fellow on Development of an integrated life cycle sustainability assessment method extended to the circularity and criticality of raw materials: Application to a new Li-ion battery recycling process
30 Jan 2024
Job Information
- Organisation/Company
Université de Bordeaux / University of Bordeaux- Research Field
Chemistry
Environmental science » Other- Researcher Profile
First Stage Researcher (R1)- Country
France- Application Deadline
29 Feb 2024 - 12:00 (Europe/Paris)- Type of Contract
Temporary- Job Status
Full-time- Hours Per Week
37.5- Offer Starting Date
1 Mar 2024- Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme?
HE- Reference Number
HORIZON-CL5-2023-D2-01-02- Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?
No
Offer Description
The University of Bordeaux is one of the most influential multidisciplinary research universities in France and around the world.
Established today in its fundamentals of training and research and through its 2030 strategic plan «Making our university model a lever of new balances, actions, impact», the University of Bordeaux is now accelerating its commitment to the societal challenges of the 21st century, including the climate emergency. With numerous major programs (ACT, DREAM, InnovationS, UBGRS, NewDeal, CMA, etc.), it is determined to be an attractive and sought-after partner for its transformative capacity for responsible and ethical progress.
Joining it means working in a privileged setting within a particularly diverse and open professional community, benefiting from reception and inclusion schemes, training and internal mobility. It is to participate in an academic, scientific and human adventure. It is to commit to meeting the challenges of the 21st century.
The CyVi Group on life cycle assessment and sustainable chemistry has an inter- and transdisciplinary orientation and is specialized on the development and application of sustainability assessment methods in the areas of materials science and chemicals synthesis as well as energy transition and circular economy. The methodological competences range from life cycle assessment (LCA) and risk assessment to material flow analysis (MFA) and integrated resource management in the above-mentioned research fields. Currently, the CyVi group consists of a full professor, an assistant professor, a CNRS researcher, four postdoctoral researchers and nine PhD students, some of them in co-direction with other labs. See http://cyvigroup.org for more information.
Funded by the Horizon Europe Framework Program (HORIZON), the ReUse project brings together a consortium of 13 academic and industrial partners and is coordinated by Fraunhofer. ReUse aims to develop new processes for the direct recycling of lithium-ion batteries and their production waste. The recycling processes developed will be widely applicable to upcoming and future low-cost battery technologies. The ambition of the consortium is to develop sustainable, low-energy and scalable processes, which can guarantee high recycling efficiencies and a high purity of the recovered materials allowing to fulfill the target values of the new Batteries Regulation proposed by the EU Commission.
PhD offer
In this context, the thesis aims to develop an integrated life cycle sustainability assessment method (LCSA) that is extended to cover the evaluation of the circularity and criticality of raw materials. The method will be applied to the new Li-ion battery recycling processes for upcoming and future low-cost battery technologies developed in the ReUse project. The integrated LCSA method will include not only cover the socio-economic potentials and environmental benefits of the new recycling processes but also an evaluation of the circularity and criticality of the raw materials used in the processes. By developing a new methodology for assessing life cycle sustainability during this doctoral work, it is expected that the results will contribute to the development of a cost-effective low-carbon recycling process for Li-ion batteries, and to the development of a circular economy by maximizing the efficiency of recycling.
The initial tasks of the PhD work will consist of the critical review of existing integrated LCSA methods covering circularity and criticality like the one from the Orienting project. Second, based on this an operational method is developed using the upcoming LCSA handbook (Valdivia & Sonnemann, 2024), the circularity indicators integrated into OpenLCA (Cilleruelo Palomero et al, 2023) and the GeoPolRisk Method (Santillan et al, 2022) as the starting points. Then, the method is applied to the new Li-ion battery recycling processes. For this, the goal and scope, functional unit and system boundaries for the environmental LCA, Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and social LCA are defined based on project foreground and benchmarking information. The next tasks will involve collecting foreground and background data thanks to the help of the partners of the project and the use of suitable databases and then performing the preliminary LCA and LCC at mid-stage of the project using dedicated LCA software. A final integrated LCSA will be done towards the end of PhD thesis the project, covering not only the carbon and environmental footprints of the new processes but also the process related costs and its social performance, including the number of new jobs created in Europe if the new recycling process is widely adopted, and the circularity and criticality aspects of the raw materials used. Finally, results will be communicated accordingly in an adequate format. During this work, multiple indicators and related methods will be used to ensure an adequate evaluation to set priorities for recovery and estimates of recycling efficiency of the new processes developed.
The PhD student will work with a postdoc and will be supervised by the full professor of the CyVi group in collaboration with the company CellCircle. A senior researcher and an associated professor will support the PhD student with their expertise when needed as well. The CyVi group has the necessary expertise in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and social LCA as well as circularity and criticality assessments as shown through its multiple publications. CellCircle has expertise in LCC and battery recycling, as well as a large network allowing for relevant feedback on acceptance and usability of the recycling solutions.
Requirements
- Research Field
- Chemistry
- Education Level
- Master Degree or equivalent
Skills/Qualifications
- Master diploma with excellent results in material sciences or chemistry, or in chemical, environmental or process engineering, or any other appropriate discipline
- Experience in life cycle (sustainability) assessment, circular economy, raw materials criticality and materials science, as well as modelling for sustainability assessment of technologies, using LCA software such as SimaPro, GaBi or OpenLCA will be appreciated
- Interest in interdisciplinary high-level sustainability research on using life cycle assessment in materials science and recycling technologies
- Pleasure to get involved in the development of the research carried out by a group on life cycle assessment and sustainable chemistry with the possibility to contribute to the supervision of Master and Bachelor students on advanced materials innovation and recycling
- Excellent English skills, knowledge of French is of advantage
- Level
- Basic
- Research Field
- Chemistry
Internal Application form(s) needed
ISM_PhD_Offer_ReUSE.pdf
English
(461.27 KB - PDF)
Download
Additional Information
Benefits
3-years fixed-term contract
2100€ gross salary month
50 days-off per year
Work Location(s)
- Number of offers available
- 1
- Company/Institute
- ISM - Molecular Science Institute
- Country
- Germany
- State/Province
- Gironde
- City
- Talence
- Postal Code
- 33400
- Street
- 351 cours de la Libération
- Geofield
Where to apply
[email protected]
Contact
- City
Talence- Website
http://www.u-bordeaux.fr/- Street
351 cours de la Libération- Postal Code
33405
STATUS: EXPIRED