Research
My research interests are at the intersection of numerical methods, fluid mechanics, and electrochemistry. My main motivation is the development of hydrogen technologies.
Hydrogen is a high-value chemical. Its use is central in critical industries, like the production of fertilizers; and also to de-carbonize heavy pollutant sectors, such as the production of steel, or transportation, by using hydrogen as a fuel in a fuel cell. While hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, pure hydrogen is very rare on earth. Instead, due to its high reactivity, it appears bound to many other compounds, most notably water (H2O). Nonetheless, the production of hydrogen is still mostly based on reforming hydrocarbons, which is a pollutant process as well.
Producing hydrogen from sustainable sources is a game-changer. This addresses the intermittency problem of renewables by storing hydrogen for later use, turning it into an “energy vector”. It also offers an opportunity to de-carbonize many heavy pollutant industries.
My vision is to propel the energy transition towards a hydrogen economy.
To make that happen, the key technology to converting renewable electricity into hydrogen is water electrolysis. To spread this technology requires advancing its techno-economic viability: improving performance and reducing costs. However, the development of electrolyzers is based on leveraging complex physical and chemical processes.
Numerical simulations allow studying the complex electrochemical and fluid dynamics occurring in an electrolyzer. Constructing such a virtual model presents endless advantages. From obtaining detailed information on the physics of the system, which may lead to better design solutions; to the optimization of the designs by digital algorithms.
However, for these models to be credible, they must guarantee that they abide by the same physical laws that the actual system (e.g., conservation of mass, momentum, energy…). Unfortunately, due to the complexity of the system, this is not entirely possible.
My mission is to develop advanced numerical methods for multiphase flows in electrochemical systems.