Thesis Work on Impact of Process-Heat Electrification on the Internal Electrical Infrastructure of an F&B Plant

Construction, Engineering & Trades · Civil & Industrial Engineering · Electrical Engineering

In short

This thesis project investigates the effects of electrifying process heat on the internal electrical infrastructure of a food and beverage plant. It involves developing electrical and process models to quantify impacts on voltage, loading, and power quality, assessing mitigation strategies. The internship is for 5 months, from January to June 2027, located in Västerås, Sweden.

Responsibilities

Examine how replacing fossil-fired steam boilers with electric boilers or heat pumps affects the internal electrical distribution system of a typical food and beverage facility.
Quantify the electrical impacts of different electrification configurations, including voltage fluctuations, transformer and cable overload, harmonics, and infrastructure upgrade requirements.
Develop plant-level electrical and process models (including batch cycles and CIP).
Link a simplified process model to an electrical network model of the plant.
Evaluate how thermal storage and demand-response strategies can reduce the need for costly internal upgrades while maintaining process requirements.
Assess mitigation value of process flexibility and storage.

Requirements

1-2 students with a strong energy engineering background.
Strong motivation to solve practical industrial electrification problems using modelling and simulation.
Academic background in Electrical Engineering, Power Systems, or Energy Engineering.
Good programming knowledge in Python (or MATLAB).
Experience with power-system analysis tools (e.g. Pandapower or PowerFactory or similar).
Analytical skills and interest in linking process with electrical network.

Benefits

Thesis work with a duration of January 2027-June 2027 (5 months).
30 ECTS credits.
Opportunity to work at ABB CRC (Västerås).

Skills

PythonMATLABPandapowerPowerFactory

#electrification#process heat#electrical infrastructure#F&B plant#ABB#thesis#internship#Västerås

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