Tegen Dagnew Tessema
PhD Programme: Thermodynamic Fluid Engineering
Research group: CREVER – Research Group of Applied Thermal Engineering
Supervisors: Alberto Coronas Salcedo (URV), Joan Carles Bruno Argilaguet (URV) and Vanesa Gil Hernández (Fundación del Hidrógeno de Aragón)
Bio
Tegen Dagnew Tessema holds a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering (2013), and a Master of Science in Sustainable Energy Engineering (2017) from Bahir Dar University, in Ethiopia. During his bachelor study years, he engaged a four-month staying at Dashen Brewery P.L.C in Ethiopia, as an internship programme for engineers. He focused his master thesis project on the effect of electron acceptors in the performance of Microbial fuel system for power generation using brewery waste water. Besides, he works in different academic and administrative and lecture positions, within the Chair of Energy and Environmental Engineering, and the Council Secretary of the Bahir Dar University. Moreover, he attends a hands-on Energy Modelling Platform for Africa 2021 training programme with specialization in the tracks on OSeMOSYS and Flex Tool, at the Loughborough University and the Imperial Collage of London. His work experience in fuel cell science and technology has pushed the field to the new insight of green hydrogen energy storage using promising methods and technologies in polygonation systems at URV.
Project: Green Hydrogen Storage using Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers (LOHC) in Polygeneration systems serving Smart Energy Grids
Renewable electricity can replace fossil fuels in many applications but not in all of them such as in certain industrial applications. Moreover, the extensive electrification would require costly grid upgrades and storage solutions. Hydrogen would be an excellent complement to achieve the transition towards a decarbonized economy. Hydrogen obtained using renewable energy sources known as "Clean or Green hydrogen" has the potential to become an important energy carrier in line with the most ambitious decarbonization objectives set by the hydrogen strategy adopted by the European Union Commission in July 2020. Hydrogen can be used as fuel for power and industrial plants and mobility applications (road vehicles, maritime shipping ...), as feedstock in biorefineries, building up bulk chemicals and other alternative sustainable fuels and for short or inter-seasonal energy storage of highly intermittent renewable energies. Moreover, it can be transported and distributed using the existing natural gas networks. The handling and storage of hydrogen for the transport and distribution networks can be done by compression, liquefaction, absorbed in metal hydrides, liquid organic carriers or ammonia among others. Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers (LOHC) are suggested as a promising storage solution thanks to its high-density storage medium in which hydrogen is loaded/unloaded using a catalyzed reversible exothermal/endothermal reaction. LOHC allows to use existing fuel tanks in refueling stations being also non-toxic and hardly flammable. The full assessment of LOHC application in the highly complex and variable whole hydrogen supply chain usually known as "hydrogen valleys" capturing the synergetic effect of the heat released/absorbed during the storage process has not been performed in detail because of the lack of suitable tools for this challenging task. The main objective of the project is the development of technical solutions for the design of optimal cost-competitive configurations and energy management strategies considering the storage/packing/unpacking for the use of green hydrogen.
