Computational electrochemistry · EPFL
Venu Gopal Agarwal
Postdoctoral researcher, Laboratory of Renewable Energy Science and Engineering (LRESE)
I build multiphysics models of CO2 electrolysers, bipolar membranes and gas diffusion electrodes — resolving the coupled transport of charge, species, water, heat and momentum — and validate them against experiments to find what limits their efficiency and lifetime.
Research highlights
Current and recent projects — click a card for details.
Flooding and salt in zero-gap CO2 electrolysers
Zero-gap membrane electrode assemblies reach industrial current densities, but their cathodes flood and fill with (bi)carbonate salt within hundreds of hours.
in progress
Bicarbonate-fed bipolar-membrane electrolysers
Bicarbonate electrolysers convert captured carbon directly, without regenerating and compressing CO2 gas: protons from a bipolar membrane release…
manuscript in preparation
Bipolar membrane modelling
Bipolar membranes split water at the junction between a cation- and an anion-exchange layer, driven by strong local electric fields.
manuscript under review
Mass-transport limits in a microfluidic GDE electrolyser
Gas diffusion electrodes deliver CO2 to the catalyst in the gas phase, but performance is still set by how fast reactants and products move through…
Communications Chemistry · 2024