You will be working on a 1-year research project in collaboration with the Flemish drinking water utility De Watergroep. The project focusses on the development of a framework for automatic calibration and uncertainty analysis of digital twins for leak detection in drinking water networks. Your specific tasks include:

• Conduct a literature review on state-of-the-art calibration methodologies.
• Make an inventory among international drinking water utilities of the application and calibration of hydraulic models.
• You will develop an open python package for automatic calibration of EPAnet drinking water network models. This framework will include:
  • Sensitivity analysis to determine the most important sources of uncertainty in a calibration exercise (ex. pipe roughness factors);
  • Definition of physical constraints on the calibration algorithm (ex. flow-pressure relation);
  • Implementation of a parameter optimization algorithm (ex. genetic algorithms);
  • Identifiability analysis on the estimated model parameters.
• If needed based on the identifiability analysis you will look into model reduction strategies such as skeletonization.
• You will develop a methodology for the propagation of important sources of uncertainty in a hydraulic model.
• You will apply and test your methodology to a case-study in the north-east of Belgium. 

The European Green Deal aims at zero net greenhouse gasses emissions by 2050. The steel and chemical industries are responsible for a significant fraction of these emissions. Mechanical and chemical recycling of end-of-life waste streams is an important feature in reducing these emissions. While end-of-life steel can easily be recycled, this is not generally true for end-of-life plastics and other wastes. The project aims to reduce emissions by increasing the recycling of unrecyclable waste streams, thereby tackling multiple problems at once.

et Departement Chemie/Biochemie van de Faculteit Toegepaste Ingenieurswetenschappen zoekt een voltijdse (100%) doctoraatsbursaal in het domein van de biologische zuivering van industrieel afvalwater

Functie

• Je werkt actief aan de voorbereiding en verdediging van een doctoraal proefschrift in het domein van de biologische zuivering van industrieel afvalwater. Het doctoraatsproject handelt specifiek over de biologische verwijdering van fosfaat uit industrieel afvalwater, via het zogenaamde EBPR proces (Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal). We richten ons hier op het fosfaatrijke afvalwater uit de aardappelverwerkende industrie. Specifieke onderzoeksvragen zijn (1) is biologische fosfaatverwijdering mogelijk met dit type afvalwater?, (2) hoe kan EBPR optimaal geïntegreerd worden met de verwijdering van stikstof uit het afvalwater, en (3) welke micro-organismen zijn hiervoor verantwoordelijk? Het project gebeurt in nauwe samenwerking met de industrie
• Je publiceert wetenschappelijke artikelen die verband houden met het onderzoeksproject.
• Je neemt een beperkt pakket van onderwijs- en onderzoeksondersteunende taken op voor de vakgroep biochemische ingenieurstechnieken.

De Faculteit Toegepaste Ingenieurswetenschappen van de Universiteit Antwerpen zoekt een voltijds academisch medewerker, niveau navorser in het domein van de industriële biotechnologie

Jouw opdracht

• Je staat in voor onderwijs- en onderzoekondersteuning in het domein van de biochemische ingenieurstechnieken.
• Je ondersteunt de lopende onderzoeksprojecten binnen het thema industriële biotechnologie van de onderzoeksgroep BioWAVE en de begeleiding van projectwerk, bachelor- en masterproeven.
• Je ondersteunt doctoraatsstudenten.
• Je werkt mee aan dienstverlening: je vertegenwoordigt de onderzoeksgroep zowel intern als extern, je coördineert mee dienstverleningsprojecten.

De onderzoeksgroep iPRACS van de Faculteit Toegepaste Ingenieurswetenschappen zoekt een voltijdse doctoraatsbursaal in het domein van de chemische recyclage van polyurethanen.

Functie

• Je werkt actief aan de voorbereiding en verdediging van een doctoraal proefschrift over nieuwe chemische recyclagepaden voor flexibele en harde polurethaanschuimen. Dit project is gefinancierd door het bijzonder onderzoeksfonds van de Universiteit Antwerpen.
• Je publiceert wetenschappelijke artikelen die verband houden met het onderzoeksproject.
• Je neemt een beperkt pakket van onderwijs- en onderzoeksondersteunende taken op voor de opleiding industrieel ingenieur - chemie biochemie, vakgroep chemie.

Steel corrosion is a threat to our economy in any kind of industry where water comes into contact with steel, e.g. maritime sector, ports water purification plants, energy production, offshore renewable energy production. The costs relating to corrosion are immense and so far no general approach to determine where and when corrosion is taking place has been found. The research in this PhD focusses on the influence of different water qualities on corrosion behavior. 

This vacancy aims to select the PhD researcher having a materials engineering background. This researcher will experimentally focus on the role of potential addition of inhibitors to gaseous hydrogen in the hydrogen/material interaction and the resulting hydrogen uptake by pipeline steels. Moreover, the potential effect on hydrogen induced cracking generated by cathodic (over)protection in combination with gaseous hydrogen uptake will be incorporated as well. (S)he will also be heavily involved in experimental material characterisation in terms of microstructural and micromechanical properties in absence and presence of hydrogen, and linking these with macromechanical properties. A major goal is to understand the interaction on microstructural level between the investigated material and hydrogen. Both bulk and surface evaluation will be relevant to develop methodologies to screen the hydrogen susceptibility of pipeline steels in the abovementioned circumstances. 

You will work actively on the preparation and defence of a PhD thesis in the field of synthesis-properties correlation of black titania. The specific role of the PhD topic for which this position is opened, is oriented to the fundamental understanding of the synthesis of coloured titania and how these depend on the properties of the titania materials and the reduction conditions. We aim at a controlled alteration of the reduction conditions of porous titania. An important part of the project will include characterization of the materials properties with different techniques, including EPR. You will collaborate with the other PhD students in the project that will evaluate the material’s capacity for CO₂ reduction and their applicability as electrode material.

We are looking for a job student to support our Video Studio in Ghent over the summer months. We need a student with great editing and video skills for recordings and post-editing (subtitles, short animations, intro/outro’s,…). We work with Camtasia Studio. Professional communication and follow-up is needed when organizing the recordings with the speakers. Furthermore, our communication team will rely on your help every once in a while for CAPTURE events, creative website content, presentation templates and so on.

Water and resource recovery processes are under enormous pressure to handle increasing uncertainties related to spatio-temporal evolutions of source quality, new technological developments, changing regulatory constraints etc. Process control strategies help utilities and industries to manage their processes under these different pressures. For water and resource recovery systems (and many other biotech systems), process control practice is ruled by PID controllers which are based on simple input-output relations. The use of more advanced control algorithms that allow simultaneous control of multiple inputs and outputs as well as the integration of quality and cost criteria could significantly help utilities and industries to become more resilient and sustainable.