The mission of the SUBPRO-Zero Centre is to conduct research that will contribute to net-zero emissions for the offshore industry. More info about SUBPRO-Zero and the background for the Centre.

For the summer of 2026 SUBPRO-Zero announces two to three (2-3) four to six (4-6) weeks summer internships at Chemical Engineering (IKP) and Mechanical Engineering (MTP). Wanted applicants are 4^th-year students now, starting their last year from August 2026.

The plan is to continue these with industry-oriented specialization project’s during the fall 2026 and Master thesis’ spring 2027.

Planned summer internships

Using microfluidics to investigate microscale phenomena of gas flotation for subsea water treatment (Main Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Nadia Shardt)

Gas flotation is an important step for removing oil droplets from produced water. In this process, oil droplets attach to bubbles that rise in the vessel. The efficiency of attachment depends on the relative sizes of droplets and bubbles and on interfacial properties. Recent work in our lab has used microfluidic experiments to investigate these effects and observe individual droplet-bubble attachment events. Microfluidics is the study and manipulation of small fluid volumes, and it can be used to precisely generate droplets and bubbles.

The goal of this summer job will be to obtain quantitative information on attachment time, attachment efficiency, and the geometry of bubble-droplet pairs as a function of droplet and bubble size. Microfluidic experiments will be combined with computer vision algorithms that use machine learning. These results may be used in the future for the design of gas flotation processes with improved efficiency of oil droplet removal.

Gas Flotation for Subsea Produced Water Treatment (Main Supervisor: Prof. Gisle Øye)

Produced water is a substantial by-product during oil production. To reduce the environmental footprint of oil recovery, efficient removal of oil drops and solids dispersed in the produced water is essential. Gas flotation is a widely used separation technology for removing oil from water streams and relies on attachment of oil droplets and solids to the bubbles (Figure 1) to enhance the rising velocity of droplets and thereby separation. The removal of oil drops and solids have been studied separately, but mixed systems are poorly understood.

The goal in this project will be to study how the presence of solids will influence the oil removal efficiency during gas flotation. Initially, the influence of wettability and concentration of the solid particles on oil removal will be investigated. The oil removal efficiency will be determined at elevated temperature and pressure using a gas flotation cell designed in-house.

Complete Subsea Separation (Main Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Christian Holden)

Produced water, a major by-product of oil and gas extraction, is largely discharged to sea on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, at a rate of about 120 million cubic meters per year. While only about 30 ppm is allowed to be present, that still accounts for about 3500 tonnes of oil per year. As well as being a significant source of pollution, it is also both a significant cost and a potential source of savings. Removing the water from the oil stream on the seabed rather than on the surface is both more environmentally friendly and cheaper.

Seabed separation requires compact equipment. NTNU has built a new laboratory to optimise the operation and control of compact separators. This project will be using that lab to acquire data that will be vital to current and future research. As such, the project will chiefly compose designing and performing a large array of experiments at IGVs facility in Trondheim. Practical experience with large-scale experimental work is therefore an advantage.

Send your application with CV and grades to Pål J. Aune

Mark the application with the relevant project(s) you are interested in.

Deadline: 23:59 on 22nd of February 2026.

For questions regarding the internships, feel free to contact coordinator Pål J. Aune (pal.aune@ntnu.no) or ask the supervisors directly. But due to privacy rights and GDPR-rules, we are not allowed to receive your documents by email.