This is a past event.

ME-EM Graduate Seminar Speaker Series

proudly presents:

Dr. Aimy Bazylak
University of Toronto

The hydrogen polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell and electrolyzer provide enormous potential for a clean energy infrastructure. However, due to cost and inefficiency barriers, PEM fuel cells and electrolyzers have not yet reached widespread commercial adoption. Mass transport limitations such as liquid water flooding in the PEM fuel cell and oxygen gas bubble accumulation in the PEM electrolyzer lead to inefficiencies. If these issues become resolved, smaller and more reliable devices could be produced at a lower cost. Mass transport limitations can be minimized through the development of optimized materials, which have tailored pore structures, connectivities, conductivities, and surface wettabilities. Currently, the porous materials in PEM fuel cells and electrolyzers have not been customized for mass transport, due to the lack of information about their structure and the dominating mass transport mechanisms. In this talk, I will discuss my TEAM’s techniques for analyzing the three-dimensional structure of the PEM fuel cell and electrolyzer gas diffusion layers (GDLs) and the microporous layers (MPLs). I will also discuss how we combine experimental and numerical approaches to inform the design of next generation porous materials for advanced performance.

Prof. Aimy Bazylak is an Associate Professor in Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. She is the Canada Research Chair in Thermofluidics for Clean Energy and the Director of the University of Toronto Institute for Sustainable Energy (ISE). She is the Director of the Thermofluids for Energy and Advanced Materials (TEAM) Laboratory, and her research is focused on tailoring micro- and nano-scaled materials for advancing clean energy technologies, such as fuel cells and electrolyzers. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Engineering Physics from the University of Saskatchewan in 2003, and obtained her MASc (2005) and PhD (2008) from the University Victoria. She was awarded the inaugural Bullitt Environmental Fellowship (2008), the I.W. Smith Award for Outstanding achievement in creative mechanical engineering within 10 years of graduation (2011), and the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation Early Researcher Award (2012). In 2014 she became a Fellow of the Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering and was recently recognized as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow in Germany.