Job Title: Postdoctoral Researcher Position at the Ryanair Sustainable Aviation Research Center: Life Cycle Analysis of Sustainable Aviation Fuels
Organization: Trinity College, Dublin
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Duration: 4y
Pay/Volunteer: £41,025 to £60,814 depending on experience, + pension
Deadline: 30 June 2021
Description: A four-year Postdoctoral Research position is available in the research team of Prof. Stephen Dooley at the School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin, home of the Ryanair Sustainable Aviation Research Center. Ryanair is Europe’s largest airline and are committed to advancing the environmental sustainability of aviation. Ryanair have made a significant commitment to Trinity College Dublin to seed a program of scale in Research of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (aka, SAF). Led by ERC award holder Professor Stephen Dooley, this commitment enables the School of Physics to recruit an expert team of an Assistant Professor, two Experienced Postdoctoral Researchers and several PhD Students devoted to the task of making aviation sustainable.
Background: Prior to COVID-19, the contribution of global aviation to anthropogenic carbon emissions was 3.5% annually. Though this share is smaller than other sectors, it is a meaningful contribution, highly visible, and emitted by fleets of privately owned aircraft. However, unlike other sectors, aviation is highly constrained in measures that can lower this contribution. Due to technical, logistical and safety reasons, it is not expected that an alternative prime energy source other than liquid hydrocarbon fuels will be a viable technological or economic option for the reduction of aviation carbon emission even in the far, thirty year plus term. Thus, it is essential that the at-scale deployment of so-called “Sustainable” Aviation Fuels (SAFs) be dramatically accelerated from the 2018 base of < 0.04% of total aviation fuel utilisation.
Even if an economy of scale is achieved, it is very likely that SAFs will have a higher economic cost than petroleum or other fossil aviation fuels. It is thus essential that SAFs provide a greenhouse gas saving that is knowable within defined uncertainties, certifiable, and specific to the precise details of the entire production process of specific SAF production supply chains. For this, advanced life-cycle analysis calculation and supply-chain design methodologies are needed.
More information link: PostDoc | Job Details - Four-year Postdoctoral Researcher Position at the Ryanair Sustainable Aviation Research Center: Life Cycle Analysis of Sustainable Aviation Fuels at School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin