PhD student in Energy and Environmental Engineering

At Mälardalen University people meet At Mälardalen University people meet who want to develop themselves and the future. We have 19 900 students reading courses and study programmes in Business and Economics, Health, Engineering and Education at our campuses in Eskilstuna and Västerås, or by distance. We conduct research within all fields of education and have internationally prominent research in Future Energy and Embedded Systems. Our close collaboration with the private and public sectors enable us at MDH to contribute towards the better health of people and towards a more sustainable planet. To strengthen Sweden as an education and research country, the Government is to upgrade Mälardalen University College to Mälardalen University from 1 January 2022.

At the School of Business, Society and Engineering our students are studying to be for example Bachelors or Masters of Engineering, political scientists and business administrators. Here we have the research specialisations of Industrial Engineering and Management, and Future Energy. Our work takes place in cooperation with and in strategic agreements with companies, organisations and public authorities in the region.

Employment information
Employment: Temporary employment, 4 years
Scope: Full time
Closing date for application: 2021-06-04
Campus location: Västeras
School: School of Business, Society and Engineering, (EST)

Position description
As a PhD student in Energy and Environmental Engineering you work in the research specialization Future Energy and within the research project ‘Evaluation of the first agrivoltaic system in Sweden’. The project is supported by the Swedish Energy Agency. In the project, we aim at developing algorithms for modelling the solar radiation distribution under agrivoltaic systems. This is done to understand how shadings produced by agrivoltaic systems might affect crop productivity and soil moisture. This will provide a better understanding of the water-food-energy nexus interrelationships in the operation of agrivoltaic systems in Sweden as well as worldwide. The work mainly includes process modeling, simulations, and optimization. You will present and discuss your work and results for colleagues at the university, at other universities in Sweden and abroad as well as with industry partners, both at meetings, seminars, conferences, and in scientific journals.   

FEC meets the future challenges in energy and environmental systems by investigating and developing processes and systems for increased resource efficiency and digitalisation in the transition towards a renewable energy system. A core area is enhancing the flexibility, to accommodate intermittent renewable energies such as solar and wind, and to meet the growing need of capacity. Resource efficiency includes utilizing bioenergy sources and at the same time enabling recovery of other resources, as for example nutrients. Another important area is investigating possible process integrations for both increased flexibility and resource efficiency. Further, digitalisation concerns developing new mathematical methods for model based diagnostics, decision support, optimization and control. Different simulation tools such as Modelica and ASPEN, machine learning, CFD tools including ANSYS and soft sensors built on e.g. spectral measurement techniques are used in combination to develop new systems for optimization and control. Buildings and urban infrastructure, industry processes and the transport sector are all important parts of the energy systems to be investigated from component level, technology, process design and operation perspective, and up to system level. Interdisciplinary work and the integration of research approaches from engineering and natural sciences with those in social sciences and humanities perspectives, as for example markets, big data handling and behaviour, are important to consider.

Qualifications
Only those who are or have been admitted to third-cycle courses and study programmes at a higher education may be appointed to doctoral studentships. For futher information see Chapter 5 of the Higher Education Ordinance (SFS 1993:100).

Admittance to the post-graduate education in Energy and Environmental Technology will require at least one of the following terms:


• Master Degree (or equivalent) corresponding to 240 hp within the engineering field.
• Fulfilled courses corresponding to at least 240 hp, of which at least 90 hp must be on advanced level within the engineering field or
• Otherwise, within or outside the country, has achieved knowledge corresponding to 240 hp, but not being able to show a formal degree at this level.

Applicants should have ability to pass the education as well as proficiency and skills in writing and communicating in English.  

Decisive importance is attached to personal suitability. We value the qualities that an even distribution of age and gender, as well as ethnic and cultural diversity, can contribute to the organization.

Merit
Advantageous for the employment is:


• Solid knowledge in solar radiation and solar photovoltaic modelling
• Solid knowledge in energy systems modelling and optimization,
• Knowledge in water-food-energy nexus,
• Solid skills in programming (e.g., Matlab, Python)
• Previous experience in dealing with gridded data
• Previous experience in developing databases and web-interfaces.

The university will primarily consider a person, who after the overall assessment of documented qualifications and skills, appears to have the best ability to perform the work as well as contribute to a positive development of the research specialization Future Energy

Application
Application is made online. Make your application by clicking the "Apply" button below.

The applicant is responsible for ensuring that the application is complete in accordance with the advertisement and will reach the University no later than closing date for application.

We look forward to receiving your application.


We decline all contact with recruiters and salespersons of advertisements. We have made our strategic choices for this recruitment.