Environmental Carbon Capture and Hydrogen Production for Operational Endurance and Sustainability
NRL is developing technologies to capture CO2 from seawater, produce hydrogen, and synthesize fuel for the Navy, aiming for carbon neutrality and on-site fuel production.
This grant is no longer accepting proposals
NRC Research Associateship Programs has archived this opportunity.
Funder: NRC Research Associateship Programs
Due Dates: May 1, 2025 (Next deadline)
Funding Amounts: Stipend approximately $99,200 per year plus $3,000 travel allowance; relocation assistance available. Typical fellowship duration 2-3 years.
Summary: Postdoctoral fellowship opportunity at Naval Research Laboratory to develop and demonstrate technologies for CO2 capture from seawater, hydrogen production, and synthesis of carbon-neutral fuels to support Navy operational endurance and sustainability goals.
Key Information: Open to U.S. citizens and permanent residents; requires Ph.D. earned within last 5 years; research aligned with Navy Climate Action 2030 goals; mentorship and access to federal lab facilities provided.
Description
The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) offers a postdoctoral research opportunity focused on developing and demonstrating novel technologies for environmental carbon capture and hydrogen production from seawater. The program aims to recover CO2 and produce hydrogen (H2), which are then combined in an innovative gas-to-liquids (GTL) process to synthesize value-added hydrocarbons. These synthetic fuels (e.g., LNG, CNG, F-76, JP-5) are envisioned to be produced at or near the point of use, reducing the Navy's fuel logistics tail, enhancing combat capabilities, and improving energy security by stabilizing fuel cost and availability.
From an environmental standpoint, the integrated technologies are designed to be CO2 neutral, as the CO2 emitted from fuel combustion re-equilibrates with the ocean, completing the natural carbon cycle. This approach supports the Navy's Climate Action 2030 initiative to achieve net-zero carbon emissions.
Current carbon capture and utilization technologies lack the modularity, scalability, size, weight, footprint, field deployability, and energy/mechanical efficiencies required for near-point-of-use deployment. This research opportunity seeks candidates to contribute to scaling, integrating, prototyping, and demonstrating these systems in relevant marine environments.
Research Areas of Interest Include:
- Design and evaluation of chemical systems (electrochemical, thermochemical, plasma) for hydrogenation of CO2 to syngas.
- Development and characterization of stable catalyst materials for converting CO2-derived intermediates to aromatic hydrocarbons.
- Catalyst synthesis, analytical characterization, and efficiency testing.
- Direct air and/or ocean capture of CO2.
- Computational modeling of catalyst environments to elucidate mechanisms and guide experiments.
- Computational fluid dynamics and transport modeling for electrochemical systems.
- Engineering design, fabrication, and evaluation of systems using CAD.
- Scaling, integration, and automation of complex system components.
Keywords
Catalyst, carbon dioxide (CO2), hydrogen, fuel, seawater, gas-to-liquids, carbon capture, synthetic fuel, Navy sustainability.
