Application of AI/ML to Advance Catalyst Development Efforts for Waste Methane Valorization

The National Energy Technology Laboratory's (NETL's) record of success has been built on understanding the future of energy and the technologies required to make that future possible. We’ve long touted our success in developing the technologies that took on acid rain in the 1970s and mercury in the early 2000s. More recently, NETL has a leading role in President Biden’s ambitious climate goals, including a carbon emission-free power sector by 2035 and a net-zero economy by 2050.

Program Goals

The NETL Postgraduate Research Program (PGRP) is a high-intensity program designed to identify recent Master’s and Doctoral graduates of high promise and to foster advanced skill development. It allows the postgraduate to systematically outline career goals and helps provide the means of achieving these goals. NETL principal investigators and leads serve as mentors to PGRP participants during the program. This interaction affords the postgraduate a unique opportunity to develop critical skills needed to become an independent professional.

The program goals include providing the opportunity to participants to:

• Develop skills and knowledge in their field of study
• Engage with new areas of basic and applied research
• Network with world-class scientists
• Exchange ideas and skills with the Laboratory community
• Use state-of-the-art equipment
• Contribute to answers for today's pressing scientific questions
• Collaborate with the broader scientific and technical communities

Project Details

Through the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), this posting seeks a post-Doctoral or post-Master's researcher to engage in projects with the Research Innovation Center (RIC) at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in the area of Methane Mitigation under the mentorship of David Haynes. This project will be hosted at the NETL Morgantown, WV and Pittsburgh, PA campuses.

The development of catalytic materials is time consuming and iterative process by nature because of the large parameter space and interdependence of different variables that affect the desired performance. Artificial intelligence and machine learning models have demonstrated the potential to improve the effectiveness of this process to enhance discovery of new materials by reducing time and labor costs.  The project focuses on collaboration with a multidisciplinary team to develop and apply AI/ML models to enhance catalyst material discovery, optimize experimental protocols, and improve computational atomistic simulations.  The project is aimed at converting waste methane into value added chemicals, and seek to improve catalyst durability, selectivity and activity.

The candidate can expect to learn with subject matter experts in heterogeneous catalysis and microwave catalysis to understand technical details required for dataset and database development and parameters for model training.  They will collaborate with NETL Science-based AI/ML team members to learn to design, build, and maintain data pipelines to collect, process and store data obtained from the literature, as well as that determined experimentally and computationally. They will also develop expertise in AI/ML models applicable for catalyst development, such as predictive and generative modeling, and image analysis. 

Stipend: The selected participant will receive a monthly stipend commensurate with educational level and experience.

• Post-Master's stipend is $6187.50 per month.
• Post-Doctoral stipend is $7486 per month.

Deliverables: To document the effectiveness of the program, participants are required to submit a pre-appointment and post-appointment survey, as well as a reflection on their appointment experience when they renew or end their appointment. The reflection should summarize their project(s), additional activities, and overall experience. Details are provided as the appointment end date approaches.
Participants may also have the opportunity to contribute to manuscripts, journal articles, book chapters, conference presentations, posters, patents, and other publications as a part of their appointment. Such achievements should also be reported to ORISE; additional details are provided after an offer has been accepted.

The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), part of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory system, is owned and operated by the DOE. NETL supports the DOE mission to advance the energy security of the United States. This is an educational opportunity offered by NETL and administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education. Participants in the program are not considered employees of NETL, DOE, the program administrator, or any other office or agency.

Qualifications

To be eligible, you must either:

• have received a Doctoral degree within the last five years or be currently enrolled in a Doctoral degree program and complete the degree prior to the appointment start date.
• have received a Master's degree within the last three years or are currently enrolled in a Master's degree program and complete the degree prior to the appointment start date.

The ideal candidate would have some, but not necessarily all, of the following:

Ph.D. or Master's in Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Material Physics, Physics, or Data Science.

Strong expertise in AI/ML methodologies is preferable.

Expertise in catalysis and/or materials research and characterization techniques like X-ray diffraction, SEM, Raman, XPS, etc. is also desired.