Breathing good air should be a human right. This is what Sally R works to achieve - by combining space technology with ventilation to save energy and improve air quality in urban areas. This role contributes to getting closer to this.

Identifying and Developing Treatment Techniques for an Air Filtration Module in HVAC Units: Developing and Simulating for an Optimal Product Design

Category: Energy, Fluid Mechanics Application

Deadline: 30th of July, 2019

Position: Internship/ Master Thesis

Starting Date: As soon as possible

Duration: 6 months

Location: Stockholm/ Västerås, Sweden

About the partners

Sally R

Ventilation meets space technology. Sally R develops new technology for climate control in buildings that saves energy and improves indoor air quality. The solution is based on systems used for climate control in real estate buildings on earth, combined with technology deployed in space on the International Space Station (ISS). The company is part of the European Space Agency's business incubator, has been awarded as the Best B2B Startup at Sweden Demo Day and was one of the world's 500 hottest tech startups featured during Hello Tomorrow in Paris. Sally R was recently named as one of Sweden's 33 hottest tech companies as one of the companies on Ny Tekniks 33-lista. The name Sally R is attribute to the first American woman exploring space, Sally Ride.

KTH Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)

KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm has grown to become one of Europe’s leading technical and engineering universities, as well as a key center of intellectual talent and innovation. We are Sweden’s largest technical research and learning institution and home to students, researchers and faculty from around the world. Our research and education covers a wide area including natural sciences and all branches of engineering, as well as architecture, industrial management, urban planning, history and philosophy.

Vision

All people should breathe good air. Today, 92% of the world population live in places where air pollution exceeds World Health Organization (WHO) limits. An estimated 6.5 million premature deaths related to air pollution occur annually. At the same time, our buildings contribute to a third of the total global energy consumption. Approximately 40% of this is due to climate management in real estate. The problem is that there is a trade-off between indoor air quality and energy conservation. To improve the quality of indoor air, energy comes at a cost due to further filtration and treatment. Saving energy on climate management might lead to a bad indoor air quality. This is the problem that we solve at Sally R. We develop solutions that improve air quality while reducing energy consumption in buildings.

Technology

At the moment one product is on the market while several other are being developed. The first product is an algorithm that can be deployed in current ventilation systems and guarantees healthy (according to WHO standards) indoor air quality while decreasing energy consumption. It takes into account the outdoor and indoor climates as well as the number of people present in the building. For example, if the air outside is too hot, polluted and humid, and if there are not too many people inside, then the air can be recirculated up to a certain extent to save the cleaning, dehumidification and cooling expenses. Our second product line is a cleaning module that can be adapted on current HVAC systems; it includes air circulation function and a cleaning technique to filter harmful gases, such as volatile organic compounds(like formaldehyde, hydrocarbons, etc). With this product’s innovative design, we are able to clean the air efficiently through the algorithm while saving the ventilation system high energy expenditure. Nevertheless, out of this process, CO2 and H2O are formed as a byproduct, with the former being unfriendly to the environment.

Role

The project will be performed at the division of Sustainable Buildings, KTH Royal Institute of Technology in collaboration with two industrial companies, Sally-R and Neptech. The project is suitable for one student with the ability to work independently and creatively. Suitable Background is a Master program in Fluid Mechanics and familiar with Computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The candidate is required to have a solid background in ANSYS Package (ICEM, Fluent) or similar software. The interested candidate has the opportunity to work with a team of researchers at the division of sustainable buildings and a team business consultant helping to commercialize this idea. The successful candidate after this master thesis has the possibility to continue their work as a researcher in case of acceptance.

Skills and Profile

We expect our applicants to have a background in Mechanical Engineering (Fluid Mechanics) with a distinguished performance. Additionally, it is an advantage if you have experience in ventilation or energy-saving projects. We prefer that you are flexible and ready to take on a broad role. Your colleagues are all very determined and ambitious, so you are energetic and motivated. Even if the role involves product development, we want to emphasize that it is important that you are a team player who adds energy to the team. We put great focus on how you are as a person and what you want to achieve with us. You should have the ability to explain complex things in an understandable way.

Some additional requirements

• Positive, humble, self-motivated and outgoing
• A habit of 2D/3D sketching and Meshing
• Fluency in Swedish is a plus