Public Research Seminar by Sustainable Energy and Environment Thrust - Solid Oxide Fuel Cells: from Materials Research to Commercialization
Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) can effectively convert the chemical energy of fuels into electricity at an efficiency up to 60%. They typically operate at high temperature (800-1000oC) resulting in high costs, materials compatibility and durability challenges. Developing SOFCs that can work at intermediate temperature (500-750 oC) has thus been attracting considerable attentions. The performance of the cathode is the largest hurdle to the full realization of low temperature SOFCs. In this talk, I will introduce our recent studies on novel cathode materials for highly efficient oxygen reduction reaction in SOFCs, as well as the commercial development in my group.
Dr John Zhu is a professor in the School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, Australia. His research interests exist in advanced catalysis, gas/liquid adsorption and separation, direct carbon fuel cells and solid oxide fuel cells. His publications include 1 edited book, 8 book chapters, and over 300 journal papers, with citations over 23,000 times and h-index 80. He holds 8 patents, 5 patents have been licensed to the industrial sponsor Eden Innovations Pty Ltd. His research on fuel cells has led to the establishment of three Australian start-up Companies. He has raised a total research funding from government and industries in excess of $30 million. He is the recipient of a number of awards, including RK Murphy Medal 2013, Freehills Award IChemE 2011, 2nd place Innovator of the Year Award Global IChemE 2011, the University of Queensland (UQ) Foundation Research Excellence Award in 2007.