EngD position in Energy and Process Technology at University of Twente

The EngD program is a 2-year post-MSc technological program with a focus on technological and process design. This program at the University of Twente contains an educational part that will be followed at the University of Twente, and a design project that will be carried out in cooperation with a consortium of universities and companies gathered under the KICKSTART project. The educational program will have an in-depth and broadening character with ample attention for professional development and will be partly tailored to the design project.

Increasing decentralized power production from wind and solar are putting a strain on the capacity electricity grid in different parts of the Netherlands. Consequently, new projects cannot be connected to the grid preventing growth of renewable energy production. Also, when power demand is exceeding the transport capacity, an extra alternative electricity flow is needed to fulfil the power demand. Sustainable hydrogen production is an alternative solution to increase the flexibility of the grid flexibility and minimizing the grid congestion.

Determining a sustainable hydrogen production technology integrated wind and solar energy is critical to the growing interest in green hydrogen. Factors such as comprehensive analyses on the technical and economic variabilities, the impact of carbon pricing, optimum plant size, and storage are crucial to understanding the technical and economic sustainability of the potential green hydrogen technologies. Therefore, a comprehensive comparative technical and economic analysis of hydrogen production from Polymer Electrolyte membrane (PEM), Solid oxide electrolyser cell (SOEC) electrolysers and autothermal reforming (ATR) is needed. The produced hydrogen will be stored in the hydrogen storage and/or will be converted into methanol.

Because of the integration of multiple energy sources and energy components, it is quite complex to match the energy systems with one another. Hence, optimal planning of integration of energy systems is essential to reduce the installation cost. This requirement can be met out by developing a digital twin dynamic model for analyzing the integrated energy systems for fuel production while preventing grid congestion. All aspects related to the dynamic behavior and optimization for the full emerging technologies and various form of energy flow scenarios will be considered in the model based on the available concepts that are designed in the integrated energy systems.