15 PhD Positions in the area of renewable synthetic fuels for decarbonizing energy-intensive industries

Climate change and energy security challenges demand a rapid transition from fossil-based energy production to sustainable alternatives. The European Green Deal and the REPowerEU Plan highlight the urgency of decarbonizing Energy-Intensive Industries (EIIs) while ensuring energy supply resilience. However, many industrial and transport applications still rely on combustion-based technologies due to their need for high energy densities and thermal process requirements. A promising solution lies in electrofuels (e-fuels)—synthetic fuels produced from renewable electricity and sustainable feedstocks, offering a practical and scalable route to reducing carbon emissions.

The DESIRE project (Decarbonising Energy-intenSIve industries with REnewable synthetic fuels) is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie (MSCA) Doctoral Network, designed to train the next generation of specialists in e-fuel utilization. DESIRE will equip 15 PhD researchers with cutting-edge expertise in combustion science, chemical kinetics, fluid dynamics, and digital modeling, preparing them to revolutionize industrial energy systems and accelerate Europe’s energy transition. This ambitious goal will be achieved by developing advanced experimental and computational tools to characterize e-fuel combustion processes, optimize fuel-flexible technologies, and integrate machine learning-driven digital twins for predictive combustion modeling. The research program will cover a wide range of e-fuels (H₂, NH₃, CH₃OH, DME, OME) and their applications in industrial furnaces, gas turbines, burners, and transport engines, ensuring compatibility with existing infrastructures.