Women in Hydrogen

The challenge with current proton exchange membrane water electrolysers (PEMWE) is poor power performance and durability; mainly caused by large mass transfer losses and degradation of electrode structure, from random electrode structure from catalyst nanoparticles. Alexandra will seek to develop a new generation of catalyst electrodes from aligned IrO2- and metal oxide-based nanowires for PEMWE applications; taking advantage of the high stability of nanowires and boosted mass transfer characteristics of nanowire arrays unique thin catalyst layers.

Dr Shanfeng Du, Dr Neil Rees.

Amy’s project will investigate the public’s view of novel sustainable technologies and their willingness to engage with a hydrogen fuelled future. Overcoming barriers to acceptance and investigating methods of increasing engagement are imperative elements of Amy’s research. By appreciating the perspectives and views of individuals from all backgrounds, industries, and ways of life Amy aims to initiate an area of research which can progress the acceptance and application of hydrogen technologies in our society. 

Associate Professor Alexa Spence, Professor Begum Tokay

Molecular hydrogen evolution electrocatalysts allow efficient hydrogen production from water under mild conditions. Adedayo will research development of fully tailorable molecular clusters based on molybdenum/tungsten and sulfur/oxygen. Systems will be combined with conductive nanocarbon materials to develop highly efficient composite electrocatalysts for the water splitting reaction. The stability and efficiency of these systems will be explored during prolonged electrolysis. 

Dr Graham Newton, Associate Professor Lee Johnson, Dr Kieran Jones.

Elizabeth’s project will be part of H2COOL, a project which aims to develop metal hydrides to take advantage of their endothermic dehydrogenation, to provide cooling for refrigeration, in addition to hydrogen storage. This dual-use store has the potential application for transporting perishable goods in heavy goods vehicles, as the hydrogen release can be used for powering a hydrogen fuel cell whilst the cooling effect refrigerates the cargo space inside.

Professor David Grant, Assistant Professor Alastair Stuart, Dr Matthew Wadge, Professor Martin Dornheim

Antonia is working on the development of catalysts based upon earth abundant metals for application towards hydrogen storage materials including ammonia borane and metal borohydride ammoniates. Critical to the project is developing a fundamental understanding of the mechanisms involved the dehydrogenation of these materials in order to optimise catalytic performance.

Professor Deborah Kays, Dr Saad Salman, Professor David Grant.

Shiqi’s research will focus on injecting hydrogen into natural gas pipelines and quickly mixing hydrogen and methane evenly. The homogeneous mixing of hydrogen and methane helps to prevent hydrogen embrittlement in the pipeline to prevent leakage from spreading. Safe handling of hydrogen and hydrogen-natural gas mixtures and understanding of the hazards and associated risks from leakage will also be included in future studies. These include (but are not limited to) hazard distances defined by the extent of the flammable cloud, and thermal effects from jet fire. Shiqi will focus on theoretical modelling and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. The research objective is to develop safety engineering tools related to hydrogen-methane mixtures. This will include consideration of theoretical modelling of unignited and ignited jets of hydrogen-methane mixtures and the effect of buoyancy on release.

Dr Sile Brennan, Dr Dmitriy Makarov, Professor Vladimir Molkov.

Metal hydrides are a more compact storage medium than compressed gas or liquid hydrogen. If a successful candidate can be found, metal hydrides can be used to simplify the equipment needed for an offshore hydrogen generation platform. Amelia is researching into higher capacity metal hydrides that are also resistant to the impurities found by generating hydrogen from seawater electrolysis. 

Professor David Grant, Dr Marcus Adams

The gas network currently supplies natural gas to consumers but could instead supply gases, such as hydrogen, in the future. Thermo-catalytic decomposition of methane allows enrichment of natural gas with hydrogen, a carbon-free fuel. Mickella's research is focused on the development of this technology and the incorporation of wind energy.

Dr James Reynolds, Professor Sandie Dann and Professor David Saal.

Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult

Ramas’ project focuses on overcoming challenges currently present in the field of hydrogen compression. Through utilizing the thermodynamics of metal hydrides, solid–state compression circumvents some of the economic and safety concerns present in mechanical compression. MHHC utilize high-pressure alloys to absorb hydrogen and compress it by heating the metal hydride. Ramas’ project is centred around researching and developing suitable AB2 group alloys that will provide the desired isotherms with low hysteresis, flat pressure plateaus, and fast kinetics. Ramas aims to improve the efficiency of hydrogen compression through analysing hydrogen uptake, as well as thermodynamic and kinetic measurements for various alloy compositions. High-pressure alloy properties will be characterized by using analytical techniques such as XRD, SEM, and XPS. Moreover, Ramas’ project also aims to evaluate and modify the design of existing solid-state compressor prototypes to enable its successful deployment for hydrogen compression applications.

Professor David Grant, Assistant Professor Alastair Stuart, Dr Marcus Adams

This project develops novel LCA models to assess the resource and environmental implications of deploying hydrogen fuelled vehicles in the UK’s light and heavy duty road fleets. Cheryl will consider the current and future mix of hydrogen production routes, vehicle manufacture, use and end-of-life vehicle management.

Professor Jon McKechnie

Aramco

Developing efficient sensor materials with superior performance for selective, fast and sensitive hydrogen detection is essential for environmental protection and human health. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) – crystalline and porous solid materials constructed from metal nodes (metal ions or clusters) and functional organic ligands – are of interest for gas sensing for their large surface area, adjustable pore size, tunable functional sites and intriguing properties; such as electrical conductivity, magnetism, ferroelectricity, luminescence and chromism. 

Emily’s project aims to fabricate novel multi-functional MOFs with improved sensitivity and stability for hydrogen detection. 

Assistant Professor Oluwafunmilola Ola, Professor Elena Besley.

The scope of Mina's doctoral study includes the identification and prioritisation of relevant knowledge gaps, to develop innovative safety strategies to mitigate and prevent hydrogen-fuelled vehicles accidents in confined spaces. The first step is performing analytical and numerical studies to increase hydrogen-powered vehicles’ safety, through improving TRRDs design; to prevent pressure peaking phenomenon and blow-off phenomenon, which would both lead to hydrogen deflagration or detonation and catastrophe in confined spaces.

Dr Sile Brennan, Dr Dmitriy Makarov, Professor Vladimir Molkov.

Catalytic acceptorless alcohol dehydrogenation is an atom-economical approach for alcohol oxidation, without need for an oxidant.

Reversible dehydrogenation/hydrogenation catalysis from this reaction provides a route to the use of organic molecules derived from biomass as liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs). Alcohols such as ethylene glycol, glycerol and the C4-C6 analogues erythritol, xylitol and sorbitol are considered to be potentially useful biomass-derived feedstocks; derived from agricultural or lumber resources, including waste streams and gravimetric hydrogen storage capacities, meeting targets set by the EU and the US Department of Energy. 

Isabelle’s project will investigate a range of low coordinate and pincer complexes of the first-row transition metals in order to achieve the acceptorless dehydrogenation reactions and, with appropriate candidates, investigate the possibility of undertaking the reverse reaction with addition of H2.

Professor Deborah Kays, Professor Peter Licence.

Una is investigating thermodynamic tuning of boron and nitrogen-based complex metal hydrides (CMHs), synthesized by chemical and mechano-chemical routes.

Nano-structuring by encapsulation in mesoporous-frameworks seeks to enhance cyclic stability, discharge and recharge rates whilst maintaining storage capacity. The materials will be characterised using a wide range of techniques to assess electrical, thermal and hydrogen storage properties.

Associate Professor Josh Makepeace, Professor David Book.

As the generation mix in energy systems is characterised by an increasing penetration of generation from renewable energy sources (RES) energy imbalances are becoming more prevalent and potentially more costly to mitigate in the absence of flexible and cost-effective forms of storage. Kate’s project will consider nuclear power as a potential source of both power and flexibility and explore the role, costs and potential value of nuclear to the wider energy system in its transition to net-zero and beyond.

Kate will investigate how conversion of nuclear based electricity into hydrogen not only provides storage and balancing opportunities but may also increase the return to and value of nuclear investments, by providing alternative vectors for storing and consuming energy derived from nuclear power. Kate’s research aims to develop a tool for assessing economic costs and benefits of nuclear power with hydrogen to the GB energy system. 

Professor David Saal, Associate Professor Grant Wilson

Green hydrogen production from weather dependent low carbon generation is an area of growth signposted in the UK Committee on Climate Change’s 6th Carbon Budget (published December 2020); which provides UK Government Ministers with advice on the volume of greenhouse gases the UK can emit during the period 2033-2037. Katarina’s research will focus on the advantages and disadvantages of green hydrogen generation at a local level, specifically within the West Midlands Combined Authority area.

Dr Grant Wilson, Professor Bushra Al-Duri.

Ammonia has the potential to provide itself as an effective medium for energy storage in the form of hydrogen. Implementing this idea of transforming existing hydrocarbon-based energy sources to renewable and essentially zero carbon energy in the form of hydrogen, requires overcoming limitations and working on research gaps.

The production of hydrogen from ammonia (NH₃) through catalytic decomposition has gained significant attention as a potential avenue for clean and efficient hydrogen production. Developing efficient catalysts for this process is crucial to enhance the kinetics and selectivity of ammonia decomposition, thereby enabling the large-scale utilization of ammonia as a hydrogen carrier. Bakhtawar’s project will explore group 2 and transition metal imide/amide catalysts for ammonia decomposition, with an aim to operate the process at lower temperature and pressure. Bakhtawar will investigate sustainable catalysts, avoiding resource limited rare earth metals.

Associate Professor Josh Makepeace

Esther’s research will build upon recent fundamental research on new electrocatalysts and electrodes for water electrolysis, and the anion-exchange-membrane (AEM) to further develop membrane-electrode-assembly based water electrolyser for sustainable hydrogen production with the maximum resource and energy efficiencies. Particular attention will be paid to the catalytic electrode-electrolyte interface structure to achieve efficient reaction kinetic, and fast charge and mass transports in the water electrolyser, to minimise overpotential loss and gain maximum voltage and overall system efficiency. The life cycle assessment will also be considered at component levels.

Professor Wen-Feng Lin, Dr Simon Kondrat 

Assistant Professor of advanced materials chemistry

Annabel obtained her BSc in Chemistry from the National University of Córdoba in 2007 and subsequently worked for the R&D division of Genbra Argentina S.A. in the field of agricultural sciences. In 2008, she was awarded the prestigious PhD fellowship from CONICET to pursue her graduate studies, which included stints at the University of Johannesburg (South Africa) and the University of Valencia (Spain). She received her PhD in Chemistry with Honours from the National University of Córdoba in 2013. Anabel then spent a short time as a postdoctoral fellow at the Rhodes University (South Africa) and at the National University of Córdoba working on the development of new coated magnetic particles in Langmuir monolayer model membranes. At the end of 2013, Anabel moved to Canada to work as a postdoctoral fellow under the supervision of Prof. Tito Scaiano at the University of Ottawa, where she developed her expertise in the field of heterogeneous photocatalysis. In 2017, she was hired as a Research Associate to help Prof Scaiano run a group of more than 10 researchers. In 2020, she joined the University of Nottingham as an Assistant Professor.

Associate Professor in Advanced Materials

Katy Voisey's current research is centred on the three areas of laser materials processing, corrosion and overlay coatings. The underlying theme is the relation between microstructural modifications and material performance, proper understanding of this relationship enables material engineering techniques to be used to optimise material performance. Her wider interests include sustainable engineering, hydrogen for the rural economy and materials challenges in the space industry.

Associate Professor in risk and reliability engineering

Dr Rasa Remenyte-Prescott is an Associate Professor in Risk and Reliability Engineering at the University of Nottingham. Rasa gained BSc and MSc degrees with distinction in applied mathematics from Kaunas University of Technology in Lithuania. Following this Rasa undertook her Doctorate research at Loughborough University on systems reliability modelling of non-coherent systems using the Binary Decision Diagram technique. This work led Rasa to develop fast and accurate reliability assessment techniques for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles on an industry-led collaborative project in a postdoctoral research fellow role.

Head of the department of aeronautical and automotive engineering

Lisa gained her PhD from Loughborough University in 2000 (Variable orderings for Binary Decision Diagrams) and became a post-doctoral researcher within the Mathematical Sciences department. She became a member of the academic staff in the Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering department in 2004, was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2010 and then promoted to Chair in Risk and Reliability in 2018.

Professor in advanced materials

Ioanna obtained her MEng in Chemical Engineering in 2006 (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece). The same year she was awarded a scholarship from the School of Civil Engineering of the University of Leeds to study for an MSc in Environmental Engineering and Project Management, which she graduated from in 2007.

She completed her PhD in Chemical Engineering at Aston University in 2012 under the supervision of Professor Tony Bridgwater. From 2012-2017, she was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering at the University of Sheffield. Her research there was focused on techno-economic feasibility assessments of carbon capture and utilisation processes (EPSRC), biorefinery systems (EU FP7), and waste plastic pyrolysis applications (IAA Early Career Researcher Grant). She was also a member of the Department's Opportunities Committee which succeeded in winning the Athena SWAN silver award in 2014 and renewing it in 2017. In 2018, she was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Nottingham and she is a member of the Low Carbon Energy and Resources Technologies Research Group.

Associate Professor of psychology

Spence's research experience includes time spent within both the academic and public sectors and has been involved with research within social, economic, and environmental psychology. Her primary area of expertise is within social cognition and risk and she has professional memberships of the British Psychological Society, the European Association of Social Psychologists, the European Social Cognition Network, the National Energy Research Network and the Society for Risk Analysis. She is also a member of the UK Energy Research Centre.

Professor of advanced materials

Begum graduated from Istanbul Technical University (ITU) Turkey in 1999. She received her Master Degree in Chemical Engineering focused on the catalytic synthesis of Ethyl tertiary butyl ether on H-Beta zeolite catalyst. She developed expertise in the production and characterization of inorganic and composite materials (e.g. zeolites, membranes) for energy and environmental applications during her PhD in in Istanbul Technical University with Prof. Ayse Erdem-Ṣenatalar. To date, key outputs of the project she worked for have included contributing nanosize zeolite crystallization and growth mechanism during synthesis from clear solutions and demonstrating their potential for various applications including antibacterial fabrics, by controlling their size and properties. She was offered an ExxonMobil research associate position in Prof Richard D. Noble & Prof John L. Falconer research group at the University of Colorado, Boulder, USA to conduct a project on ZSM-5 membranes for separation of organic mixtures by reverse osmosis. During this research, she developed expertise in reverse osmosis and characterization of zeolite membranes, as well as in membrane production. During a National Science Foundation project, in Boulder, she built track record in design of membrane pore characterization & pervaporation systems for dehydration of alcohols and this work resulted in 1 peer-reviewed publication. She continued her work in a Shell project on development of SAPO-34 membranes for CO₂/CH₄ separation. She worked as lecturer at the Middle East Technical University, Northern Cyprus Campus between 2011-2012. She joined the University of Nottingham in 2013 as an assistant professor.

Professor of Electrical Power

BEng Electronic and Electrical Engineering at Heriot Watt, followed by a PhD at Cambridge University

PhD – RA at Cambridge University. Worked for E.On in their R&D centre. I took a career break when I had children. I was at Sheffield University as a part-time Lecturer and the Daphne Jackson Research Fellow, Rolls-Royce Fuel Cells Engineer and then Team Leader of Power and Controls). I was at Aston University and them came to Loughborough University, where I am now. 

I'm undertaking research into low-cost generation of hydrogen through battolyser technology. This involves a lot of small-scale testing of different battolysers, along with scaling-up. As part of this the team is building some demonstrator units to put battolysers on a micro-grid in Africa, as part of an EU-funded project 'LOCEL H2'. I also research power systems, measurement, and batteries. 

I’m more of a generalist. As I’ve had a broad background with experience in different industries, I have a lot of experience in net zero and low carbon technology. 

Michael Faraday (1791-1867), who was hugely important in both electrical power and electrolysis research.

The people working in this area are young and enthusiastic with a can-do attitude. 

Produce a commercial battolyser; to generate low-cost hydrogen and produce low-cost, low-pressure storage. 

Travelling and walking.