Doctoral Researcher - ECOVITRUM IND - Sustainable and Traceable Glass Microspheres - Doctors Innovating in the Business Sector - IEL/PR

Fundação Araucária, in partnership with IEL Paraná, offers Paraná-based companies an innovative program that connects their business with professional doctors. The Doctors Innovating in the Business Sector program will provide technical, scientific, and methodological expertise, essential for driving growth, innovation, and increasing the sustainability of your company, strengthening its position in the competitive landscape.

The program offers scholarships for the placement of doctors in Paraná-based companies, promoting scientific, technological, and innovation development. The scholarship holders will work directly in the company, contributing with cutting-edge knowledge and customized solutions for the market, anchored in science and robust evidence.

More than a bridge between academia and the productive sector, the program fosters the practical application of scientific knowledge, favoring the transformation of research into real innovations with high socioeconomic impact. The work of doctors promotes a culture of science within organizations, stimulates data-driven and evidence-based decision-making, and enhances the capacity to solve complex challenges creatively and sustainably.

About the Opportunity:

ECOVITRUM operates with solutions focused on the use of recycled glass, contributing to more sustainable industrial processes aligned with the circular economy. The company seeks to increase efficiency, standardization, and traceability in the production of recycled glass microspheres.

In this project, the work will focus on the development and validation of an integrated technological platform to optimize the production process, combining physical-mathematical modeling, design of new equipment, data acquisition and processing, predictive models, and advanced control.

If you have an analytical profile and an interest in industrial processes, data, and innovation applied to production efficiency, come be part of this challenge.

Project:

Intelligent platform for the production of recycled glass microspheres with standardization, traceability, and energy efficiency

Academic Background:

Researcher 1: Chemical Engineering, Materials Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field

Researcher 2: Control and Automation Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Data Science, Computer Engineering, or related field

Main Activities:

• Technically map Ecovitrum's production line, evaluating machines, processes, bottlenecks, losses, rework, downtime, operational instabilities, and energy consumption;
• Develop and monitor industrial improvement projects in critical stages of recycled glass microsphere production, including furnace, feeding, transport, cleaning, finishing, classification, and bagging;
• Propose improvements to machines, devices, mechanical systems, drives, operational parameters, and automation points, aiming for higher productivity, energy efficiency, and process stability;
• Define critical variables and operational parameters to be monitored, controlled, and standardized, supporting the implementation of sensors, indicators, and production control mechanisms;
• Conduct industrial tests, optimization experiments, and improvement validations, comparing results before and after interventions;
• Prepare technical reports with diagnoses, proposed improvements, prioritization criteria, test results, performance indicators, and operational recommendations;
• Support the structuring of intellectual property assets related to the furnace, machine improvements, integrated production process, and replicable technological platform.

Minimum Technical Requirements:

• Experience in industrial processes, machines, and equipment;
• Knowledge in applied industrial automation;
• Capacity for analyzing production bottlenecks;
• Knowledge in industrial energy efficiency;
• Proficiency in indicators such as productivity, specific energy consumption, losses, downtime, yield, and rework;
• Experience in machine instrumentation and sensing;
• Familiarity with motors, drives, inverters, sensors, transport systems, thermal systems, and industrial maintenance;
• Ability to structure tests in a factory environment and interpret process data.

Desirable Technical Requirements / Differentiators:

• Experience with thermal processes, industrial furnaces, vitreous materials, industrial recycling, continuous or semi-continuous production lines, process improvement;
• Lean Manufacturing, predictive maintenance, asset reliability, equipment commissioning;
• CAD/technical drawing, energy consumption analysis per ton produced, and development of industrial solutions with patent potential;
• Experience in integration between mechanical engineering, automation, sensors, and industrial data will be a differential.

Scholarship Value (monthly): Scholarship Holder (Doctor) R$ 5,000 – Doctors Innovating in the Business Sector Program

Work Format: Hybrid / Cascavel PR.

Soft Skills: Self-management, Autonomy, Creativity, and Leadership.