PhD position on materials development for electrically-driven water treatment processes

In the Engineering and Technology Institute Groningen (ENTEG), we are looking for a talented and motivated PhD student for the development and evaluation of advanced electrode materials and cell component development for sustainable electrochemical water purification technologies.

What are you going to do?

In many industrial processes, chemicals are added to treat water, clean installations or separate substances from each other. Before the water can be reused or discharged, those excipients must be removed again. That costs a lot of energy, chemicals and money. The new project ECO (Electrically-driven, Chemical-free Operations) therefore chooses a different approach: prevent those excipients from being needed at all. The project will use electric fields and local pH changes close to electrodes to create the desired conditions in exactly the right place without adjusting the entire liquid.

Within ECO, the PhD candidate will collaborate with 4 other PhD researchers from the University of Twente TU Delft, Wageningen University & Research and the University of Copenhagen. Companies such as Royal Avebe, FrieslandCampina, Nobian, Shell, ISPT, Ecolab and VNP are also involved in the consortium. With five PhD candidates, the consortium will investigate in the coming years how electrically driven process technologies can contribute to cleaner and more energy-efficient industrial processes.

Responsibilities and tasks:

• Fabrication of materials and electrochemical cells with targeted characteristics.
• Characterization of materials and relevant interfaces for their role in the reaction mechanisms.
• Preparation of scientific articles and conference communications.
• Teaching activities (10% of total workload), including assistance to courses, as well as supervision of Bachelor and Master students.
• Contribution to the scientific and collaborative research environment in Chemical Engineering group and the ENTEG institute.
• A team player and open to collaborating in a consortium of other researchers and industrial partners, with regular consortium meetings.
• Ability to communicate their research to people with a broad, technical background.
• Handling the ‘uncertainty’ that the details of the project still need to be defined.
• Contribution to defining their own research, in concerted agreement with the consortium.