Project Goals
The project aims to develop mechanical process engineering methods for the recycling of end-of-life lithium-ion batteries. The main objective is to develop an electrokinetic particle separator capable of purifying shredded waste from lithium-ion batteries (black mass) into pure fractions of cathode material, anode material, as well as impurities based on the principle of dielectrophoretic filtration. One major goal of this project is increasing selectivitiy and throughput of existing dielectrophoretic filtration concepts to make the technology viable for industrial-scale separation. Another major goal is the combination with existing recycling workflows (hydrometallurgy, pyrometallurgy) to develop holistic battery recycling concepts.
Place of Employment
Institute of Chemical, Environmental, and Bioscience Engineering, TU Wien, Getreidemarkt 9/166, 1060 Wien
Supervisory Team
Georg Pesch (TU Wien; primary co-supervisor), Stefan Radl (TU Graz), Zlatko Raonic (MU Leoben)
Secondments
One-month visits each at MUL (Eva Gerold) and TU Graz (Stefan Radl, Susanne Lux) to combine mechanical particle separation with existing recycling workflows to increase recycling efficiencies, multiple short visits.
Admission Requirements
Master degree in chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, environmental engineering or similar areas
Essential Qualifications
- Strong expertise in mechanical process engineering and chemical engineering
- Good experience in experimental laboratory work
- Modeling (FEM, FVM) and programming skills
- A strong interest in fundamental engineering research linked to relevant application areas
- An independent and solution-oriented working style, as well as strong teamwork and communication skills
- Interest in the development of novel methods
- Experience in CAD software would be advantage
- Experience in analytical methods (ICP, AAS, etc.) would be an advantage
Offered Employment
Full time (40h/week) for 48 months
