(6iy) Performance Advances in Electrochemical Energy Storage and GHG Recycling

Global energy production faces a rising challenge to drastically reduce greenhouse gas output. My research develops a spectrum of technologies to achieve this goal, including highly safe and affordable electrochemical energy storage devices for facilitating massive adoption of photovoltaic and wind energy production, and advanced methane/CO recycling bioreactors.

My work on zinc anode rechargeable batteries focusses on morphological control of zinc electrodeposits in paste and flow electrodes.

Nanoscale to microscale material characterization has been performed, including grazing-incidence in-situ x-ray work at Brookhaven's NSLS I.

Nanoscale metal oxides are seen to affect the efficiency of zinc energy storage on nickel substrates. In pasted zinc anodes, pressure and oxidation rate are seen to play a key role in the longevity of the electrode. Several successful grant applications, papers, and two international patents have resulted from my work on this subject.

My work on advanced bioreactors for methane and CO recycling focusses on gas-liquid mass transfer in fast-reaction systems. Energy efficient means of improving the gas-liquid transfer coefficient are poorly researched yet very important for the cost-effectiveness of methane recycling (or other GHG recycling). New sparging and gas mixing devices are developed and tested to most efficiently disperse gas-liquid surface area throughout the reactor without harming microbes or expending unnecessary cost. Additionally, improved understanding of gas-liquid mass transfer in turbulent flows is researched from a fundamental perspective.

In each of these research areas, my research takes a laboratory experimental approach, allowing, for example, patents on new battery designs or gas reactor designs, or analysis of leading mechanistic theories of the underlying physics or chemistry. These presented results are from my research as PhD student at UC Santa Barbara (supervised by Sanjoy Banerjee), as a post-doctoral research associate at Brookhaven National Laboratory (supervised by Vasilis Fthenakis) and as a senior scientist at the City University of New York Energy Institute.Global energy production faces a rising challenge to drastically reduce greenhouse gas output. My research develops a spectrum of technologies to achieve this goal, including highly safe and affordable electrochemical energy storage devices for facilitating massive adoption of photovoltaic and wind energy production, and advanced methane/CO recycling bioreactors.

My work on zinc anode rechargeable batteries focusses on morphological control of zinc electrodeposits in paste and flow electrodes.

Nanoscale to microscale material characterization has been performed, including grazing-incidence in-situ x-ray work at Brookhaven's NSLS I.

Nanoscale metal oxides are seen to affect the efficiency of zinc energy storage on nickel substrates. In pasted zinc anodes, pressure and oxidation rate are seen to play a key role in the longevity of the electrode. Several successful grant applications, papers, and two international patents have resulted from my work on this subject.

My work on advanced bioreactors for methane and CO recycling focusses on gas-liquid mass transfer in fast-reaction systems. Energy efficient means of improving the gas-liquid transfer coefficient are poorly researched yet very important for the cost-effectiveness of methane recycling (or other GHG recycling). New sparging and gas mixing devices are developed and tested to most efficiently disperse gas-liquid surface area throughout the reactor without harming microbes or expending unnecessary cost. Additionally, improved understanding of gas-liquid mass transfer in turbulent flows is researched from a fundamental perspective.

In each of these research areas, my research takes a laboratory experimental approach, allowing, for example, patents on new battery designs or gas reactor designs, or analysis of leading mechanistic theories of the underlying physics or chemistry. These presented results are from my research as PhD student at UC Santa Barbara (supervised by Sanjoy Banerjee), as a post-doctoral research associate at Brookhaven National Laboratory (supervised by Vasilis Fthenakis) and as a senior scientist at the City University of New York Energy Institute.