Prof. Meng NI is awarded RGC Senior Research Fellow Scheme 2023/24

We are pleased to announce that our RISE member, Professor Meng NI is awarded RGC Senior Research Fellow Scheme (SRFS) 2023/24!

This scheme aims at providing sustained support and relief from teaching and administrative duties to exceptionally outstanding researchers, to facilitate their full dedication to research and development and help universities attract and retain research talent.

Professor Ni’s project “Protonic ceramic fuel cells for clean power generation: From new cathode materials to new stack designs” is awarded with a fellowship grant of around HKD$7.8M.

Characterised by their high efficiency and low emission, protonic ceramic fuel cells (PCFCs) are power sources that promise to replace conventional thermal power plants. Despite this, the practical performance of a PCFC stack remains limited due to high energy at the cathode and the non-uniform distribution of reactants in a traditional PCFC stack.

The project adopts both the trial-and-error and machine learning-based approaches to facilitate new cathode material development. Through multi-physics modelling and optimisation techniques, unconventional stack designs, including several nature-inspired stack configurations, will be evaluated for PCFC. The research integrates engineering, chemistry, physics and material science to address the complex challenges of using PCFC for clean power generation.

Congratulations to Professor Ni!

Reference:

PolyU Media Release: https://www.polyu.edu.hk/media/media-releases/2023/0725_two-polyu-scholars-conferred-as-rgc-senior-research-fellow-and-research-fellow/