PhD student position in Industrial Energy Technologies: Evaporation

The Department of Energy and Environment excels in research and education related to energy, environment and sustainable development ranging from a global perspective to industrial, building and product issues. The focus is on experimental and theoretical research on energy technology as well as on development, use and evaluation of methods and tools for analysis of technical systems. In total around 200 persons are active at the six divisions of the department.Information about the division
The Heat and Power Technology group conducts research and educational training within the industrial process energy engineering area. Our research encompasses a wide span of activities. We conduct pilot-plant scale experimental work on heat and mass transfer in industrial energy-related unit operations. We develop and apply methods and tools for identifying opportunities for improving energy efficiency and reducing CO2 emissions from industrial processes. We apply these methods in real-life case studies and develop systemic knowledge about possible future development paths for industrial processes and the role that these processes could play in regional energy systems. Our group conducts a significant number of research projects related to process integration of advanced biorefinery concepts, and is generally considered to be Sweden's leading group in this field. Within the experimental research area, the group has a long experience of working with falling film evaporation and has a unique pilot evaporator capable of doing advanced measurements at a scale applicable to industry. Within this field there are on-going active collaborations with world-leading suppliers to the pulp and paper industry as well as to the dairy industry.

The details of the departmental research activities may be found at http://www.chalmers.se/EN/DEPARTMENTS/EE/RESEARCH/Pages/research-projects.aspx.

Information about the project
The PhD-project will contribute to the development of new evaporator technology for the pulp and paper industry. In pulp mills, the evaporations plants are the single largest steam consumers. Today there is a trend of transforming pulp mills into biorefineries with multiple products. The new technology aims to significantly decrease the steam usage in the evaporation plants, thus resulting in energy savings that for example can be used to produce new biorefinery products without additional raw material input. The PhD position focuses on the possibility of improving heat exchange and cost effectiveness of evaporators using different kinds of structured surfaces. Preliminary experiments using model substances has indicated possibilities of doubling the heat transfer coefficient. The work consists of planning, carrying out, analyzing and reporting measurements of both heat transfer and flow characteristics. It includes applying different kinds of surface structures to both a specially constructed rig and to the pilot plant evaporator as well as developing heat transfer models.

Major responsibilities
Your major responsibility as PhD student is to pursue your own doctoral studies. You are expected to develop your own scientific concepts and communicate the results of your research verbally and in writing, at international conferences and in scientific journals. Teaching, primarily in the form of tutorials and lab exercises in applied thermodynamics and/or energy technology, is expected to contribute with up to 20 % of the time.

Positions summary
Full-time temporary employment. The position is limited to a maximum of five years.

Qualifications
As an applicant you should have a MSc in chemical engineering or in mechanical engineering with energy technology or fluid flow/heat transfer specialization or a closely related field is required. Documented experience of heat exchanger or heat transfer measurements is an advantage. Applicants are expected to have good knowledge of both written and spoken English. Since the group’s teaching activities are conducted in both Swedish and English, knowledge of the Swedish language is desirable but not a requirement. Chalmers offers Swedish courses.

To qualify as a PhD student, you must have a master's level degree corresponding to at least 240 higher education credits in a relevant field.

Application deadline: 2013-09-30

For questions, please contact:
Assistant professor Mathias Gourdon
mathias.Gourdon@chalmers.se
Phone: +46 31-772 3017

Professor Lennart Vamling
lennart.Vamling@chalmers.se
Phone: +46 31-772 3021




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