stillingsbetegnelse:
PhD scholarship in Improvement of Cell Strength in High Temperature Electrolysis Cells

jobbeskrivelse:
The section for Mixed Conductors, Department of Energy Conversion and Storage, Technical University of Denmark, is seeking a candidate for a PhD student position as part of the project “Synfuel: Sustainable synthetic fuels from biomass gasification and electrolysis”. Electrolysis of water will become a key technology in the future energy system to balance increasing amounts of renewable energy against the demand and to provide sustainable fuels to the transport sector. When renewable electricity production exceeds the demand, the surplus can be used for production of hydrogen via steam electrolysis for instance in a Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cell (SOEC). This hydrogen can advantageously be added to “producer gas” obtained by thermal gasification of biomass to create a synthesis gas, which can be further catalytically upgraded to transport fuels like e.g. methanol. There are several synergies between the high temperature electrolysis process and the gasification process resulting in a high overall efficiency of the combined biomass-gasifier+SOEC – plant (e.g. surplus heat from the gasifier can be used to improve electrolysis efficiency and the oxygen also produced in the water splitting can be used in the gasifier). Both biomass gasification and electrolysis by SOEC can become key technologies in a future sustainable energy system. Current challenges are to bring the technologies up in scale and to improve them with respect to key performance characteristics; an important one for the case of SOEC is to make the cells both tougher and stronger. At the heart of this lies improving the understanding how mechanical failure progresses in porous ceramics. Project aims The project aim is on the technological level to prepare tougher solid oxide cells which can facilitate up-scale in size, and on the more fundamental level to elucidate what limits the mechanical reliability of the solid oxide cells. The mechanical support of the state of the art cells is based on yttria stabilized zirconia. This is a very important functional/structural ceramic, which due to its unique mechanical and chemical properties finds use not only in electro-ceramics (lambda sensors, SOEC) but also as thermal barrier coatings, for dental and structural applications (ceramic knives). Due to these important applications the material has been intensively studied, however, effects of e.g. porosity on the failure modes as well as effects of high temperature on the toughening mechanism in the compound are very poorly understood. It is the aim of the project to investigate these. Job description You will be part of the section for Mixed Conductors at DTU Energy, but will also interact with other sections of the Department and with external partners of the project. In particular, a close cooperation with INSA in France is planned. The PhD position has a multidisciplinary nature and thus you will need to draw on the knowledge of several experts to reach the project aims. You will be engaged in preparation of tailored zirconia microstructures suitable for investigating propagation of mechanical failures. Also effects of material composition will be investigated. Besides preparing samples with a desired microstructure the mechanical properties of the samples will be investigated for example by DCB (“double cantilever beam”) and 4-point bending experiments. For the latter you will use a recently constructed unique setup allowing strength investigation at high temperature in controlled atmosphere. The samples will also be carefully investigated by SEM and X-ray diffraction. Qualifications Candidates should have a master's degree in engineering or a similar degree within Physics, Chemistry or Materials Science on an academic level equivalent to the master's degree in engineering. An absolute demand is very good communication skills in English, both written and spoken. Ability to work independently, to plan and carry out complex tasks, to perform complicated expe

Arbejdsgiver Navn: Danmarks Tekniske Universitet

Arbejdsgiver telefonnummer: 45252525

Arbejdsgiver faxnummer: 45881799

Job kort beskrivelse:
Undervisning og forskning på universiteter og højere læreranstalter

land: Danmark

region: Hovedstaden

krævede uddannelse: Ikke angivet

Kilde til jobtilbud: AMS, Offentlige arbejdsformidlinger, Danmark