Hydrogen Energy, Fuel Cells, Renewable Energy Consultant

Expertise

• Hydrogen energy and fuel cells product development, leadership, management, business support and engineering.
• Working with major fuel cells; hydrogen energy and fuel cells, i.e. proton exchange membrane, direct methanol, solid oxide and alkaline fuel cells.
• CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and FEA (Finite Element Analysis) modelling of mechanical and electrochemical systems.
• Renewable energy engineer with background in solar, photo voltaic, biomass and wind energy systems.
• Fuel cells hydrogen energy and intellectual property portfolio management: Proton exchange membrane fuel cell and direct methanol fuel cell system design and integration.

Research

• Hydrogen energy and fuel cells.
• Batteries, supercapacitors and electrolysers.
• Energy storage systems (power to gas, metal hydride systems, and electrochemical systems).
• Thermal and fluid applications.
• Automotive and powertrain systems.

Experience

Independent Consultant, Present

Fuel Cell Projects

• CO tolerant PEMFC (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell) fuel cell and DMFC (Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Stack) stack- product and business development.
• System design and integration for PEMFCs and DMFCs.
• Responsible for: IP-portfolio management, technical and business strategy planning, chairing technical review meetings, coordinating external projects.

AFC Energy plc, United Kingdom, Chief Scientist, 2011 - 2017

Chief Scientist, 2016 - 2017

• Technical strategy planning: Product development- concept to market, including project scoping, research, conceptualize and design, patent filing, prototyping, testing, optimization and control, validation, scale-up and manufacturing.
• Business strategy support: Internal and external analysis, present and future, setting-up goals, defining objectives, developing strategies and tactics.
• Intellectual property portfolio management: Running of regular internal intellectual property meetings to facilitate decision making, coordinating all in-house client procedures and formalities, collating data and information for the setting of the intellectual property strategy, implementing the strategy, cost forecasting, due diligence.
• Information security policy development and implementation: Risk assessment, policy construction, implementation, compliance and monitoring, management and employee support
• Publishing and networking: To present latest developments, represent Company at international and national conferences and scientific events.

Fuel Cell Stack Manager, 2015 - 2016

• Planning and executing stack testing, performing failure mode and effects analysis, analyzing and reporting data, continuing product improvement, providing technical support in the development and operation of world's largest Alkaline Fuel Cell plant (commissioned in Stade, Germany), chairing systems development review meetings, recruiting and managing staff, supervising two Ph.D. students at the University of Duisburg, Germany.

Team Leader- Fuel Cell Stack Research and Development, 2013 - 2015

• Systems development, stack diagnostics via EIS, Thermal and water management in alkaline fuel cell stacks, hydrogen recirculation, degradation during cycling in AFC stacks, ionic leakages in AFC stacks, stack performance and durability optimization using DMAIC approach, CFD modelling using Ansys-Fluent.

Senior Scientist, 2012 - 2013

• Stack operation and testing, modelling and experimental optimization of stack operation using DOE approach, data interpretation and analysis, novel stack design and configuration.

Fuel Cell Modeller and Scientist, 2011 - 2012

• Alkaline fuel cell modelling, laboratory-based cell testing and characterization, effect of operating conditions on cell longevity, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy.

Technical University Eindhoven, Netherlands, Chemical Engineering, 2009 - 2011

Postdoctoral Fellow and Teaching Associate, Energy Centre Netherlands (ECN)

• Two-phase modelling effects in PEM Fuel Cells using Fluent and COMSOL.
• Teaching: Advanced thermodynamics, numerical heat transfer, and computational fluid dynamics.

University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, Chemical Engineering and Mathematics, 2006 - 2009

Postgraduate Research Fellow

• Single-chamber, solid oxide fuel cells: modelling and experiments. (Ph.D. thesis submitted)
• Modelling of solid oxide fuel cells using COMSOL-Multiphysics.
• Design of experiments, cell and stack preparation, testing and SEM and EDS analysis.

Teaching Assistant and Lab Demonstrator

• Mathematics and Chemical Engineering
• "C++ programming" to undergraduate students.
• SOFC experiments' supervisor for undergraduate students.

Ecole Polytechnique, University of Montreal, Canada, 2008

Researcher

• Ink preparation, mixing, robot control deposition and testing of co-planar type SC-SOFCs.

European School of Hydrogen Safety, Belfast, United Kingdom , 2007

Fellowship

• Hydrogen Safety Course Fellowship

Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiterand Scientific, Germany Staff, 2006

Institute of Materials Processing, University of Bayreuth

• Modelling of glass melting using Ansys (Finite element modelling).
• Experiments on PEM (Polymer Electrolyte Membrane) fuel cells MEA (Membrane Electrode Assemblies) preparation and testing preparation and testing).

Center for Advanced Studies, Research and Development, Italy, 2006

Marie Curie Fellowship

• Workshop: Transport in polymeric membranes: modern trends in simulation methods and experimental techniques.

UNESCO Fellowship

• Training course: Fuel cell modelling and optimization.

University of Oldenburg, Germany, Postgraduate Programme Renewable Energy, 2004 - 2006

• Courses: Hydrogen energy systems, Solar and PV, Biomass, Wind energy.

German Aerospace Center (DLR), Stuttgart, Germany, Student Assistant, 2005 - 2006

• Dynamic modeling of solid oxide fuel cells in MatlabandSimulink.

Institute of Energy Research, Research Center Juelich, Germany, Internship, 2005

• Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) with equivalent circuit analysis of direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC).

NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan, 2001 - 2004

Research Assistant

• Study on advanced refrigeration systems using hydrogen absorption and desorption in metal hydrides.
• Worked under the supervision of Advisor to Vice Chancellor.
• Established Pakistan's first Hydrogen Energy Laboratory in Mechanical Eng. Department. Strong skills in project management and design of experiments.

Mechanical (Bachelor of Engineering), 1994 - 1998

• Designed a solar air conditioner based upon evacuated tube and absorption cycle.

Muroran Research Laboratory, Hokkaido, Japan, Research, 2002

• Operational training on metal hydride refrigeration unit.

Institut fur Kernenergetik und Energiesysteme (IKE), University of Stuttgart, Germany, 2002

Research Training

• Training on hydrogen absorption and desorption test (PCI) unit.

Kanupp Institute of Nuclear Power Engineering, Karachi, Pakistan,1999 - 2001

KINPOE Fellow

• Studied nuclear power plant engineering: principles and operation.

Honors & Publications

Credentials

• Chartered Engineer (CEng)
• Lean Sigma Manufacturing Green Belt (Minitab)
• COMSOL-Multiphysics (Expert work)
• Manual Handling Course
• Fire Awareness Course
• Lab Safety Management and Chemical Hazards Safety Course.
• Fluent, Gambit
• Ansys UDF, Multiphase and Parallel Processing
• MatlabandSimulink
• Mechanical Desktop, Autocad2000, Mathcad, Statistica
• Full Command on Math's Software "Maple"
• Windows, Ms-Office -2000 (Ms-Word, Power Point, Excell, Front Page)
• Assembly Language Of Z-80 Micro Processor, Fortran-77, C++, RET Screen, WASP
• Fuel Cells related Softwares, Corrview , Z-View, DLPoly, XMGrace, Thales
• Flotran, CFX, ICEM-CFD, Star-CD,
• Latex
• Labview

Languages

• English
• Urdu
• German (certificate for German language learning, Grundstufe-III and Intermediate level)

Academic and Professional Affiliations

• Program Committee, Fuel Cell Seminar and Energy Exposition
• Scientific Advisory Committee, European Fuel Cell Forum
• Organizing Committee, 2nd Intl. Conference on Chem. Engineering
• Member, American Association for Science and Technology (AASCIT)
• Institution of Engineering and Technology (MIET)
• Institution of Chemical Engineers (AMIChemE)
• International Association for Hydrogen Energy (IAHE)
• American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
• The Electrochemical Society (ECS)
• Pakistan Vacuum Society (PVS)
• Professional Engineer (PE), Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC)
• Chair, Alkaline and Direct Alcohol Fuel Cells at EFCF-2013
• Chair, Hydrogen Production at EFCF-2015
• International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, Reviewer
• Electrochemistry Communications, Reviewer
• Energies Journal, Reviewer
• Editorial Board Member, American Journal of Energy and Power Engineering

Awards

With Distinction

• Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement award
• Biography published, "Who's Who in the World"
• Honorary recommendation from the President, International Association of Hydrogen Energy.
• Established Pakistan's first hydrogen energy laboratory.
• World's first experimental and modelling study on micro-tubes under single-chamber solid oxide fuel cell conditions
• Amongst top 10 (out of 230 students) in B.Eng. (Mechanical) from NED University, Karachi Pakistan.
• The Hermann Gohr award - PEFC, Switzerland.
• Grove Fuel Cell Symposium Student Bursary, UK.
• Dorothy Hodgkin Postgraduate Award by Royal Society, UK.
• U21 International Research Scholarship, UK.
• Awarded Student Membership, Electrochemical Society, USA.
• DAAD- Scholarship for M.Sc. studies, Germany.
• Marie Curie Fellowship, Italy.
• UNESCO Fellowship, Italy.
• Nuclear Eng. Studies Scholarship, Karachi, Pakistan.

Publications and Patents

• Author and Co-Author of peer-reviewed journals, conference proceedings, and books.
• Inventor and Co-Inventor of 11 worldwide patents.

Education

• Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
• M.Sc. Renewable Energy, University of Oldenburg, Germany
• B.E. Mechanical Engineering, NED, (Nadirshaw Eduljee Dinshaw) University, Pakistan