Le 11/06/2018 par Safsar :

“Hydrogen based Dynamically Robust & Optimized Green Energy systems (HYDROGEN)”

Hydrogen is the only carbon-free storable fuel. When combined with renewable energy sources (wind, solar, hydro, wave and tidal), it has the potential to become one of the main contributors of a sustainable future as a green energy vector. 

HYDROGEN project aims to handle dynamic management of a decentralized Power-to-Hydrogen system where electricity is converted into hydrogen fuel for a zero-emission mobility. Multiple economic agents with conflicting interests are involved in the renewable electricity-based hydrogen supply chain.

This PhD thesis will focus on the tactical decision level that encompasses several issues: production scheduling, transportation policies, inventory management, safety stock sizing... The objectives and constraints of different stakeholders along with their relationships with each other at varying time granularity (year, month, day etc.) will be defined. The most suitable modelling approaches for each problem will be combined with efficient solution methodologies.

Uncertainties of the system notably come from electricity generation (due to varying natural conditions), variability of energy prices in the energy spot market and demand fluctuation. These uncertainties will be addressed in the modelling part.

We are offering a 3-year PhD thesis -expected to be ANR funded- at PersEE Innovation, a Lyon based startup company (Sezin Afsar), in collaboration with Toulouse Laboratoire de Génie Chimique, CNRS (Catherine Azzaro-Pantel) and Toulouse Business School (Gilles Lafforgue). The thesis will be based on modeling and solving different problems described above. Different types of real-life or realistic data will be available for testing.

Keywords: supply chain management, renewable energy, hydrogen, stochastic optimization, multi-objective optimization, game theory

Required Technical Skills:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Industrial Eng, Computer Science, Applied Math or any relevant subject from a European institution
• Experience in Python/C/C++ and solvers such as GAMS, CPLEX or Gurobi
• General knowledge of mathematical programming and optimization. Expertise in stochastic and integer programming is an advantage.
• Familiarity with at least one of relevant fields (energy systems, renewable energy, scheduling, supply chain management, metaheuristics…)

Behavioral Skills:

• Adaptability to team work
• Curiosity and enthusiasm to learn
• Flexibility
• Being open to new ideas and innovations
• Willingness to contribute to a cleaner future
• Speaking French is a plus

Candidates may send their CV, transcript, motivation letter and references to saf@pers-ee.fr until July 31th, 2018. Start date will be November 2018 in Lyon or later.