Program Overview

Aalto University Hydrogen Innovation Centre Doctoral School

The Hydrogen Innovation Centre Doctoral School aims to be an active community of doctoral researchers from different fields such as chemistry, energy technology, electrical engineering, and energy systems.

About the Doctoral School

The Hydrogen Innovation Centre has established a doctoral school which is an active community of doctoral students from different fields who are preparing their thesis in the research fields of the Centre. The doctoral school was launched in 2024.

Types of Doctoral Thesis Projects

The Hydrogen Innovation Centre Doctoral School has two types of doctoral thesis projects:

• Collaborative doctoral projects involving at least two different Aalto departments, leveraging strong collaboration to facilitate a high potential for impact. The doctoral students have supervising professors in each department.
• Joint doctoral projects with industry. For these projects, topics are defined together with industry partners, who are closely involved in the doctoral research project.

Goal of the Doctoral School

The Hydrogen doctoral school aims to educate doctoral students to be both experts in their field and to gain a holistic view across the entire hydrogen value chain, whilst strongly connecting them to industry.

Activities in the Doctoral School

The Hydrogen Doctoral School organises regularly common activities for the doctoral students and their supervisors, e.g. seminars, workshops, and summer schools.

Ongoing Doctoral Thesis Projects

Six collaborative doctoral thesis projects have been granted with full or partial funding from The Hydrogen Innovation Centre. These projects include:

Hydrogen Production

• Development of a Power Conversion System to Increase the Efficiency of Green Hydrogen Production (ECO-H2): The ECO-H2 project aims to enhance the efficiency of green hydrogen production by developing a novel power conversion system.
• 3D CFD Modeling of Alkaline Water Electrolyzers for Efficient H2 Production (Hilla): The Hilla project studies the largely unexplored field of fluid dynamical effects in alkaline water electrolyzers.
• Green ammonia with lithium-mediated nitrogen reduction (LiNR): engineering and understanding electrode surfaces (NH3SURF): This project investigates the electrochemical synthesis of ammonia and the engineering of electrode surfaces for efficient lithium-mediated nitrogen reduction.
• RESONATE - Responsible H2 Generation via Circular Electrode Life: RESONATE introduces material and energy-efficient electrocatalyst and electrode structures for hydrogen generation in low-temperature electrolyzers alongside revolutionary direct recycling of the aged electrodes.
• Hydrogen production via co-electrolysis of xylan - HYXY: HYXYL proposes a novel approach to green H2 production by coupling it with biomass side-stream valorization via co-electrolysis.
• Flexible operation of PEM Electrolyzer for green hydrogen production and use as a raw material for Chemical Industries: This research focuses on the flexible operation of PEM electrolyzers for green hydrogen production and its use as a raw material in chemical industries.
• Multi-Scale Energy Analysis of Catalytic Hydrogenation of Carbon Oxides to Oxygenates as Green Energy Carriers (HTO): The research activities in the context of this doctoral thesis are planned with the view of developing a comprehensive multi-scale energy analysis approach.
• Optimized power electronics for electrolysers (OPE4H2): This project investigates current-source converters as grid-connected power supplies for electrolysers.

Storage & Transport

• Hydrogen-Operated Gas Bearings and Seals for Hydrogen Pumps (HOGS): This project develops gas bearings that double as seals, using hydrogen gas itself as the lubricant and sealing medium.

System-level Analysis

• Co-simulation of energy, hydrogen and electricity transmission systems for analysing alternative hydrogen futures (CO-SEHES): This project studies the co-evolution of hydrogen systems, electricity transmission, and energy systems.

Head of the Hydrogen Doctoral School

• Tanja Kallio: Associate Professor and Head of the Hydrogen Innovation Centre Doctoral School.

Interested to Collaborate

If you are interested in collaborating with Aalto and have a research need or an idea that may be suitable for a doctoral thesis at the Hydrogen Innovation Centre, please contact the centre directly.

Doctoral Students

The doctoral school has several doctoral students working on various projects, including:

• Mohammadreza Fazli
• Saeed Kheirati
• Haoxuan You
• Cedric Schiwek
• Sami Tarvainen
• Ushnish Chowdhury

Activities

The doctoral school organizes networking and knowledge-sharing events for doctoral students, including the Hydrogen Breakfast Series.