Chemical Engineer, Pilot Reaction and Process Development

Chemical Engineer, Pilot Reaction and Process Development

About Ammobia

Ammobia is on a mission to revolutionize the ammonia industry. We are a seed-stage startup developing Haber Bosch 2.0 – a next-generation ammonia synthesis process enabling cost-effective, clean ammonia production. 

Until now, ammonia production has been a highly polluting, steady-state, high inertia process. We are building in new regimes of physics and plant design that require dynamic processes, especially for ammonia production from intermittent renewable energy sources. Clean ammonia will support ammonia’s growing role in our decarbonized world, tackling some of the most difficult to abate sectors including chemicals, fertilizers, and heavy-duty transportation. We are supported by leading climate tech organizations including Starlight Ventures, the US Department of Energy, Collaborative Fund, Third Derivative, Forbes 30u30, and more.

Job Description

Ammobia is seeking a motivated and creative Chemical Engineer to develop, and optimize, and scale up our ammonia production process. You will scale up our reactor system and process from the bench scale to the pilot scale, with an emphasis on pilot system development and testing. There is significant opportunity to grow your role alongside the company. Responsibilities may include:

• Develop, optimize, and de-risk reaction and separation processes at the pilot and bench scales, through experimental (primarily) and model/simulation-based development
• Perform test engineering at pilot and bench scales: develop and plan experiments, write test plans, manage test operations, etc
• Design, analyze, and optimize experiments and processes
• Write comprehensive test documentation suitable for external sharing, investor and customer development
• Interface with plant process and catalytic materials R&D teams
• Integrate experimental and model learnings into plant design at increasing scales: interface with external engineering and EPC groups to design and execute pilot plant designs; then do the same to develop and execute the subsequent commercial scale designs

• 5+ years’ experience in a relevant industrial setting 
• Demonstrated expertise in process development and experimental design
• Demonstrated ability to drive development and test programs based on insights from models and experiment
• Hands on experience designing and operating research and pilot scale chemical processing equipment
• Demonstrated expertise in data analysis, especially for time-series data from dynamic processes, e.g. with Python, MATLAB, or similar
• Intuitive understanding of thermodynamics, kinetics, heat and mass transport
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Self-motivated, proactive, and able to work both independently and collaboratively 
• Passion for sustainability and excitement about working at an early-stage start-up
• Hands on experience in a startup

• Demonstrated experience in reaction engineering, heterogeneous catalysis, gas sorption
• Demonstrated experience in reactor and/or process modeling, eg in Aspen, gPROMS, MATLAB, COMSOL, or similar
• Experience in gas separations, PSA, TSA, membrane, distillation, or similar
• Experience in pilot scale chemical processing
• Experience in ammonia synthesis, cracking, or separations
• Experience in porous material synthesis and manufacturing 

Who we are

We are a small and passionate team of scientists and engineers. We value teamwork, accountability, open communication, and rapid iteration. We emphasize career growth, mutual feedback, and a fun and exciting working environment. Check out ammobia.co/careers for our full values statement and ammobia.co/team to learn more about us.