Distinguished Lecture - Innovation in Electrochemical Technologies for the Low Carbon Energy Transition

Technologies that flexibly and efficiently convert green electrons into green molecules, and vice-versa, will be of increasing importance as the world moves to net zero carbon economies.  As such, electrochemical technologies such as electrolysers, fuel cells and batteries will play an increasingly important role, as it has already becoming evident.  But there remains a need to lower the cost of these technologies, maximise their efficiency, and increase their lifetime, and hence innovation remains an important focus. 

The talk will draw on the experience of Professor Nigel Brandon in founding two companies from his academic work.  Ceres Power, a fuel cell company now valued at over $2.5B, and RFC Power, developing the worlds lowest cost flow battery.  Professor Brandon will discuss the challenges and opportunities for further innovation in electrochemical technologies, and highlight some of his groups recent work in high temperature electrolysis for very high efficiency electrolysis as another area with great potential.

Revisit the lecture:

Speaker Professor Nigel Brandon

Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Imperial College London

Professor Nigel Brandon is the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at Imperial College London, and received an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2011 for his services to UK-China science in the field of energy and climate change.

Professor Brandon's research focuses on electrochemical devices for low carbon energy applications, with a particular focus on fuel cells, electrolysers, and batteries. He is Director of the UK Hydrogen and Fuel Cells SUPERGEN Hub (www.h2fcsupergen.com), and Chair of Imperials Sustainable Gas Institute (www.imperial.ac.uk/sustainable-gas-institute).  He is a founder of Ceres Power (www.cerespower.com), an AIM listed fuel cell company spun out from Imperial College in 2000, a founder and Director of RFC Power (www.rfcpower.com), a flow battery company spun out from Imperial College in 2018, and a Partner in Galvanic Energy, which offers specialist Consultancy services in the electrochemical technology space (https://galvanicenergy.co.uk).