PhD Candidate in Environmental Sustainability Analysis

NTNU is a broad-based university with a technical-scientific profile and a focus in professional education. The university is located in three cities with headquarters in Trondheim.

At NTNU, 9,000 employees and 42,000 students work to create knowledge for a better world.

You will find more information about working at NTNU and the application process here.

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For a position as a PhD Candidate, the goal is a completed doctoral education up to an obtained doctoral degree.  

IndEcol is a well-established interdisciplinary group in the field of environmental sustainability analysis, with scientists contributing to IPCC and IPBES reports, UNEP/SETAC Life-Cycle Initiatives, and publications featured in high-ranked international journals. 

Reducing the carbon intensity of the energy, transport and industrial sector requires innovative solutions and massive climate change mitigation efforts. Hydrogen and hydrogen-based fuels (e.g., e-fuels, methanol, ammonia) are expected to play a substantial role in the applications that are more challenging to be electrified, such as some segments of the transport sector (liquid fuels for heavy trucks, long-distance aviation and deep-sea shipping) and of the industry sector (cement production or metallurgy). However, their environmental sustainability implications and dependance on local conditions and settings of the value chain are still little understood, as well as their possible synergies with existing industrial processes and systems. The environmental effects depend on the original source of H2 (and CO2, when synthetic fuels are produced), conversion technology, type of storage or distribution, background socio-economic system, and application of H2. More research is also needed to advance life-cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies to embed socio-economic dynamics and consolidate indicators to measure contributions of the energy transition towards the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This PhD project is intended to investigate these aspects and identify positive and negative side-effects of deploying an H2-based economy in Norway, with an identification of the win-win technological solutions from an environmental perspective. The research will be framed around the activities of the new FME HydrogenI, which include collaboration with national and international research groups, public authorities and industries.

Your immediate leader is Prof. Francesco Cherubini.