Post-Doctoral position in particles technology – 18-month fixed-term contract

JOB ENVIRONMENT:

Institut Mines-Télécom is the leading public group of engineering and management Grandes Écoles in France. Consisting of eight public graduate Grandes Écoles and two subsidiary graduate schools, Institut Mines-Télécom leads and develops a rich ecosystem of partner schools, economic, academic and institutional partners, key players in education, research and economic development.

Mines Saint-Étienne, a graduate school of the Institut Mines-Télécom, is responsible for education, research, innovation, industrial transfer and scientific culture dissemination. With 2,500 students, 500 staff and a budget of €50m, it has 3 campuses dedicated to the industry of the future, health and well-being, and digital sovereignty and microelectronics. It is ranked in the top 15 graduate engineering schools in France and the top 500 universities worldwide.

The 2023-2027 strategy of Mines Saint-Etienne is in line with that of Institut Mines Telecom. It aims to:

• Support the ecological, digital and generational transitions and educate the people involved
• Support national and European sovereignty in microelectronics and digital technology.

To support this strategy, it is recruiting a postdoctoral.

JOB DESCRIPTION:

HYGEN is a ADEME funded project spearheaded by FIVES CRYO, a leading company in the manufacturing of cryogenic heat exchangers. It aims at developing and improving the process of hydrogen liquefaction which is a key step towards its storage and handling on an industrial scale. Indeed, the target is a 100-fold increase of the liquefaction capacities.

In this context, SPIN, which is the chemical engineering research center of Mines Saint-Etienne is in charge of improving the filling process of the heat exchanger with granular catalyst particles.

The present job offer is a 18 month post-doctoral contract which will take place in the laboratory of Mines Saint- Etienne.

The main barrier of this project is the very confined space between the exchanger plates which prevents an easy and homogeneous filling. The study will be focused on the use of vibrations to improve the filling procedure.

In this context, the project aim at (i) contribute to the understanding of particles flow in confined space (ii) eval- uate the capability of vibrations to improve the flowability and analyse the mechanism involved and (iii) improve the vibrations cycle.

The successful candidate will be expected to build two experimental setups in order to study the filling process of particles under vibrations. Both of them will be simplified - quasi 2D - models of the heat exchanger.

• The first one is about ~10 cm of height and width and will be used to visualize the particle packing by means of 3D - X rays micro-tomomography. The analysis of tomography images should allow us to eval- uate different parameters related to the particle packing and its homogeneity.
• The second one is also ~10cm width but higher (~70cm). It will be used to evaluate the residence time distribution of gas. To do so, a neutral gaseous will be injected (Argon) until the setup is filled and then a short inflow of Nitrogen will be sent. Finally, the concentration of nitrogen in the outflow will be measured. This measurement should allow us to identify flow paths.

Then, for each experimental setup, parametric study will be led to analyse the effect of vibrations on the particles flow in this very confined geometry. The variable parameters might concern both process and powders:

• Acceleration and amplitude of the vibrations
• Geometry of the heat exchanger’s Fins
• Particle size distribution and powder morphology

The description of the tasks above may evolve slightly with respect to the candidate background and aspirations. For example, a short numerical study (DEM simulation) might also be implemented. Also, tasks may change depending on the needs of the department and Mines Saint-Etienne.

The position is based on the Saint-Étienne campus and Hygen partners collaborations (CEA, FIves Cryo) are encouraged.