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Electrochemical Energy Storage and Conversion Laboratory (EESCL),
with Prof. Matthew M. Mench (2012-Present)
Electrochemical engineer in the field of redox flow batteries (VRFBs)
- Designed and built a novel set-up including multiple electrochemical and flow cells capable of measuring the transport properties of vanadium ions and water across multiple types of ion-exchange membranes in real-time using UV/Vis spectroscopy.
- Developed concentrated solution theory test protocol (CSTTP) and deduced interaction coefficients to quantify the state-of-charge-dependent diffusivity values for vanadium ions through ion-exchange membranes.
- Designed, analyzed, prototyped, built, and engineered customized cells to conduct in-situ and ex-situ experiments in order to obtain transport and kinetic parameters for VRFBs.
- Developed a model in C++ using high performance programming tools and the most advanced computational libraries (e.g. BLAS, LAPACK, MKL) to simulate the transport of ions and water through ion-exchange membrane based on the concentrated solution theory.
- Successfully implemented stable reference electrode for an operating VRFB cell and established real-time potential-distribution diagnostics.
- Developed a physics-based model using the COMSOL software package for simulating the performance of VRFBs at various operating conditions and predicting vanadium ion-distribution across the porous electrodes.
- Evaluated new ion-exchange membranes for high-performance VRFBs in collaboration with W. L. GORE & Associates Inc.
- Developed an in-house pore-scale model in FORTRAN for simulating the transport of the electrolyte through porous electrodes for VRFBs based on the Lattice Boltzmann method.
- Gained extensive experience in experimental diagnostics and material characterization techniques including cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM).
Experimentalist and modeler in the field of polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs)
- Developed an array of performance and durability test protocols for 50cm2 single-cell and 4-cell stack in collaboration with General Motors and W. L. GORE & Associates Inc. for a DOE-funded project.
- Conducted an array of experiments for assessing the performance and durability of standard and direct-coated Membrane Electrode Assemblies (MEA) for single-cell and 4-cell stack in collaboration with W. L. GORE & Associates Inc.
- Developed real-time potential-distribution diagnostics to assess the solid-phase potential for various bipolar plates within a 50cm2 4-cell stack.
- Developed an in-house model in C for simulating the effect of temperature gradient on the net water drag and predicting the temperature distribution within system components under multiple relative humidity and operating conditions.
- Conducted postmortem and failure analysis on PEMFCs (SEM, XPS, ICP-OES).
- Designed an experimental set-up including dew-point temperature sensors to measure the net water drag in real-time under multiple operating conditions.
- Successfully demonstrated a novel passive water management configuration for PEMFCs utilizing asymmetric thermal and mass transport properties of micro-porous layers (MPL).
Innovator in the field of electrochemical sensors (ES)
- Invented an electrochemical sensor for simultaneous detection of sulfur-based contaminants.
- Improved the sensitivity of the interdigitated sensor by 60% via engineering the structure and configuration of the Cu-based interdigitated mesh.
- Investigated the degradation mechanism of the interdigitated sensor as a function of component materials and under multiple operating conditions.
Farazab Consulting Engineers, Water and Wastewater Department
Design Engineer (2008-2012)
- Gained 3+ years of experience as a member of an energetic, cross-functional team designing pump stations, water transmission and distribution systems for multiple mid-size towns.
- Designed surge tanks for multiple pump stations based on a model for simulating water hammer phenomena in pipelines using PVElite, Pipe2000, and Bentley Hammer software packages.
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