Postdoctoral Researcher – Catalytic Oleochemistry and Process Scale-Up

The selected candidate will work closely with senior researchers and industry collaborators to develop, de-risk, and scale up processes for converting emerging plant oils into performance-advantaged chemicals and materials. Target products may include lubricants, surfactants, specialty chemicals and other high-value oleochemical products.

Responsibilities

• Developing pretreatment strategies for lipids to produce feedstocks with critical material attributes (CMAs) for downstream catalytic conversion into products
• Develop and optimize catalytic processes that transform lipids, fatty acids, and related intermediates into chemical precursors for high-value products
• Design and evaluate catalytic reaction pathways from bench to pilot including catalyst screening, reaction engineering and integration of reaction and separation unit operations
• Develop product formulations and structure-property relationships that connect molecular composition with enhanced performance in applications such as lubricants, surfactants and specialty chemicals
• Generating kinetic, mass-balance, and process-performance data needed to support reactor design, process modeling, techno-economic analysis, and transition from laboratory systems to pilot-scale operation
• Establishing CMAs and critical process parameters (CPPs) for key unit operations and determining how feedstock variability and processing conditions affect intermediate quality, product performance, process robustness, and scale-up
• Communicating research results through technical reports, peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations, invention disclosures, and project reviews

Basic Qualifications

• Must be a recent PhD graduate within the last three years.
• Must meet educational requirements prior to employment start date.

Required Education, Experience, and Skills

• Must be a recent PhD graduate within the last three years in Chemical Engineering, Biological Systems Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry, or relevant field.
• A solid background in biorefinery and biomass conversion.
• Strong scientific writing skills demonstrated by first authorship of quality scientific papers.
• Proven communications skills and the ability to work collaboratively as part of a research team are also required.
• Excellent oral and written presentation skills.
• A willingness and curiosity to learn and work on a variety of projects.
• Ability to learn new techniques quickly and multi-task efficiently.
• Conduct laboratory experiments with minimal supervision and with the utmost regard to safety is required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Batch and flow reactor operation for lipid processing to produce chemicals
• Hands on experience in oleochemistry
• Experience with wet chemistry, including sample preparation and catalytic conversion.
• Experience with catalytic upgrading and catalyst characterization.
• Experience with separations, including liquid-liquid and solid-liquid extractions.
• Experience with polymer formulation.
• Operation of analytical instrumentation (e.g. FTIR, SEM, GC-MS, etc.)
• Experience with pilot scale equipment for biomass conversion.
• Experience with modeling and machine learning.