Aisha Alobaid successfully defended her PhD thesis this week. Her thesis, Modeling and optimization of a photovoltaic-electrolysis system for hydrogen generation, started with the experimental liquid-phase deposition and evaluation of NiFe catalyst films on Ni foam substates. These films then were characterized by an array of electrochemical measurements and SEM imaging. From these measurements, the reaction rate constants corresponding to a pair of OER and HER reaction networks then were identified as part of a full-scale model of the electrochemical cell.
The electrochemical cell model then was combined with models for a PV array, battery system, and solar irradiance model which was optimized using several multi-objective optimization procedures. Aisha will return to Kuwait this fall to start her academic career as a professor in the Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Department at Kuwait University