Start your career with an exciting Master's thesis in the field of ceramic production for sustainable hydrogen generation. At DLR's Institute for Future Fuels, we focus on the sustainable production of chemicals and fuels for industry and vehicles. Away from fossil fuels, we are developing ways to produce hydrogen and other synthetic fuels with renewable energy. Thermochemical water splitting, focuses on the production of hydrogen using only the thermal energy of the sun and water. Unlike hydrogen production by electrolysis, this process does not involve an electrochemical step and has high potential in terms of overall process efficiency. The process uses solid redox materials that are recycled within the process at elevated temperatures of up to 1500°C. This innovative concept is currently being developed within the framework of several projects at our institute, which deal with process simulation, experimental proof of the concept and economic aspects.

An essential core component of the process is the development of tailor-made porous redox structures that not only enable good heat transfer, but also simultaneously offer high mechanical strength, high absorption capacity and a high proportion of reactive functional ceramics.  We are looking for support in our team for the optimization of the mechanical strength.

As part of your Master's thesis, you will produce high-quality ceramic suspension compositions of redox materials and investigate their rheological properties. You will produce customized porous structures and increase their mechanical strength by infiltration and double coating.  The fabricated components will be further characterized for thermochemical applications. The results of the work will feed directly into our ongoing research and support us in future research activities on solar fuel production systems.