Time: Sep. 27th, 2019, 9:00am
Venue: Energy Building (A), First Floor Conference Room
Lecturer: Marcelo Carmo, Ph. D, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Institute of Energy and Climate Research (IEK-3), 52425 Jülich, Germany
Abstract:
Hydrogen is largely considered the best means by which to store energy coming from renewable and intermittent power sources such as wind and solar. With the growing capacity of out-spread renewable energy sources surpassing the gigawatt range, a storage system of equal magnitude is required, such as the production of electrolytic hydrogen by water electrolysis. Despite of more than 100 years of experience in constructing electrolyzer cells, stacks, and innumerous electrolyzer-plants installed all over the world; today only a few demonstration systems are used for energy storage. And the cost of electrical energy has always remained as an uncomfortable barrier, with electrolytic hydrogen costs not being able to compete with the costs for the production of hydrogen by conventional steam reforming of fossil fuels. Nevertheless, today, increased interest can be observed to further develop alkaline, PEM, and solid oxide water electrolysis technology. Over the past 10 years, new companies and projects have appeared, with new leaders being consequently established in this growing “niche”. In this presentation I will show our latest R&D approaches; aiming to increase efficiency, improve durability, and reduce the investment/operating costs of electrolyzers to allow large market penetration of these systems. We believe that only through cutting-edge R&D and significant advancements; we will be able to ultimately establish hydrogen as a commodity in the energy storage market, and contribute to our so much desired environmentally friendly hydrogen economy.
Introduction:
Marcelo Carmo completed his B. A. (2001) and Ph. D. (2008) at Sao Paulo University, Brazil. He was post-doctoral fellow at Technological Research Institute of Sao Paulo from 2008 until 2009, post-doctoral associate at Yale University from 2009 until 2011, and at Jülich from 2011 until 2014. In Jülich he also worked as a group leader on the development of MEAs for PEM water electrolysis, and was head of the Electrochemistry Electrolysis Department from 2016 until 2019. He has served as visiting scholar at many institutions such as IPEN, Brazil, HIAT, Germany, TU Darmstadt, Germany, Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, and National Renewable National Lab – NREL in USA. In 2019, Dr. Carmo was appointed acting Director of the Electrochemical Process Engineering Institute - IEK14 at the Research Centre Jülich. His current research interests include fundamental and applied aspects of electrochemical devices, mainly water electrolysis and fuel cells. Among other areas, it includes the development of novel nanostructures and components for electrochemical devices, development of advanced characterisation and fabrications methods, and scaling-up of electrochemical cell components.
Contact: YU Hongmei
Phone: 84379051