Oferta de trabajo: “Optimización de la producción de biogás a partir de estiércol y lodos de depuradora“

Applications are invited for a PhD fellowship/scholarship at Graduate School of Science and Technology, Aarhus University, Denmark, within the Engineering programme. The position is available from 1 November 2014 or later.

Title:

Optimization of biogas production from animal manure and sewage sludge

Research area and project description:

Department of Engineering seeks a candidate for a PhD project within biogas. The candidate will do research in anaerobic digestion with a focus on fundamental process understanding and optimization of the process by better process control, pre-treatment and manipulation with the microbial population.

The Danish government has, made ambitious plans for expansion of energy production from biogas. Thus, increased application of biogas plants (anaerobic digesters, AD) plays an important role towards the ultimate goal of a 100% sustainable energy supply in 2050 («Energiaftalen»). In order to reach the ambitious goal phasing out fossil fuel and balancing the large share of electricity from wind power in 2050, increased production of biogas is of high importance. The national plan for “Green Growth” aims at using 50% of the manure in biogas plants in 2020. To reach this, a huge expansion is needed from the present situation where only 5% of the manure is used for biogas. One of the great challenges for the new biogas plants is the lack of high strength industrial wastes to boost the biogas production. In future biogas plants, other sources of substrates for boosting the biogas production are needed. At present, the main source for biogas production in Denmark is animal manure, but sludge from wastewater treatment plants, municipal solid waste, and crop residues also have great potential. The PhD project aims at developing improved solutions for stable and high methane production from manure with high litter content, food waste, and from wastewater sludge, including optimization of pre-treatment and process design.

The PhD project is part of a larger research project funded by the Danish Strategic Research Council: ‘NomiGas’. The PhD project is part of two Work Packages (WPs): WP3 entitled ‘Optimization of methane production from animal manure’ and WP3 entitled ‘Optimization of methane production from sludge from wastewater treatment plants’.

Qualifications and specific competences:

Applicants must hold a master degree in biotechnology, biological engineering, process technology, or similar.

Place of Employment and Place of Work:

The place of employment is Aarhus University, and the place of work is Department of Engineering, Katrinebjerg, Finlandsgade 22, 8200 Aarhus N, Denmark.

Contacts:

Applicants seeking further information are invited to contact:

Senior Researcher Henrik B. Møller, e-mail: henrikb.moller@eng.au.dk

Or Head of section Lars D. M. Ottosen, e-mail: ldmo@eng.au.dkApplication procedures:

Before you apply:Information and attachments:

Please be aware that you must have all relevant appendices, attachments, addresses for referees, etc. ready when you apply, as the entire application must be uploaded to the system in one go.

Documentation of language skills:

If English is a secondary language it is required that your English qualifications are documented. The English language requirement at Graduates School of Science and Technology is comparable to an “English B level” in the Danish upper secondary school (“gymnasium”).

English language qualifications comparable to an “English B level” is documented by one of the following tests:

• TOEFL test, minimum score: 560 (paper-based test) or 83 (internet-based test)
• IELTS (academic) test, minimum average score: 6.5 points
• Cambridge ESOL Examinations:Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency (CPE)Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English (CAE)

When to take the test and how to upload the documentation:

The test result must not be more than two years old at the time of application.

The English language test should be taken before applying for admission and uploaded under “language skills documentation” in the online application form.

It is possible to apply for admission before you have taken the test. In this case documentation stating that you have signed up for a test (please state expected submission date) must be uploaded. If the test result is not part of the original application the test result is to be sent to sphd@psys.au.dk  no later than one month after the application deadline.

The following applicants are exempted from documenting their English qualifications/taking a test:

• Applicants with citizenship from the following countries Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States, or one of the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway or Sweden).
• Applicants with a Bachelor’s or Master’s programme completed in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, or United States.
• Applicants able to document that English was the language of instruction during their Bachelor’s and/or Master’s programme. This must be documented by uploading an official document from the institution stating this under “language skills documentation”.

The programme committee may request further information or invite the applicant to attend an interview.

How to apply:

1)      Find the application form:

Go to http://talent.au.dk/phd/scienceandtechnology/opencalls/

Choose August 2014 Call with deadline 1 August 2014 at 11.59 PM MET.

You will be directed to the call, and must choose the programme ‘Engineering’

2)      Fill in the following information:

• Personal information
• Academic background
• Admission
• Financing (if any)
• Study: In the dropdown menu you must choose the project: «Optimization of biogas production from animal manure and sewage sludge»
• Source (how you found out about the call)

3)      Application attachments:

Please be aware that you cannot submit the application if one or several of these documents have not been uploaded.

As a minimum you must upload the following application material (pdf-files only, max. 20 MB, no zip):

• Reference letter (as a minimum 1 must be uploaded)
• Curriculum vitae
• Motivation (max. 1 page)
• One merged file with scanned copies of diploma(s) and transcript(s) of records for all university degrees. Please include the original documents as well as a certified English translation, if the original is not in Scandinavian or English. Please enter your unweighted grade average calculated according to the national grading scale for BSc and MSc separately.
• Project description (½-4 pages). For technical reasons, you must upload a project description. When – as here – you apply for a specific project, please simply copy the project description above, and upload it as a PDF in the application. If you wish to, you can indicate an URL where further information can be found.  Please note that we reserve the right to remove scientific papers, large reports, theses and the like.
• Documentation of language skills if required.

Please note:

The programme committee may request further information or invite the applicant to attend an interview.

Please note that the project will only be initiated if final funding (from GSST/the faculty) is secured.