Senior Process Engineer (Direct-air-capture) in London

Rivan Industries (Rivan.com) is a synthetic fuel company designed to decarbonise heavy industry. We aim to make synthetic fuel cheaper than fossil fuels and sustain life on earth by keeping CO2 locked underground. We design and manufacture modular synthetic fuel plants consisting of a lime-based Direct Air Capture (DAC) system, an Alkaline Electrolyser, and a Sabatier Reactor, vertically integrated with off‐grid DC solar and the European gas grid. Our DAC process uses a cyclic CaO/Ca(OH)2/CaCO3 loop, involving calcination, hydration, carbonation, drying, milling, screening and solids conveying. We have recently deployed the UK’s largest synthetic fuel plant and are planning to 1000× this scale in the next 2 years.

Do you want to work on the end‐to‐end design of one of the most innovative process systems on Earth, where you deploy 1 system a week, not 1 system a decade like most incumbents? There is no boilerplate engineering in this system – only the most innovative, ground‐up problem solvers thrive here. We work in small teams, expect complete ownership, and practise first‐principles reasoning while executing at speed. We operate with minimal bureaucracy, only what is essential to ensure our systems are safe, legally compliant and deployed on time. Everything else is up to you.

The role encompasses the full development cycle, but can be tailored to the specialist skillset of the applicant:

• System architecture selection and process modelling (FEED) for a cyclic lime‐based DAC process.
• Design and optimisation of unit operations across the full CaCO3 → CaO → Ca(OH)2 → CaCO3 loop, including calcination systems, carbonation contactors, hydrators, dryers, and associated solids‐handling equipment.
• Full system scope, including the DAC loop, inter‐unit solids transport, steam generation/delivery, CO2 handling, and integration with methanation and electrolysis.
• Ideating novel reactor architectures and solids‐processing approaches with the Rivan mindset.
• Intelligent, inherently safe design of high‐temperature, steam‐rich, and solids‐handling systems.
• Bench‐scale test rig development, oversight and data analysis for calcination, hydration, carbonation and sorbent cyclic stability.
• Detailed engineering design of gas‐solid reactors/contactors, liquid‐solid reactors, milling and classification systems, and system‐wide process optimisation.
• Steady‐state modelling (e.g. Aspen) of high‐temperature reaction kinetics, mass/heat balances and cyclic performance.
• Creation and ownership of PFDs and P&ID for DAC systems.
• Defining control strategies for DAC both with respect to steady‐state and transient operation.
• Component specification and procurement for high‐temperature and solids‐handling equipment.
• Process Safety: HAZID, HAZOP, LOPA, SIF specification, DSEAR. Relief design for steam/CO2/high‐temp systems. Responsibility for end‐to‐end process safety across the lime‐based DAC system.
• Defining and executing build, deployment, commissioning and startup, including factory assembly and acceptance testing of DAC modules, on‐site installation, commissioning and operation.
• Operational data analysis and optimisation of conversion, energy consumption and cyclic performance. Reviewing unit performance vs targets to feed into the next design iteration.

Essential skills:

• 5+ years professional experience.
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Chemical Engineering or a related field.
• Experience designing and building plants, featuring solids.
• Strong experience with solid‐handling (screws, feeders, mills, classifiers, silos, cyclones) and gas–solid reaction systems.
• Experience with high‐temperature processes such as calcination, pyrolysis, reforming, roasting or thermal treatment.
• Experience working with powders/granular materials: attrition, flowability, cohesion, PSD control.

Additional skills:

• Experience with process plant design, commissioning and operation.
• Experience with lime, cement, sorbents, ceramics or mineral processing industries.
• HAZID, HAZOP and LOPA leadership experience.
• Aspen or other process modelling (steady‐state) expertise.
• Control system design experience, ideally including solids‐handling or thermal processes.
• Bench‐scale experimental design, data acquisition and gas‐solid reactor testing experience.