4 PhD's in the field of modelling of three-phase flows with catalytic particles

Eindhoven University of Technology is looking for 4 PhD candidates for projects concerning the modeling of transport-phenomena in slurry-bubble columns. This chemical reactor type is encountered in a variety of large scale manufacturing processes such as the production of fuels, chemical building blocks, and many other products. In this research we focus on three-phase gas-solid-liquid multi-component systems with catalytic particles, which are frequently encountered in industrial applications, but have not been tackled fundamentally before due to their complexity.

All PhD projects are part of an overarching project entitled 'Modelling of three-phase flows with catalytic particles', which was recently awarded a prestigious ERC Advanced grant. An overview of the projects is depicted in the figure below. Three levels of complexity will be considered and a multiscale approach is adopted. Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) is used for studying transport phenomena with high accuracy in systems with a relatively small number of bubbles and particles. So-called deterministic and stochastic Euler-Lagrange simulation methods will be used to simulate full columns on laboratory and industrial scale. The modeling will be experimentally validated.