Optimization of VFA aromatization on a lab-scale fixed-bed catalytic reactor

IMT Atlantique is a leading French engineering and management graduate school resulting from the merger of Mines Nantes and Télécom Bretagne. With its different campuses, the institution offers a diverse range of undergraduate and postgraduate programs spanning fields such as computer science, telecommunications, electrical engineering, energy, environmental engineering, and management. Renowned for its impactful research and innovation initiatives, IMT Atlantique collaborates closely with industry partners, providing students with practical experience and ensuring their readiness for the workforce. The institute places a strong emphasis on international collaboration, entrepreneurship, and innovation, fostering a dynamic campus life that encourages extracurricular engagement. Overall, IMT Atlantique stands out as a leading institution in French higher education, equipping students with the skills and knowledge needed for success in various engineering and management disciplines.

Sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) can be produced from lipids feedstock using Hydrotreated Esters and Fatty Acids pathway. However, the produced SAF lacks of aromatics that give them the physical properties required by the ASTM to allow usage as jet fuel. To use HEFA SAF as drop-in fuel, adding bio-sourced aromatics to levels higher than 8% can be considered. In COCPIT Project, one of the possible production routes studied consists on the aromatization of the volatile fatty acids (VFA) over solid acid catalysts like zeolites.

The internship offer lies in the framework of COCPIT (sCalable solutions Optimisation and decision tool Creation for low impact SAF Production chain from a lIpid-rich microalgae sTrain) a project funded by EU under the Horizon Europe, cluster 5, agreement n° 101122101. It gathers 11 partners from 6 EU countries and coordinated by IMT Atlantique.

The VFA are produced by dark fermentation of the waste streams of the COCPIT process. One of the tasks of COCPIT targets the aromatization of these VFA to produce the aromatics that will be used as boosters in the SAF.

The purpose of this internship is to study the aromatization of VFA in a bench-scale fixedbed catalytic reactor to screen the effects of the operating conditions on the resulting products.

Tasks:

- Maximizing the conversion and the selectivity for the branched aromatics from mixtures of VFAs

- Studying the deactivation and the regeneration of the spent catalyst

We are looking for candidates having a Msc degree in one of the following domains: Msc in bioprocess engineering or in process engineering or chemical engineering, with some experience in catalytic reactions.