Title: Fuel flexible solid oxide fuel cell for efficient power generation
Abstract:
Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are promising electrochemical devices for clean power generation, especially for combined heat and power cogeneration. As the cathode usually causes the highest overpotential loss in SOFC, efforts have been made in developing nanostructured SOFC cathodes by infiltration or developing new cathode materials. In this talk, research activities conducted at HK PolyU will be presented, including modeling and testing of nanostructured SOFC cathode, development of a series of perovskite oxides, the thermal expansion offset approach for composite cathode, and testing of SOFC using hydrogen, biogas, plastic waste, and solid carbon. The future development of SOFC will also be discussed.
Biography:
Prof. Meng Ni received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Hong Kong (HKU) in 2007. Then Prof. NI stayed in HKU as a Post-doctoral researcher for 2 years, before joining the Hong Kong Polytechnic University as an Assistant Professor in July 2009. Prof. Ni was promoted to Associate Professor (2012) and then Full Professor (2016). After serving as an Associate Head for BRE for 5 years (2016-2021), he started to serve as an Associate Dean in July 2021. Prof. Ni worked as a Humboldt Fellow at the Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany in 2017.
Prof. Meng Ni’s research interests include fuel cells and rechargeable metal-air batteries. In particular, Prof. Ni has developed a series of multi-physics models for fuel cells to optimize the fuel cell electrode microstructure and fuel cell stack configuration. He also developed perovskite oxides for use as fuel cell cathodes. He served as an Associate Editor for Science Bulletin in 2015-2017. Currently, he is a Co-Editor-in-Chief for Energy Reviews (Elsevier), a Senior Editor for Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments (Elsevier) and E-Primes (Elsevier), and an Associate Editor for International Journal of Green Energy (Taylor & Francis) and Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering (Wiley). He is an active reviewer for over 80 journals, including Science, Nature Communications, Joule, Advanced Materials etc.