PhD Position on Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers

Hydrogen is becoming one of the key energy carriers for the future to deal with the challenge of climate change and achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, also because it can help to compensate for the intermittency of renewable energy resources, while it can be sustainably produced from e.g. solar and wind power through the electrolysis of water. Large-scale usage of H2, however, will necessitate its storage at massive scales.

As part of the Sustainable Hydrogen Integrated Propulsion Drives (SH2IPDRIVE) consortium, the two PhD students working at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) will conduct research into various types of experimental hydrogen carriers in collaboration with a number of SME companies. This creates hydrogen storage solutions with a much greater volumetric energy density and potentially fewer safety risks than by using hydrogen at high pressure or low temperature. The prospects for hydrogen carriers are promising, but the technology is far from mature; the activities in this work package must therefore also be regarded as highly innovative in an international context. Specifically, the focus is on Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers (LOHCs); the most promising solution is worked out in detail and validated on a laboratory scale and in test setups.

The partners within the SH2IPDRIVE consortium are:

Future Proof Shipping B.V. | Technische Universiteit Delft | Nedstack Fuel Cell Technology B.V. | Maritiem Research Instituut Nederland MARIN | Koedood Dieselservice B.V. | Scheepvaartonderneming Van Dam | Holland Shipyards B.V. | Nederlandse Organisatie voor toegepast-natuurwetenschappelijk onderzoek TNO |Bosch Rexroth B.V. | Cryovat Internationaal B.V. | H2Storage B.V. | H2 Circular Fuel B.V. | H2FUEL | Royal Roos B.V. | Solid Hydrogen B.V. | Universiteit van Amsterdam | Voyex B.V. | Encontech B.V. | Technische Universiteit Eindhoven | Universiteit Twente | Rivermaas B.V.| IHC Holland B.V. | Royal Dutch Shell | Concordia Damen Shipbuilding B.V.| Defensie Materieel Organisatie.

What are you going to do

• You will be active in the fundamental research of our sustainable, circular liquid organic hydrogen carriers, publishing in high level international journals, presenting at leading conferences and supervising BSc and MSc students.
• You will interact with companies of the SH2IPDRIVE consortium and to convert their questions to new research questions and answers.

Your tasks will be:

• design and synthesize novel circular hydrogen carriers;
• test their full propensity as functional hydrogen carriers (H2 release and uptake) incl. recyclability;
• test the developed hydrogen carriers in large scale case studies in collaboration with several industries;
• publish and present the findings in scientific journals and international conferences.