The University of Oulu is a multidisciplinary, international research university, with about 3,600 employees who produce new knowledge based on high-standards research and provide research based education to build a more sustainable, smarter, and more humane world. The University of Oulu community has about 17,000 people in total. Our northern scientific community operates globally and creates conditions for the emergence of innovations.
We are now looking for a

ABOUT US

The Process Metallurgy unit is a key part of the Centre for Advanced Steels Research (CASR) and is in the center of the University of Oulu profiling area “Hydrogen future and Sustainable steel”. In the research unit, there are four professors focusing on pyrometallurgical metal production and other high-temperature processes with a main emphasis on the production of iron, steel and ferroalloys. Research is executed in close cooperation with the metallurgical industry. At the moment, the key areas of research are circular economy and reduction of carbon dioxide emissions in metal production by hydrogen reduction, electrified processes and biofuels. There are also two university lecturers and eleven postdoctoral researchers to help fulfil the supervision of doctoral and master students.
HYDROGEN FUTURE AS A CLIMATE SOLUTION (H2FUTURE) combines the University of Oulu’s research strengths in future H2 production, sustainable metals reduction processes, and hydrogen-resistant steel development to a unique, holistic, multidisciplinary research community with the ambition in enabling green and sustainable hydrogen transition. H2FUTURE is leveraging research excellence in future energy formation and its applications to mitigate the energy and environmental crisis.
H2FUTURE stands on fundamental research on physics, chemistry, process metallurgy, physical metallurgy and mechanical engineering related to H2FUTURE thematic. Thematic covers but is not limited to energy-efficient and climate-neutral hydrogen production, fossil-free metals production, and the development of steels for hydrogen transition.
H2FUTURE forms a part of our national profiling actions supported by the Academy of Finland and actively interacts with other profile areas of InStream, Genome of Steel, and HiDyn within the University of Oulu’s research focuses. By recruiting talented researchers from natural sciences and engineering, H2FUTURE is accumulating knowledge to bolster scientific profiles and moreover creating new research expertise to develop the profile at the University of Oulu.

ABOUT THE JOB

We are now looking for a highly motivated Postdoctoral researcher to contribute to a research project on multi-scale modelling of hydrogen based direct reduction (4 years fully funded by H2FUTURE). It is possible to shine a light on this technology only if we are able to understand all the phenomena involved starting from an atomic level scale up to the analysis of the process on an industrial scale. Therefore, to achieve this objective, a profound knowledge of the transformation phenomena underlying the entire process is necessary.
The research is expected to deal with the most efficient modelling tools to be integrated to forecast the raw materials behaviour in different shapes, with different compositions and with various structures in high-temperature hydrogen atmosphere from the molecular transformations to the multi-pellets or multi-briquettes reduction in industrial shaft furnaces. More specifically, various modes of iron-based oxides raw materials transformations will be integrated in order to model the overall process in a very precise and efficient way. The approach is expected to be a modelling-based one supported by experimental data.
The chosen candidate, as a doctoral researcher focused on artificial intelligence for hydrogen ironmaking, will undertake cutting-edge research aimed at designing future-generation hydrogen-based ironmaking processes. Leveraging your expertise in simulations tools such as HSC, FactSage, Comsol Multiphysics, Ansys Fluent as well as proficiency in process metallurgy basis, you will explore novel approaches to address the underlined challenges.

• Conducting original research to develop artificial intelligence-based tools capable of predicting and optimizing hydrogen-assisted ironmaking processes on different length scales.
• Applying different experimental-modelling techniques to evaluate the processing evolution and predict the optimal route depending on the raw materials properties.
• Collaborate with interdisciplinary teams of researchers and engineers to design and execute experimental studies to validate modelling predictions.
• Analyze experimental data to gain insights into the main mechanisms governing the overall process.
• Present research findings at conferences, publish scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals and contribute to the dissemination of knowledge within the scientific community.
• Work closely with industry partners to ensure the relevance and applicability of research outcomes to real-world engineering challenges.