2 PhD Scholarships in Biomimetic Membrane Technology in Denmark | Technical University of Denmark (DTU)

DTU Environment invites highly talented junior researchers who have obtained outstanding results during their MSc studies and who have demonstrated excellence and potential in their field of study, to apply for PhD scholarships in the Environmental Biomimetics group at DTU Environment. The two PhD positions offered is part of a larger project: Membrane Energy.

The Environmental Biomimetics group currently consists of an associate professor, one postdoc and four PhD students. We do research on biomimetic membranes and proteins for separation and sensor applications. We use experimental techniques related to membrane function & characterization and protein design as well as theoretical tools including computational fluid dynamics, molecular dynamics (MD) and density functional theory (DFT). We have extensive collaboration with academic and industrial partners worldwide where we aim at diminishing the conceptual and practical barriers in collaborations between academia and industry.

Responsibilities and tasks

The overall aim of PhD1 is to investigate anaerobic OMBR and RED processes using biomimetic membranes with special focus on surface stability and anti-fouling strategies.

The overall aim of PhD2 is to investigate biomimetic membrane support materials for high-salinity gradient PRO with a special focus on minimizing concentration polarization effects.

• Candidates for both PhD projects should be able to obtain and evaluate both theoretical and experimental results and actively plan and adjust their own work in close teamwork with other group members and other collaborators.
• Theoretical work will mainly consist of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and will be performed using the OpenFoam package on our own dedicated hardware installed at the high performance computing (HPC) resources at DTU.
• Experimental work will consist of running OMBR, PRO and RED experiments in the membrane laboratory being established at DTU Environment.

Qualifications:

Candidates should have a master's degree in engineering or a similar degree with an academic level equivalent to the master's degree in engineering.