Time: 27th June, 2018, 2:00 pm
Venue: Conference Room on Second Floor, Basic Energy Builiding
Lecturer: Professor Moses O. Tadé，Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor, Faculty of Science & Engineering Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia
Energy is of paramount importance for the survival and prosperity of mankind on earth. One of the current topics gaining the focussed attention of research community is the sustainable use of available energy resources. Fuel cell technology is a deserving and worthy candidate for maximising the energy output of the available fossil fuel reserves. Fuel cells will form an important part in any future strategic vision on energy policy formulation. Although at present the technology for producing energy using fuel cells and other non-conventional sources exist, they are constrained by the high cost involved in their application. Therefore, continuous research is ongoing to reduce their cost and bring them on par with conventional power sources. This will ensure that the technologies can be widely adopted and consequently will have an impact on the sustainable use of scarce resources. Our multifaceted research work at Curtin University focus on improving the life and reliability of the high temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs) through model based optimisation and control. Load following ability and durability are the two main bottlenecks to commercialising SOFCs. Process monitoring and control has an important role in achieving better load following and durability. Thermal management of the cell via control of the thermal gradients in the cell and stack has a direct impact on cell durability. This presentation will discuss some of the challenges for fuel cell technology. It will identify the gaps and present potential solutions to fill these gaps. Some of the results from our work and the literature will be discussed as case studies to demonstrate how the challenges can be addressed.
Introduction:
Professor Moses Tadé received his Bachelor degree in Chemical Engineering with first class honours from University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Ile-Ife, Nigeria. He was awarded the prestigious Commonwealth Scholarship for his Masters and PhD in Chemical Engineering at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He was recruited as a Lecturer by The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia immediately after his PhD. He joined Curtin University as a Lecturer and was promoted through the ranks over the years. He became the Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor, Faculty of Science & Engineering in December 2014. Professor Tadé was awarded a John Curtin Distinguished Professor at Curtin University in 2012 for his significant contributions to Chemical Engineering research at the highest level in the field of Process Systems Engineering. He has received substantial funding from both industry and the Australian Research Council (ARC) for his projects. He has successfully supervised over 30 PhD students, several Masters' students and research fellows. He has published 5 books on various aspects of his work as well as over 350 research papers in refereed international journals and conference proceedings with an H-index of 45 with over 7,500 citations (excluding self-citations). He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Asia-Pacific Journal of Chemical Engineering, a Fellow of IChemE and an Honorary Fellow of Engineers Australia. He was listed in the Top 100 Australia’s most Influential Engineers in 2008 and was the Chair of IChemE in Australia in 2012 and 2013. He was the President of the Australian Council of Engineering Deans (in 2015 and 2016) and a member of the ARC College of Experts (from 2014 to 2017) where he chaired the ARC Panel for Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences (MPCE) for the Discovery and DECRA grants in 2016. Professor Tade has been a plenary and keynote speaker at several conferences worldwide. He continues to evolve his leadership and management skills to harness the capabilities of the new generation of leaders.
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