Fuel/Chemical Production Technology Assessment

The Systems Assessment Center (SAC) of Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) has been conducting assessments of conventional/new transportation fuels and advanced vehicle technologies over the last 25 years. It has developed the GREET® (Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Technologies) model for estimating energy use, air emissions, and water consumption on a life-cycle basis for conventional vehicle/fuel systems, as well as for emerging technologies for energy production, energy storage, and chemical production (see https://greet.es.anl.gov for details). The GREET model has more than 50,000 registered users worldwide, including academia, industry, and regulatory agencies. The SAC has been working closely with energy and auto industries, universities, and governmental agencies to evaluate energy, environmental, and cost impacts of conventional/new transportation fuels and chemicals, as well as advanced vehicle technologies.

The SAC continues to assess conventional and advanced fuels, chemicals and materials production technologies for their energy consumption, environmental impacts, and production cost. Current research efforts include examination of 1) electro-fuel production technology using waste CO2 sources and renewable electricity; 2) The energy consumption and environmental impact of hydrogen production from various technologies and energy sources. 3.) Regional renewable and nuclear electricity sources for green or low carbon H2 production and storage; 4) Regional analysis of waste CO2 sources, cost estimation for CO2 capture (from industrial sources and direct air capture [DAC]), compression, transport, and sequestration. 5) A variety of new fuel/chemical production technologies from waste gas, biomass, plastic waste, municipal waste, etc. 6). Analyses of decarbonization for various industrial sector and manufacture sector (e.g., steel, chemical). 

SAC is working closely with the energy, auto, biofuel, chemical industry to examine next-generation fuels and chemicals derived from both conventional and alternative energy sources, for enhanced performance and reduced emissions.

One position is now open for candidates with expertise and experience in process modeling (preferably using Aspen Plus), technoeconomic analysis (TEA), or environmental life cycle analysis (LCA). The candidate will possess good understanding of petroleum fuels production, chemical production and hydrogen production from various technologies, CO2 capture by commercial and emerging technologies, production technologies for electro- fuels (e-fuels or power-to-liquid), or other advanced fuel and chemical production technologies (such as those converting biomass to liquid fuels, and waste to fuels/chemicals). The candidate will possess system analysis including process modeling, technoeconomic analysis (TEA), environmental life cycle analysis (LCA) and regional analysis.

The candidate will model fuels and chemicals production process using Aspen Plus model following chemical engineering principles considering both plant economics and emission reduction (relative to incumbent industrial process). The candidate extracts energy and emissions data associated with fuel and chemical production technologies from U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) database, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency database (e.g., GHGRP, NEI), field data, process simulations, industry reports, the technical literature, and from interactions with other national laboratories, academia, industry, and stakeholders. The candidate will work with researchers within the SAC to expand the GREET model with the new data to enhance and expand the model’s capability of assessing the life-cycle energy use and emissions associated with various transportation fuels and chemicals. 

Position Requirements

• Qualified individuals should have a doctor’s degree in chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, petroleum engineering, materials engineering, or related fields.

• Experience (e.g., postdoc or industrial) of 2-3 years is required.

• Qualified individuals should have experience in Aspen Plus process modeling with a background in chemical engineering principles.

• Knowledge in industrial processes and emerging technologies for petroleum fuels production, hydrogen production, petrochemical processes, electrochemical processes, carbon dioxide capture and storage, crude recovery, natural gas recovery and processing, material recovery and manufacture, other manufacture processes, etc.

• Skills in computer programming skills in MS Excel, Excel VBA, Python, or MATLAB.

• Skilled in oral and written communication skills.

• A successful candidate must have the ability to model Argonne’s Core Values: Impact, Safety, Re