Do you want to make an active contribution to a sustainable future? Then you've come to the right place!

In a world where the urgency of mitigating climate change has never been more apparent, the journey towards a carbon-neutral economy and society stands as one of the most profound and pressing challenges of our time. It begins with the fundamental transformation of key industrial processes, particularly in the chemical industry, where the substitution of syngas derived from fossil resources with sustainable alternatives represents a crucial lever, particularly because it is a raw material for many chemical products like methanol or DME.

Membrane technology presents an innovative solution that offers a continuous syngas production process from the feedstocks CO2 and H2O. This is achieved by operating the membrane reactor at temperatures exceeding 800 °C, using concentrated solar radiation, making this technology particularly suitable for regions with abundant sunshine. The use of concentrating solar radiation has the advantage of achieving high full-load hours when coupled with cost-effective thermal energy storage systems.

As part of this Research project, a solar-powered membrane reactor is being developed and tested under solar conditions.

Your tasks during the PhD will include:

• establish operational parameters crucial for the syngas production process based on thermodynamic and kinetic calculations, economics, and material selection of the membrane
• develop a solar membrane reactor design and component planning.
• development of a numerical model of the reactor concepts for thermal design.
• development of an irradiation concept for the solar-powered reactor using ray tracing
• documentation, publication and presentation of scientific and technical results