PhD Studentship: Designing the Best Hydrogen Production Systems Using Modelling and Machine Learning

Delivering green hydrogen production at scale presents considerable challenges, but also offers enormous potential towards achieving net zero carbon targets. Using renewable energy sources to power the electrolysis of water provides a clean and green route to produce hydrogen that can act as a form of energy storage, and can subsequently be used in fuel cells for a convenient and mobile mode of clean electricity generation with only water as a by-product.

Recently, novel electrochemical methods have been proposed for the co-production of both hydrogen and important chemicals using waste biomass and water as feedstocks. Despite these new opportunities, key challenges remain to deliver the potential contribution of electrochemical hydrogen production to a more sustainable future.

We propose to build multiscale simulations of electrolysis systems in order to achieve optimised engineering design and operation for hydrogen production using renewable power supplies and sustainable feedstocks. We will develop models to represent the complex physical and chemical phenomena taking place within electrolysers at multiple lengths and time scales, ranging from multi-catalyst composition and electronic synergies, electrode and membrane material microstructure, chemical reaction kinetics, multi-phase flow, the flow of charge, heat transport, and interfacial effects (gas/liquid/solid boundaries).

We will adopt multiple modelling techniques from the molecular scale (MD), through multi-dimensional microscopic models (FE, LBM) and reduced-dimension models up to whole-stack models; these will be integrated with machine learning techniques to deliver rapid, physically meaningful surrogate models that can deliver the multi-objective optimisation required for these complex systems.

Funding Details

Funding Minimum: UK and Int Competition Funded

Tuition fees cover the cost of your teaching, assessment and operating University facilities such as the library, IT equipment and other support services. University fees and charges can be paid in advance and there are several methods of payment, including online payments and payment by instalment. Fees are reviewed annually and are likely to increase to take into account inflationary pressures.

The AACME Studentship competition offers the chance for UK and International applicants who are interested in undertaking a PhD to have their full-time studies paid for.

Applicants could receive full or partial funding for 3 years, including a tax-free stipend of £17,668 (2022/23 rates) per annum, and/or a tuition fee waiver.

Studentships will be awarded on a competitive basis to applicants who have applied to advertised projects within AACME with the reference ‘AACME-23-028'. Successful candidates will be notified by the end of March 2023.

Location of Job: Loughborough Campus

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