PhD Position on Digital twins for health monitoring and control of Anion Exchange Membrane (AEM) electrolysers

Anion Exchange Membrane (AEM) electrolysers aim to combine the best aspects of Alkaline and PEM technologies to achieve a lower cost of hydrogen production. AEM electrolysers use lower cost and more earth-abundant materials than PEM and, typically, have higher efficiencies than alkaline electrolysers. However, AEM electrolysers are prone to higher degradation rates, particularly the membrane, and are not yet able to match the current densities and, thus, H2 production rates of PEM electrolysers.

As part of the ~50 Mio€ ‘HyPRO’ project, {the largest ever R&D project on green hydrogen in the Netherlands bringing together 58 partners from research and industry}(https://groenvermogennl.org/en/nieuws/launch-of-research-project-on-gree..., we are looking for a PhD candidate to develop a hybrid physics-based and data-driven digital twin of an AEM cell. The goal of the digital twin will be to monitor the health and forecast the remaining useful life for predictive maintenance of an operating AEM cell developed by collaboration partner HyET E-Trol. A core feature of your work should be the inclusion of a neural network (NN) surrogate of a detailed physics-based and experimentally validated model of the AEM cell to provide access to unmeasurable internal cell parameters during operation. To twin the NN surrogate to a HyET E-Trol AEM cell in operation and track its health, recurrent neural networks, particle and/or extended Kalman filters, and inverse parameter estimation methods might be worth exploring. By uncovering the dependency between the cell health and the operating parameters, the remaining useful life for predictive maintenance and advanced control strategies to extend life under operation should also be explored. Finally, in addition to the modelling, you will also contribute to the experimental stability testing of the AEM cell at HyET E-Trol for data acquisition and model validation.

Requirements:

• You have a master’s degree in chemical engineering, chemistry, applied physics or a related field.
• You have experience and/or strong interest in numerical modelling, coding and machine learning.
• You have experience and/or strong interest in electrochemistry, transport phenomena, and reactor design and control.
• You have experience and/or willing to learn hands-on cell testing via electrochemical (i-V, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, MS, GC) and analytical techniques (SEM-EDX, XRD, IR, Raman).
• You are an excellent team player in an enthusiastic group of scientists and engineers working on a common theme.
• You are creative, like to push boundaries, and are highly motivated to address a major challenge for the low-carbon energy and materials transition.
• You are fluent in English and able to collaborate intensively with external parties from academia and industry in regular meetings and work visits.

Salary Benefits:

• A full-time position for 4 years;
• Your salary and associated conditions are in accordance with the collective labour agreement for Dutch universities (CAO-NU);
• A gross monthly salary of € 2.901,-per month;
• There are excellent benefits including a holiday allowance of 8% of the gross annual salary, an end-of-year bonus of 8.3%, and a solid pension scheme;
• A minimum of 232 leave hours in case of full-time employment based on a formal workweek of 38 hours. A full-time employment in practice means 40 hours a week, therefore resulting in 96 extra leave hours on an annual basis;
• Free access to sports facilities on campus;
• A family-friendly institution that offers parental leave (both paid and unpaid).

38 - 40 hours per week

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