Our civilization primarily depends on fossil fuel resources sources such as oil, coal and natural gas for stationary and automotive applications. The economic development and poverty reduction for the hundreds of millions of people in the developed world has been primarily powered for these fossil fuel resources. However, the replication of these conventional energy sources for the billions of people in the developing and under-developed world to achieve similar levels of economic development is non-sustainable given the anthropogenic effects of urban pollution and climate change effects. Clean and renewable energy sources such as hydrothermal, nuclear, wind and solar are alternative options for power generation. While hydrothermal is limited in its capacity given its dependence on certain geographical locations, the highly resourceful nuclear power is also limited by the perceived-safety concerns and delays in governmental policy decisions across various countries. This leaves primarily the wind and solar power as the main renewable energy sources. The cost of new wind and solar power installations have come down drastically in the past decade but they still pose reliability and scalability challenges. In this context, electrochemical energy conversion and storage systems such as electrolyzers, fuel cells, and batteries are poised to play a central role in enabling the penetration of modern renewable energy sources. While doing so, the enviable trifecta of reliability, scalability and affordability offered by fossil fuel energy sources should not be compromised. Electrochemistry is a branch of science that deals with the interconversion of chemical and electrical energy in a very efficient manner. Efficiency, cost and durability are three critical components of any electrochemical energy conversion system. Our current interests are in electrochemical energy systems as listed below:
Hydrogen is expected to play a key role in the decarbonization of the energy-intensive industrial and automotive sectors. In energy-intensive chemical industries such as ammonia synthesis, cement and steel manufacturing, hydrogen is utilized as a major feedstock material. Hydrogen is also considered as a cleaner alternative fuel to the diesel-based internal combustion engines in heavy-duty trucks. Currently, hydrogen is generated via steam-methane reforming of natural gas that involves the evolution of carbon dioxide. Electrolysis of water provides an avenue to produce clean hydrogen that is free of fossil fuels whereas fuel cells offer an energy efficient pathway to convert the chemical energy stored in hydrogen directly to electrical energy. .
Redox-flow batteries provide an opportunity to store electrical energy in chemical species over various time scales ranging from days to months. The development of redox-flow battery systems is key to enable the penetration of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power. Further, the increased desertification due to climate change effects, rapid urbanization with poor planning, land-use changes and water mis-management has led to acute water scarcity in many parts of the world. Desalination batteries offer an alternative to the energy-intensive reverse osmosis process to generate potable water along with energy storage.
These electrochemical energy systems require engineering of several components such as stable electrocatalysts, electrode-electrolyte interfaces, perm-selective solid electrolyte membranes, transport components, and reactor design. The Laboratory for Electrochemical Energy Systems (LEES) is primarily an experimental group that synthesizes stable electrocatalytic materials, designs charge storage electrodes, understands electrode/electrolyte interfaces (specifically the catalyst-ionomer interfaces) using in situ and ex situ techniques, develops porous transport layers, designs flow fields, and integrates these components into electrochemical reactors using fundamental scientific and engineering principles. If any of this piques your brain, please feel free reach out to us.