Lab Principal Investigator
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Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering - Delft University of Technology
Group: Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage (MECS) Early in his mechanical engineering bachelor's at the University of Victoria, Tom developed an interest in global energy systems and developing technologies to help mitigate the impacts of climate change. The lab's current research is driven equally by phenomena occurring at the nanoscale, and understanding the technical, economical and political barriers to global-scale implementation of new energy technologies. During his PhD at the University of Toronto (2013-17), he investigated catalyst-system interactions and mass transport in CO2 electrolyzers. The research formed the basis for his role in the Carbon XPRIZE competition, working to design scaled systems. |
Current PhD Students
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Kailun YangKailun received her Master of Engineering degree at Renmin University of China (RUC) in 2017. Currently she is a PhD student promoted by Dr. Tom Burdyny and Dr. Wilson Smith in the Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage (MECS) group. In the first two years, she studied the effect of mass transport and local conditions on electrochemical CO2 reduction in a conventional batch cell. Later she moved such interest to flow cell (GDEs and MEAs) studies. Her current research focuses on investigating the activity and stability of gas diffusion electrodes and the whole cell systems.
Recent Publication: In Situ Infrared Spectroscopy Reveals Persistent Alkalinity near Electrode Surfaces during CO2 Electroreduction. K Yang, R Kas, WA Smith, JACS (2019) |
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Kai Liu
Kai Liu (刘楷) is currently a PhD student under the supervision of Dr. Tom Burdyny and Dr. Wilson Smith at Delft University of Technology. He earned his Bachelor and Master degree in Material Science and Engineering from Hainan University in 2012 and 2015, where he studied the synthesis of nanostructured catalysts for photoelectrocatalysis. He is focusing on developing electrocatalysts to convert CO2 into value-added chemicals within various local reaction environments to study the reaction mechanism and achieve enhanced performance.
Recent Publication: Introductory Guide to Assembling and Operating Gas Diffusion Electrodes for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction. K Liu, WA Smith, T Burdyny, ACS energy letters, 4 (3), 639-643 (2019) |
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Siddhartha Subramanian
Siddhartha Subramanian earned his B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from Pondicherry University, India (2014) and MSc in Chemical Engineering at Loughborough University, United Kingdom (2015). He then moved back to India performing research activities at CSIR-Central Electrochemical research Institute, Karaikudi where he worked on the design of an electrochemical process for converting CO2 to oxalic acid. In January 2020, he joined TU Delft as a PhD candidate. His current research focuses on the design of high current density systems for the electrocatalytic conversion of CO2 to value added products.
Recent Publication: New insights into the electrochemical conversion of CO2 to oxalate at stainless steel 304L cathode. S Subramanian, KR Athira, M Anbu Kulandainathan, S Senthil Kumar, RC Barik, J co2 Utilization (2020) |
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Hugo was born and grew up in Catalonia, Spain. At age 17, he moved to Delft to earn his BSc in Molecular Science and Technology and his MSc in Chemical Engineering from the Delft University of Technology. Upon graduation, he joined the TATA Steel in Europe manufacturing facility in IJmuiden, where he was mainly charged with developing advanced analytics control models based on big data. In March 2020, he joined again the Delft University of Technology as a PhD candidate under supervision of Dr. Tom Burdyny, focusing on high current-density system design for electrochemical CO2-reduction. Hugo likes to fill his spare time with reading modern and classical literature, playing violin and viola at a student orchestra and string quartet and learning new languages.
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Postdoctoral Fellows
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After completing his materials engineering degree at Eskisehir Technical University (EST), Erdem acquired the competitive Erasmus Mundus Master Scholarship (MESC) to work on energy storage systems around Europe. Then with Fl-Agaur Early-Stage Researcher Grant, he conducted a Ph.D. on solar fuels in Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC) in Barcelona, building a proof-of-concept photoelectrochemical flow cell device for artificial photosynthesis. His Ph.D. thesis was nominated for the Premis Pioneer 2017 award for "Best Doctoral Research of the Year" by CERCA - Centres de Recerca de Catalunya (2017). Between 2017-2020, he conducted research on the synthesis of functional nanoparticles and electrolyzer design for applications such as NO3 conversion for water treatment in The Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA) and CO2 reduction for the electrification of the chemical industry in University of Antwerp (ELCAT).
In the MECS group, Dr. Erdem Irtem focuses on enhanced electrolysis devices for Selective Electrochemical Reduction of CO2 to High Value Chemicals (SelectCO2), and helps students and colleagues to reach their objectives. In his spare time, Erdem likes to go for hiking and road-cycling. |
Alumni