Research Fellow (Chemical Reactor Engineering)

Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, NTU is looking for a Research Fellow with expertise in chemical reactors to develop an improved prototype for a thermocatalytic process.

The project is funded by National Environment Agency, Singapore to address one of the largest problems in waste management – the problem of plastic waste pollution. A significant fraction of plastic waste has substandard quality for mechanical and chemical recycling even after sorting and cleaning. The Research Fellow will work on the design, fabrication and testing of a chemical reactor system that will use pyrolysis-chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technology for converting these plastic waste streams (specifically, contaminated and rejected plastics) into multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and hydrogen. The role of Research Fellow is to design a system prototype that can effectively mitigate the impact of impurities from diverse plastic waste streams on production outputs and can be operated in a continuous mode.

Key Responsibilities:

The candidate will be undertaking full research work and administrative duties during the term of employment within the following areas:

• Experimental work on plastic waste conversion into carbon nanotubes and hydrogen.

• Design, procurement, installation and operation of the prototype system;

• Investigation of system performance and determining factors that influence the yield and quality of outputs;

• Development of improvements in system design to mitigate the factors decreasing quality and yield of outputs;

• Development of a continuous process;

• Liaising with vendors regarding the feasibility of scale up and conducting a cost-benefit analysis.

• Publishing research papers and documenting developed intellectual property.

• Reporting the progress to stakeholders (internal and external).

Job Requirements:

• Ph.D. degree in a field relevant to chemical reactor engineering (e.g., Chemical Engineering, Thermal Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Process Engineering or other).

• PhD thesis or postdoctoral experience related to chemical reactor engineering for at least one of the following areas: (a) catalytic reactors, (b) continuous reactors.

• First-author publications in the areas mentioned above.

• High proficiency in English (e.g., TOELF, IELTS, GRE) for preparation of research papers.

• Ability to prepare well-written technical reports and research papers.

• Ability to prepare decent quality presentation decks, figures and illustrations.

• Ability to build formal and informal partnerships and work collaboratively with others to meet shared objectives.

• Ability to consistently achieve results, even under challenging circumstances.

We regret to inform that only shortlisted candidates will be notified.