Postdoctoral Position in Process & Energy Systems Modeling

Physics-Based Modeling & Tool Development: Formulate, implement, and maintain numerical models and custom scientific modeling software for energy and process components, such as heat exchangers, expanders, turbines, pumps, compressors, separators, condensers, piping networks, and wellbores

System Simulation & Optimization: Simulate, optimize, and analyze integrated energy conversion systems, including geothermal power plants, binary/Organic Rankine Cycles (ORC), flash steam systems, thermal utilization networks, CO₂ compression/injection facilities, and process streams

Techno-Economic Assessment: Integrate physical process models with economic calculations to evaluate project viability, estimating Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE), Levelized Cost of Heat (LCOH), Levelized Cost of Lithium (LCOL), equipment cost estimation (cost correlations, cost-index scaling, CAPEX/OPEX), net present value (NPV), and sensitivity analyses

Coupled Surface-Subsurface Engineering: Develop and apply computational models for coupled surface-subsurface fluid flow, heat transfer, and pressure/temperature evolution across surface facilities and wells

Scientific Software Implementation: Write clean, modular, and reusable scientific code (primarily in Python) following modern development practices, including version control (Git), automated testing, code style/linting, and clear technical documentation

Co-develop an open-source power plant and wellbore flow simulator natively integrated into TANGO and capable of standalone simulation; advance the tool, couple it to RAFT and other TANGO modules, and conduct techno-economic assessments across geothermal direct heat and power plants, district heating systems, CO₂ utilization and sequestration, direct lithium extraction, and natural hydrogen systems.

The Geothermal Energy & Geofluids (GEG) Group is a renowned research unit in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences at ETH Zurich in Switzerland. It investigates subsurface mass and energy transfer processes alongside thermal-fluid energy conversion and process plant systems. Its fundamental and applied research addresses geothermal energy exploration, extraction, and utilization; geologic CO₂ sequestration; subsurface energy and fluid storage; direct lithium extraction from brines; and coupled surface-subsurface systems.

The role contributes to the GEG Group’s multidisciplinary expertise and complements its scientific software team with expertise in power plant engineering, process technology, thermal-fluid system design, and techno-economic optimization. The group’s dedicated computing team currently has six experts in scientific and engineering computation, AI, and IT, alongside researchers specializing in subsurface thermal-hydraulic-mechanical-chemical (THMC) processes, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and geothermal power plant systems.

• PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Process Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Energy Engineering, Thermal Engineering, Computational Engineering, or a related engineering field

• Strong technical grounding in engineering thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and energy conversion systems

• Proven capability in developing physics-based numerical simulators and models of thermal-fluid or power plant systems from governing equations, implementing them in scientific/engineering software (preferably Python, using scientific libraries) using version control and testing in a collaborative environment

• A strong passion for both conceptual model development ("How should this system be modeled?") and practical software creation ("How do I build robust numerical tools to solve real engineering problems?")

• Relevant industry or applied engineering experience in power plant engineering, process plants, or thermal-fluid systems is desirable

• Domain expertise in geothermal power generation, ORC cycles, geologic carbon capture and storage (CCS/CCUS), direct lithium extraction (DLE) from brines, or subsurface gas/energy storage

• Familiarity with equation-based, thermodynamic, or process simulation environments (e.g., TESPy, Aspen Plus, EES, Julia Modeling Toolkit, or Modelica), and fluid property libraries (e.g., CoolProp, REFPROP)

• Experience in techno-economic modeling, equipment cost correlations, uncertainty analysis, and physical process optimization

• Understanding of wellbore dynamics, multiphase flow, or coupled reservoir-surface infrastructure

• Competency in compiled languages (such as C++, Rust, or Julia) and multi-physics co-simulation standards (e.g., FMI/FMUs), and experience in collaborative software development (e.g., Git workflows, code review)