Chemical / Materials Systems Engineer Advanced Water Harvesting

Type: [Full time]

Your Mission

As our Chemical/Materials Systems Engineer, you will be the lead architect behind our transition from traditional vapor-compression refrigeration to advanced sorption-based harvesting. You will select, integrate, and optimize desiccant materials (like MOFs, silica gels, or liquid desiccants) into our existing hardware framework. Your primary goal is to minimize the Specific Energy Consumption (SEC) of our devices in low-humidity environments by mastering heat/mass transfer, waste heat recovery, and psychrometrics.

The Tech Stack

- Core Sciences: Advanced Psychrometrics, Thermodynamics, Sorption Kinetics, Heat & Mass Transfer
- Materials: Solid desiccants, Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs), Zeolites, composite aerogels, or liquid desiccants
- Simulation & Modeling: ANSYS, COMSOL Multiphysics, or similar CFD/Thermal modeling tools
- Data & Analysis: Python, MATLAB, or R for thermodynamic modeling and performance analysis
- Hardware Integration: Heat exchangers, desiccant wheels, packed beds, thermal loops

The Day-to-Day
- Hybrid System Design: Architect the integration of sorption materials into our existing mechanical framework, utilizing waste heat from compressors to drive the material regeneration (desorption) cycle.
- Material Selection & Testing: Evaluate and source commercially available or cutting-edge hygroscopic materials, testing their hydrolytic stability and uptake capacity across thousands of cycles in simulated dry climates.
- Thermal Cycle Optimization:



Design highly efficient thermal loops—calculating exactly how much energy is required to pull moisture from 20% RH air and the precise temperature needed to release it into the condenser.
- Collaborate with Mechanical: Work hand-in-hand with our Lead Mechanical Engineer to specify the exact heat exchangers, airflow pathways, and physical architecture needed to make the chemical process work at scale.
- Collaborate with Software/Data: Define the thermodynamic control strategy. Dictate exactly what sensor data (temperature gradients, RH differentials, flow rates) our Data Science team needs to collect to build predictive, machine-learning-driven optimization algorithms.

What You Bring
- A Master’s or Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, Advanced Thermal/Fluids Engineering, or a closely related field.
- 3+ years of professional R&D; or engineering experience focused on HVAC, dehumidification, thermal management, or atmospheric water harvesting.
- Deep, expert-level understanding of psychrometric charts and moist air thermodynamics.
- Proven experience working with moisture-absorbing materials and understanding their adsorption/desorption kinetics.
- The ability to translate complex chemistry and thermodynamics into actionable mechanical designs and software control logic.

Bonus Points
- You have successfully scaled a bench-top chemical or thermal process into a commercial hardware prototype.
- You have specific experience working with Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) or advanced hydrogels for water capture.
- You have experience running environmental test chambers to benchmark hardware against strict microclimate standards.

📌 Chemical/Material Engineer (Chennai)
🏢 ETEL
📍 Chennai