Research Interests

Our research group uses integrated analysis to develop sustainable, low-carbon alternatives in the highly intersectional areas of water and energy. Our work is motivated by a desire to facilitate a transition to a sustainable future.

Our current research falls broadly into several categories:

1. Electrochemical energy / hydrogen production and use: Electrochemical energy systems, such as batteries, fuel cells / electrolysers, and flow batteries facilitate the transition to sustainable energy. Further, hydrogen is an important energy carrier, both as an alternative fuel and as an alternative feedstock in industry. We evaluate how to best use and implement these systems in industry to achieve low-carbon goals.

2. Industrial decarbonization: In order to meet the carbon reduction needed to limit climate change, industries must transition to low-carbon, low-consumption models of production and operation. We investigate the potential impact and improvements that may be achieved through alternative fuels, feedstocks, power sources, technologies, or business models.

3. Wastewater valorisation and material recovery: Many valuable materials are present in industrial wastewater, such as dissolved metals, organics, and water itself. We explore methods for recovering these valuable materials by modelling and evaluating specific technologies, technical improvements, and recovery systems.

We seek to understand critical questions in these areas through system design, developing process models, conducting techno-economic analysis, performing life cycle assessment, among other computational methods.

Research Supervision

I welcome inquiries from prospective MPhil and PhD interested in sustainable energy, electrochemical energy storage systems, industrial decarbonization, hydrogen, water-energy systems, or wastewater valorisation. Students with an interest in systems engineering, process design, optimization, and computational methods are invited to reach out, although I am happy to consider supervising across a greater range of topics

Teaching

Sustainable Manufacturing (METIIB)

Contemporary Issues in Manufacturing (METIIA)

First-year Exposition

Publications

For a list of publications, please see here.

Biography

I am an Assistant Professor of Industrial Sustainability in the Institute for Manufacturing, in the Department of Engineering. Prior to joining Cambridge, I was a postdoctoral scholar at Yale University investigating technical and economic questions of technologies in the water-energy nexus. Before this, I was a postdoctoral scholar at Imperial College London where I applied systems engineering and optimization techniques to renewable energy and sustainability research questions. I received my PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Davis, where I focused on the effect of design parameters on the performance of interdigitated flow field PEM fuel cells.