2024 Yellott Award Winner Presentation
The Yellott Award Yellott Award is presented by Solar Energy Division (SED) to an outstanding individual that has contributed significantly to the organization of the Solar Energy Division (SED) sponsored symposia, has demonstrated outstanding leadership in ASME, has a reputation for performing high quality research, has made significant contributions to solar engineering through education, state or federal service, or in the private sector.
Sophia Haussener, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Laboratory of Renewable Energy Science and Engineering,
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Presentation Title: Bridging Photoelectrochemical and Thermochemical Approaches for Solar Fuels and Chemicals
Abstract: Solar radiation, abundant but distributed and intermittent, requires storage for practical use. Solar thermo-chemical and photo-electro-chemical methods (and combinations thereof) offer non-biological routes to produce solar fuels and chemicals. While thermochemical processes utilize high temperatures for endothermic reactions, photoelectrochemical processes harness photons (with sufficient energy) for reaction driving.
The presentation will review the state of both approaches, addressing challenges and exploring their combined potential. Specifically, the utilization of concentrated solar irradiation and thermal integration for photo-electrochemical approaches will be discussed, along with quantification of their potential and strategies to scale. To further reduce overpotentials and reliance on rare materials, we will discuss a modeling-based assessment of high-temperature (temperatures > 400 K) photo-electrochemical approaches in a solid-state equivalent design. The presentation will discuss requirements on materials (solid electrolyte, catalysts, semiconductor absorber and barriers, etc.), operating conditions and design for such approaches and explore limiting efficiencies. We will then present the experimental implementation of such a solar-driven high-temperature electrolysis approach in a simpler integrational approach before ending with discussing how electrochemistry can help in enhancing the performance of solar thermochemical cycles.
Biography: Sophia Haussener is an Associate Professor heading the Laboratory of Renewable Energy Science and Engineering at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). She received her MSc (2007) and PhD (2010) in Mechanical Engineering from ETH Zurich. Between 2011 and 2012, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Joint Center of Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) and the Energy Environmental Technology Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). She is a member of EPFL’s research award commission and of EPFL’s Academic Strategic Committee. She has published over 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, and 2 books. She has been awarded the ETH medal (2011), the Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation award (2011), the ABB Forschungspreis (2012), a Starting Grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation (2014), the Prix Zonta (2015), the Global Change Award (2017), the Raymond Viskanta Award on Radiative Transfer (2019), and the Yellott award (2024). She is a co-founder of the startup SoHHytec aiming at commercializing photoelectrochemical hydrogen production. She is the former chair of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Solar Energy Division (2018), a former member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Helmholtz Zentrum (2016-2022), a member of the scientific board of the Liquid Sunlight Alliance, and a member of the Ethics Board of Arete Ethik Invest.
Her current research is focused on providing design guidelines for thermal, thermochemical, and photoelectrochemical energy conversion reactors through multi-physics modeling and demonstrations. Her research interests include: thermal sciences and radiative transfer, fluid dynamics, charge transfer, and thermo/electro/photochemistry in complex multi-phase media on multiple scales.