Postdoctoral Fellow in electro-driven membranes for ion resource recovery

The postdoctoral fellow position is open within the Group of Smart Responsive Separation with Hybrid Processes at KU Leuven under the supervision of Prof. dr. Xing Yang. The Yang Research Group focuses on process intensification strategies for designing low-emission and energy efficient separation systems utilizing smart responsive materials with nano/micro-structured interfaces, reactive kinetics and optimal separation units. The hybridisation of separation technologies (e.g., membrane, extraction, crystallization, absorption and chromatography) is the key tool to design an Energy-Efficient Separation Systems for Sustainability (2E3S), assisted with experimental research and process system engineering via multi-scale numerical modeling
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Responsibilities

One of the global challenges for the transition to sustainable energy is the need for certain critical raw materials. The European Union recently announced to ban fossil fuel cars by 2035, preparing the switch to electric cars. With the increasing demand, metal ions such as lithium and cobalt are crucial components of lithium-ion batteries and are essential for the production of smartphones and electric cars. Although there are enormous ion resources hidden in the ocean and to be recovered from waste batteries, how to efficiently obtain them in industry-grade purity and in a scalable manner remains a bottleneck of existing separation technologies. The IonFracMem project (European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant https://www.kuleuven.be/english/research/EU/p/he/p1/erc/IonFracMem) aims to address this challenge by developing novel membranes that combine fast throughput with accurate fractionation of target ions in high purity.

To achieve this ambitious goal we are seeking a high caliber PhD candidate to be part of this exciting research program and design novel ion exchange membranes for effectively recovering valuable ion resources from waste and natural streams, by combining experimental and modeling approaches. The position requires background in chemical engineering and electro-driven membrane separation technology such as electrodialysis, electrolysis, etc. 

Profile

If you are highly motivated researchers in the areas of Chemical Engineering with passion in resource recovery and sustainability, you are strongly encouraged to enquire and apply.

Profile required:

• Requirement: PhD degree in Chemical Engineering or in equivalent discipline with competitive publication record, with specialty in electro-driven membrane technology.
• Knowledge and experiences in the relevant fields as described.
• Willingness and experiences with postgraduate supervision and teaching.
• Fluent English (written and verbal communication) for scientific interactions.
• Self-motivated, passionate and great interpersonal skills. 
• Willingness to work at interdisciplinary boundaries.

Offer

The successful candidate will be offered a Postdoctoral fellow position to become part of our international team with global research connections.  The initial postdoctoral contract is provided for one year with a perspective to extend. The salary package is based on the KU Leuven standards linked to your post PhD experience.

More information

IonFracMem project

Interested?

For more information please contact Prof. dr. Xing Yang, tel.: +32 16 37 46 72, mail: xing.yang@kuleuven.be.

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