English speaking vacancies in Holland: PhD position for Wetsus - Produced Water Treatment with Membranes

Monday, 9 January 2012

PhD position for Wetsus - Produced Water Treatment with Membranes

Specificaties - (uitleg)

Locatie	Leeuwarden
Functietypes	PhD positions
Wetenschappelijke discipline	Natural Sciences,Engineering
Uren	40.0 uren per week
Werk-/denkniveau	University Graduate
Vacaturenummer	AT 12.03
Vertalingen	en

Solliciteer binnen 39 dagen op deze vacature

Recent developments in oil production technologies emphasize the application of Improved Oil Recovery (IOR) and Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) technologies. These processes rely on the injection of aqueous liquids into an oil reservoir to increase the sweep efficiency and stimulate oil production. Current practice for offshore applications is that seawater is used as source water. Often, seawater shall be desalinated to meet the injection specifications.
As an alternative to seawater desalination, produced water can be treated for reinjection to avoid the intake of seawater or freshwater. The produced fluids consist of a combination of crude oil, formation water and the injected water. In order to allow the reinjection of produced water, pretreatment and purification of the water is necessary to meet the specifications required for reinjection.

This project investigates the produced water reinjection possibilities for IOR and EOR. The purpose of this project is to identify, develop and demonstrate methods to pretreat and purify the produced water for reinjection. Next to artificial feed waters, produced water from oil production locations will be used in laboratory experiments. Attention shall be paid to both pre-treatment requirements, membrane fouling and development of new membranes for produced water treatment. The effect of residual oils, production chemicals (scale and corrosion controlling chemicals) and biocides on membrane performance will be evaluated.

Background; MSc in chemical engineering, biotechnology, physics or related, with adequate experimental and theoretical skills. Interest in membrane processes and applied research with industrial relevance.
Hands-on approach.

Arbeidsvoorwaarden

You will be working in a new, innovative, dynamic and future-directed research institute. You will be able to put your stamp on the development of new water technology. You will work in close collaboration with our industrial partners and also with top research groups at various universities.
Salary and working conditions are according to the collective labor agreement of the Cooperative Association of Dutch Universities (VSNU) for PhD students. PhD students are appointed by one of the cooperating universities but research is mainly conducted at Wetsus in Leeuwarden.

Wetsus

Wetsus, centre of excellence for sustainable water technology is a facilitating intermediary for trend-setting know-how development. Wetsus creates a unique environment and strategic cooperation for development of profitable and sustainable state of the art water treatment technology. The inspiring and multidisciplinary collaboration between companies and research institutes in Wetsus results in innovations that contribute significantly to the solution of the global water problems. Innovation, partnership, joy, cooperation and reliability are the values around which all Wetsus’ activities are organized and performed.

Wetsus acts as Technological Top Institute for Water technology and is located in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. Wetsus’ scientific research program is defined by the private and public water sector and conducted by leading universities.

Promotor: dr. ir. D.C. Nijmeijer (University of Twente)
Co-promotor: prof. dr. ir. A. Janssen (University of Wageningen)

For further information you can contact Wetsus Scientific Project Manager Arie Zwijnenburg;arie.zwijnenburg@wetsus.nl.

All projects have to be formally approved by the Wetsus program council.

Fluency in English is a requirement.

Interview and a scientific presentation will be part of the selection procedure.

More info: http://www.academictransfer.com/employer/Wetsus/vacancy/12532/lang/en/

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