Close Date: Thursday, December 9, 2021
Company: On behalf of CalState L.A. -Vacancies at Chalmers University of Technology
Job Description:

Location: Chalmers University of Technology

Job Title: Postdocs in Systems assessment of hydrogen and electrofuels in transport

We invite applicants to join our team of researchers within the area of environmental and energy systems analysis focusing on the transition towards a sustainable transport sector. We are looking for two postdoctoral researchers in energy systems analysis and modelling focusing on future fuels for transport. This is an opportunity for you to contribute to the development of techno-economic and environmental assessment evaluation frameworks in general and to the development of optimization models in particular. The research is applied and closely linked to industrial interests and needs.

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Information about the research
To meet future climate targets, the entire transport sector needs to reduce its climate impact. Biomass-based fuels, electrification, hydrogen and electrofuels are being developed for different parts of the transport sector to substitute fossil fuels. Electrofuels are fuels produced by combining energy from electricity, hydrogen from water via electrolysis, and carbon, or possibly nitrogen, into liquid or gaseous hydrogen-containing end-fuels. The research within the postdoc positions will focus on answering the following question: what are the potential roles of hydrogen and electrofuels in achieving cost-effective, energy efficient and sustainable transport? This question is part of a broader research agenda on understanding the feasibility of climate mitigation targets. Our research aims to provide long-term, and often global, perspectives on future renewable fuels for transport. We seek to rigorously analyze the feasibility of energy transitions, utilize empirical as well as estimated data, and explore whether and under what conditions changes can occur. Research tools include life cycle assessment, techno-economic assessments, and cost-minimizing models where all energy sectors compete for the same primary energy sources in a future carbon constrained world.

As a postdoctoral researcher in our group, you will be using and further developing energy systems models. Two important models are: (1) The Global Energy Transition (GET) model which is a cost minimizing “bottom-up” systems engineering model. It can be used to study carbon mitigation strategies while minimizing the discounted total energy systems cost. The model focuses on the supply side and has five end-use sectors: electricity, transport, feedstock, residential–commercial heat and industrial process heat, and generates fuel mix scenarios, for different transport modes, that meets the modeled constraints at lowest cost. (2) A European model for hydrogen infrastructure requirements that will be developed within our research team. This model will develop different future European hydrogen demand scenarios by modelling cost, efficiency, small scale versus large scale hydrogen production, tank stations/bunker terminals etc. Results from this model will be used as input data to GET and other existing models.