Ten prominent academics from seven UK universities, all leading a work package integrating a range of disciplines.
Professor Nigel Brandon
Director
Professor Nigel Brandon is the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at Imperial College, the Director of Sustainable Gas Institute and H2FC SUPERGEN Hub, and Co-director of the Energy SuperStore.
He has held a number of positions prior to these at the same institution. Professor Brandon has rich industrial research experience and has held positions at BP and Rolls Royce.
His research focuses around electrochemical power sources such as fuel cells, batteries, and hybrid systems. He collaborates extensively with industry in this field, as well with other research centres and universities around the world. He is a founder of Ceres Power (www.cerespower.com), an AIM listed fuel cell company spun out from Imperial College.
Professor Brandon has been granted numerous awards including Order of the British Empire for services to UK-China science (2011), Baker Medal, Institute of Civil Engineering (2011), and the Royal Academy of Engineering Silver Medal (2007). He was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2008.
Click here for Professor Brandon’s homepage.
Professor John Irvine
Co-Director
Professor John Irvine is Professor of Chemistry at the University of St Andrews and currently holds an EPSRC Senior Fellowship.
His first degree is in Chemical Physics from Edinburgh University and he obtained a DPhil from the University of Ulster in Photoelectrochemistry. He performed his postdoctoral studies working with Anthony West in Aberdeen and was subsequently appointed to a BP/RSC fellowship, lectureship and senior lectureship at Aberdeen University. In 1994 he was visiting Professor at Northwestern University and then moved to the University of St Andrews as Reader and then Professor of Inorganic Chemistry.
His research interests include solid state ionics, new materials, ceramic processing, electrochemistry, fuel cell technology, hydrogen, photoelectrochemistry, electrochemical conversion and heterogeneous catalysis.
In 2005 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and in 2008 received the Royal Society of Chemistry Materials Chemistry Award. He has over 300 publications in refereed journals including Nature and Nature Materials. He has developed new concepts in fuel cells, e,g. the Hybrid Direct Carbon Fuel Cell, has a leading role the field of developing redox stable, coking tolerant oxide electrodes for SOFCs and discovered the first significant interstitial oxide ion conductor. He was Chairman of the 2010 European SOFC Forum in Lucerne, and is Chairman of the Scottish Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association.
Click here for Professor Irvine’s homepage
Professor Tim Mays
Co-Director
Professor Tim Mays is Professor of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Bath with broad interests in energy and materials research.
Professor Mays has had long-standing leadership roles in academic research on hydrogen energy in the UK including as Principle Investigator of the EPSRC SUPERGEN UK Sustainable Hydrogen Energy Consortium (2003-2012) which preceded the establishment of the H2FC SUPERGEN Hub in 2012. He has over 130 published outputs mainly in research journals and conference proceedings, and has been an investigator on over 30 research grants worth over UK£22M, and is currently involved in EPSRC grants worth UK£10M including three H2FC SUPERGEN projects. These focus on hydrogen storage systems for example in fuel-cell road vehicles, including especially storage in nanoporous media.
Professor Mays obtained his PhD at the University of Bath for research on nuclear graphites and following postdoctoral posts also at Bath was appointed as a Lecturer in Materials Science at the University in 1994. In 2002 he moved to the Department of Chemical Engineering at Bath, and was appointed Head of Department in 2013. Amongst his other responsibilities at the University he is Co-Director of the Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies (SCT), which incorporates the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in SCT, and is Director of the University’s Institute for Sustainable Energy and the Environment, I-SEE. He is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers.
Click here for Professor Mays’ homepage.
Professor Ian Metcalfe
Co-Director
Professor Ian Metcalfe is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at Newcastle University, having previously been a Professor of Chemical Engineering in both Manchester and Edinburgh and a Senior Lecturer at Imperial College.
He obtained his PhD from Princeton and his BSc from Imperial College London.
Professor Metcalfe’s work is primarily in the area of oxidation kinetics and oxide catalysis. In particular he is interested in the uses of ionically conducting materials in catalytic systems. This interest has led to work on ceramic fuel cells, electrochemical reactors and sensors using both oxygen-ion and proton conducting systems.
He has published over 100 refereed papers and is the author of a text book in the area of kinetics and reaction engineering. He is Executive Editor for Chemical Engineering Science. He is both a Chartered Chemist and a Chartered Engineer as well as being a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers.
In July 2012, in recognition of his contribution to the fields of catalysis and membrane science over the past 25 years Ian was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
Click here for Professor Metcalfe’s homepage.
Professor David Book
Hydrogen Storage Materials Work Package Leader
Professor David Book is a Reader in Energy Materials and Head of Hydrogen Materials Group at the University of Birmingham.
He has also held positions at the Department of Materials Science, Tohoku University (Sendai, Japan). He completed his PhD at the University of Birmingham in 1995 which focused around the processing of rare-earth permanent magnets.
His research currently centres on: various solid-state hydrogen storage materials (porous, Mg alloys, complex hydrides and nanocarbon); dense-metal membranes for hydrogen separation; microstructural processing of materials using hydrogen; detrimental hydrides within cladding materials of nuclear fission reactors; and rare-earth permanent magnetic materials.
Professor Book coordinated 2-year bilateral networks with Japan and Korea: EPSRC “UK-Japan H2 Storage Research Network”, and the DBERR/OSI “UK/KOREA Focal Point Program for Hydrogen Storage”. Also, he has been a UK expert in the International Energy Agency Task 22 on Hydrogen Storage since 2005.
Click here for Dr Book’s homepage.
Professor Paul Dodds
Socio-economics and Policy Work Package Leader
Dr Paul Dodds is Senior Lecturer in Energy Systems in the UCL Energy Institute and the Institute for Sustainable Resources, University College London. He specialises in energy systems modelling and has particular interest in the applications of models to hydrogen and bioenergy.
He developed the UKTM energy system model, which has been used by the UK Government to inform their fifth carbon budget decision and clean growth plan, and by the Committee on Climate Change to inform their hydrogen energy policy.
Dr Dodds has made several recent contributions to our understanding of socioeconomic challenges for hydrogen and fuel cell technologies:
- Understanding the potential for fuel cell vehicles to revolutionise the transport sector.
- Exploring the possibility for using hydrogen to decarbonise UK heat provision, through gas network conversion.
- Lead editor on the Hub White Paper assessing the potential for hydrogen and fuel cells to contribute to secure, low-carbon heating (May 2014).
- Editing the Hub White Paper on energy systems (March 2017).
- Author of several chapters in the other two Hub White Papers on energy security and economic opportunities of hydrogen and fuel cells (March 2017).
Dr Dodds represents the UK at the IEA Hydrogen Technology Collaboration Programme as the BEIS Alternate Delegate.
Click here for Dr Dodds’s homepage.
Professor Anthony Kucernak
PE Fuel Cells Work Package Leader
Professor Anthony Kucernak is Professor of Physical Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London, a position he has held since 2009.
He has also held posts at the University of Cambridge and obtained his PhD from the University of Southampton.
His research focuses on various aspects of solid polymer electrolyte fuel cells, supercapacitors, and the design of new electrochemical techniques. His group currently studies a large number of aspects of fuel cell systems ranging from the development of new electrocatalysts, the development of new techniques to characterise and study electrocatalysts, the development of fuel cell electrodes, and the development of new methods to characterise fuel cells.
Professor Kucernak has been a plenary speaker at numerous events and in 2006 he won the Helmut Fisher medal for his work leading to innovative progress in fuel cell electrode structure and new fundamental results in electrocatalysis of nanoparticles.
He is also the holder of five patents and has been Principal Investigator on 13 successful EPSRC projects. Professor Kucernak’s research has been funded by the EPSRC, DTI and collaborators in industry. He has acted as a technical consultant for a British fuel cell company (ITM power) and sat on the scientific board of an American fuel cell company (Polyfuel Inc). He has also been the technical consultant for the IPO of four fuel cell companies.
Click here for Professor Kucernak’s homepage.
Professor Vladimir Molkov
Hydrogen Safety Work Package Leader
Professor Vladimir Molkov is Professor of Fire Safety Science at the University of Ulster, a position he has held since June 1999.
He has established, at the University of Ulster, a new direction of research in the area of fire and explosion safety, i.e. hydrogen safety science and engineering, and the HySAFER (Hydrogen Safety Engineering and Research) Centre with internationally recognised research and education activities.
In 2006, at the University of Ulster, he initiated the development of the MSc in Hydrogen Safety Engineering, the World’s first postgraduate programme in hydrogen safety. He is involved with a high number of networking activities and has published the only monograph available in the field, i.e. “Fundamentals of Hydrogen Safety Engineering” (free download at www.bookboon.com) and numerous articles.
He has coordinated and participated in major projects relevant to hydrogen safety, both in Europe and the UK, with external funding about £6M since 2004, including: NoE HySafe, HyCourse, HySAFEST, HYPER, TrainHy-Prof, HyFacts, European H2FC Research Infrastructure, HyIndoor, HyResponse, SUSANA, NET-Tools, GENFUEL, EPSRC SUPERGEN H2FC Hub, EPSRC Challenge “Integrated safety strategies for onboard hydrogen storage systems”, EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in H2FC, etc.
Professor Molkov is a member of the Combustion Institute, the Energy Institute, the Explosion Protection Committee of the National Fire Protection Association (USA). He is a member of scientific committees: International Conference on Hydrogen Safety; International Symposium on Non-Equilibrium Processes, Combustion and Atmospheric Phenomena and International Seminar on Fire and Explosion Hazards; International Conference on Hydrogen Storage, Embrittlement and Applications; European Fuel Cell Conference; World Hydrogen Technologies Convention; European Hydrogen Energy Conference; etc.
He is a UK expert in ISO TC197 Hydrogen Technologies, CEN/CENELEC/TC6 Hydrogen in Energy Systems, member of IEA HIA Task 37 Hydrogen Safety, member of the Executive Committee of International Association for Hydrogen Safety (Chair of Education Committee), member of Working Group Cross-Cutting Research Activities of the European Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking Research Grouping N.ERGHY.
Click here for Professor Molkov’s homepage.
Professor Nilay Shah
Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Systems Work Package Leader
Prof. Nilay Shah is the Head of Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London.
He has lectured in chemical engineering since 1992 and he was the Director of the Centre for Process Systems Engineering from 2009 to 2016.
His team are working on a multiscale modelling approach that combines demand, supply, technologies, storage and hydrogen transport which can be used to explore the ways in which hydrogen will be generated, moved, stored and used under future scenarios.
Professor Shah has co-authored over 100 technical papers on process design and optimisation, energy systems engineering, bio-energy systems, hydrogen infrastructures, design of batch and biochemical processes, and plant safety and risk assessment, and has received several awards including the Beilby Medal (2006), Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) MacRobert Award (as part of a team, 2007) and Imperial College Engineering Teaching Excellence Award (2009).
Professor Robert Steinberger-Wilckens
Education and Training Work Package Leader
Professor Robert Steinberger-Wilckens is Director of the Centre for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Research at the University of Birmingham.
He has worked in the areas of renewable energies and energy efficiency since 1982, and in the field of hydrogen and fuel cells since 1997. He has participated in various European Commission projects and has authored and co-ordinated a number of European proposals.
Professor Steinberger-Wilckens has authored over 120 journal and proceedings papers, and contributed to several fuel cell and hydrogen books. He was Chairman of the 2008 World Solid Oxide Fuel Cells conference in Lucerne. He is Director of the University of Birmingham Doctoral Training Centre on Hydrogen and Fuel Cells.