Prof. Sophia Haussener

This month, we place the spotlight on the work and accomplishments of Prof. Sophia Haussener who leads the Laboratory of Renewable Energy Science and Engineering (LRESE) at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. The LRESE conducts world-leading research into coupled multi-physics and multi-scale reactor and device modelling; modelling-based guidelines for design and engineering of reactors; numerical simulations of chemical reactions; and the optimisation of reactors. Sophia's research focuses on providing design guidelines for thermal, thermochemical, and photoelectrochemical energy conversion reactors through multi-physics modelling and experimentation.

Please describe your career path and research group.

I obtained my BSc and MSc as a mechanical engineer from the ETH in Zürich Switzerland. During the master, I already developed an interest in solar energy conversion and worked at laboratories at ETHZ but also at the Colorado University focusing on concentrated solar energy conversion and solar thermochemistry. During my postdoc at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Joint Center of Artificial Photosynthesis, I got to work on photoelectrochemical routes for solar fuel processing. Coming back to Switzerland, I started my own research group at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne (EPFL) in Lausanne Switzerland, where I started to combined my knowledge in concentrated solar and photoelectrochemistry. We work on multi-physics modelling as well as experimental demonstrations, covering meso-scale of photoelectrodes or porous reactants, device-scale of photoelectrochemical devices or solar reactors, up to solar fuel processing plants.

Please tell us about your group's role within FlowPhotoChem (FPC). How does it fit in with the wider project activities?

In FPC, we are WP1 leader and work on the flow reactor for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen, utilizing concentrated radiation (concentrations that are at least 100 if not 1000 times the normal solar irradiation). These reactor designs (in fact we have different reactors for different scales) are based on i) an earlier laboratory-scale demonstration in my research group at EPFL, and ii) an earlier scaled solar fuel processing plant demonstration also in my research group at EPFL. For FPC, we aim at using the same reactor design guidelines for CO2-to-CO reduction reaction, working with more abundant materials, improving production rates and efficiencies, and integrating these reactors in the complete process chain of FPC for the production of ethylene.

Have you collaborated with any of the researchers in the consortium before this project?

I have collaborated with multiple partners before the start of the project and met them at various international conferences and workshops. This project enables us to deepen these collaborations, continue these collaborations, or even extending these collaborations to new areas.

In your opinion, what is the most exciting aspect of FPC?

FlowPhotoChem is an extremely multidisciplinary project, working with academic and industrial partners, with material and design experts, with experimentalists and simulation experts, and working on multiple pathways (photoelectrochemical, photocatalytic, electrochemical). In every meeting, I learn something new and extend my knowledge web to new areas.

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer these questions. I look forward to meeting you in Dublin with the wider FPC team next month.