Postdoc Position: Circular Economy for Iron & Steel
Postdoc Position within the Christian Doppler Laboratory for “Anthropogenic Resources” at TU Wien on the subject of “Circular Economy for Iron & Steel”
Brief description of the research project:
The objective of the Christian Doppler Laboratory for “Anthropogenic Resources” at TU Wien is to develop a framework for the characterization and evaluation of anthropogenic resources regarding quantity, quality and accessibility. In addition, potentials for optimizing the resource management in different sectors and for different materials are investigated.
In this context, steel and the steel industry, respectively, are of major importance: iron is the most important metal in our economy in terms of mass. The steel industry is a major energy consumer, which has to cope with greenhouse gas reduction targets and which utilizes a significant share of secondary raw materials (steel scrap). Further increasing steel scrap utilization is considered a promising means to save primary raw materials and greenhouse gases, as secondary steel production (from scrap) requires less energy and generates less CO2. To which extent steel scrap however, fulfils the quality requirements (e.g. content of tramp elements) for the production of the wide range of different steel products has hardly been studied so far and is an essential aspect of the present project.
An overview of the entire research project “Christian Doppler Laboratory” can be found at: http://iwr.tuwien.ac.at/en/home/research/overview-research/
Job profile:
In a first step all iron/stell flows in Austria / European Union (incl. production, processing, import/export, consumption, waste management and recycling of steel scrap) are to be surveyed applying the methodology of material flow analysis (MFA). Besides steel/iron, alloying and accompanying elements and impurities (e.g. copper) are to be balanced as well, because they significantly influence the possible steel production portfolio. They are a crucial factor for the amount of pig iron (from ores) needed to achieve the required product quality (dilution of the accompanying elements and impurities in the steel scrap).
Based on the static MFA for steel and selected accompanying elements, a dynamic model will be developed. It should allow a prognosis about the quantity and quality of steel scrap available (nationally / regionally). Finally, the future potential of steel scrap for substituting iron ore has to be discussed and recommendations for an optimized management of steel scrap (nationally / regionally) are to be made.
The project is carried out in close cooperation with “voestalpine Stahl GmbH”, which co-finances the project through the Christian Doppler Research Association.
Requirements:
Postdoc researcher with extended experience in the field of material flow analysis
In-depth knowledge of the steel sector desired
Other requirements:
Demonstrated modeling and programming skills
Proficiency in English
Duration and extent of employment:
Full time position (40 hrs/week) for 18 months
Start: Position to be filled as soon as possible
Annual salary: € 57,500.- (gross); € 37,000.- (net)
Required application documents (preferred electronically):
CV, motivation letter, nomination of two referees, list of publications, electronic copy of PhD thesis
Contact:
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Johann Fellner
Institute for Water Quality and Resource Management
TU Wien, Karlsplatz 13/226, 1040 Wien
E-mail : johann.fellner@tuwien.ac.at
Phone : +43-1-58801-22654