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Until the age of 18 Thomas lived in the South Wales city of Swansea. There he completed his education up until A-levels for which he attained awards in mathematics, gymnastics and cross-country.
In 2011 he joined UCL for an undergraduate in Chemical Engineering.
During his second year of undergraduate Thomas joined a public outreach team named UCell which are based within the department. Given the task of creating an automated control system for a polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEMFC).
Tom spent 8 weeks wiring and coding, during this time he made the decision to pursue a career in research. Upon completion of this project Thomas received an award for his work at a UROS (Undergraduate Research Opportunity Scheme) presentation evening.
After the completion of his undergraduate Thomas joined the electrochemical innovation group to work with Paul Shearing and Dan Brett on a PhD investigating thermally driven degradation in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs).
Research project
Title: Investigating the microstructural causes and effects of thermally driven degradation in solid oxide fuel cells
Fuel cells offer significant promise for energy conversion due to their high efficiencies and low emissions, in particular, high temperature solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) can achieve very high efficiencies for uses such as stationary combined heat and power. Moreover SOFCs offer fuel versatility via internal reforming allowing the use of hydrocarbons.
However, SOFCs are not without limitations. Redox cycling, poisoning, carbon deposition, delamination and cracking reduce performance and can lead to cell and stack failure.
Although microtubular SOFCs have shown good tolerance to thermal shock, rapid thermal cycling remains a challenge for the more widely adopted planar designs due to the thermal expansion mismatch between the nickel (Ni) anode and yttria stabilised zirconia (YSZ) electrolyte, and the challenges of incorporating these interfacial stresses in the planar geometry.
The ability for Ni based anodes to withstand redox cycling is also of importance when preserving SOFC performance and lifetime. It has been observed that the re-oxidation of Ni, when exposed to a high enough oxygen partial pressure, can cause the migration of Ni from the particle core creating an irreversible volume change.
Our investigations will utilise a combination of micro and nano X-ray computed tomography (micro-CT and nano-CT) and focused ion beam/electron microscopes for 3D reconstructions of device microstructure. Mapping of temperature gradients will be conducted via high accuracy thermal imaging and, chemical characterisation techniques such as Raman spectroscopy will be used to analyse cell compositions at operating temperature.聽 Using these characterisation techniques in concert we will analyse thermally driven degradation mechanisms for both planar and tubular SOFCs.
Education
BEng in Chemical Engineering, UCL, 2014
