Biography

After being selected as the student of the year at the Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST) for three consecutive years, he received his master's degree in 2019 with a focus on proton exchange membrane fuel cells. He was awarded a full scholarship to continue his research at EPFL to obtain his Ph.D. in this field under the supervision of Dr. Jan Van herle. He also won the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant as a part of the EPFL-innovator program, which was launched to support young talents to establish their own start-ups. 

Mission

It takes all kinds,

Together, we can equally move the boundaries of science as a team. The mission is to be passionate about creating an inclusive research team that promotes and values diversity to save the environment and improve human life. A culture of respect should be valued in every organization to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion in the areas of research, teaching, and/or outreach. The bias against anyone should be prevented regardless of gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, age, neurodiversity, disability status, citizenship, or any other aspect. 

Water/thermal management of PEM fuel cells

The proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is considered as an alternative for internal combustion engines to generate power for vehicles such as buses, cars, trucks, etc. in addition to providing power in the power plants. Although there have been achievements in this field, the costs, water/thermal management, and durability are being considered as the main barriers toward the commercialization of this type of fuel cell. In this project, Hossein could present the idea of using porous ribs in the flow channels of PEMFC to improve the water/thermal management [1] in addition to the electrochemical characteristics [2], hence better performance. Additionally, during Ph.D. while being funded by the Marie-Curie grant as part of EPFLinnovator program, Hossein considered the impacts of the wettability [3] and the microstructure [4] in the gas diffusion layer (GDL), a component of the PEMFC, and optimized (using the neural computing) the microstructural properties to maximize the liquid water removal from the GDL. In this regard, the durability and water management were improved, which resulted in the better design of PEMFCs. The experimental work in this field is still in progress, however, Hossein could also develop a new type of resin for embedding the GDL samples to be prepared for Focused Ion Beam- Scanning Electron Microscopy (FIB-SEM) .

Selected publications: 

[1] journal-article. Pourrahmani, H., Moghimi, M., & Siavashi, M. (2019). Thermal management in PEMFCs: The respective effects of porous media in the gas flow channel. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 44(5), 3121–3137. 

[2] journal-article. Pourrahmani, H., & Van herle, J. (2022). Evaluation Criterion of Proton Exchange Membrane (ECPEM) fuel cells considering inserted porous media inside the gas flow channel. Applied Thermal Engineering, 203, 117952. 

[3] journal-article. Pourrahmani, H., & Van herle, J. (2022b). The impacts of the gas diffusion layer contact angle on the water management of the proton exchange membrane fuel cells: Three-dimensional simulation and optimization. International Journal of Energy Research. 

[4] journal-article. Pourrahmani, H., & Van herle, J. (2022c). Water management of the proton exchange membrane fuel cells: Optimizing the effect of microstructural properties on the gas diffusion layer liquid removal. Energy, 256, 124712.

[5] journal-article. Pourrahmani, H., Navratilova, L., Matian, M., & Van herle, J. (2022). Impregnation methods for quantitative analyses of the gas diffusion layer in proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Science Talks, 3, 100035. 

Energy, exergy, economic, environmental studies

Conventional power generation systems are mainly based on fossil fuels that increase global warming, and pollution while having lower efficiencies. In this regard, the usage of multi-generation systems to recover the wasted power/heat in different units is needed to improve efficiency and reduce harmful environmental impacts. In this regard, efficient design of the multi-generation systems can be obtained using life cycle, energy, exergy, and cost analyses to minimize the costs and global warming. In Hossein's studies, the considered source of energy was either solar or hydrogen/methane using solar systems, and fuel cells, respectively. In the case of solar systems, thermal energy storage was used to enable the system's continuous operation during the night. The batteries were integrated into the fuel cell multi-generation systems to improve the dynamic response of systems and store the excess power once the power load is low. These studies started with exergoeconomic analysis [1] to provide hydrogen using solar energy which was working continuously due to the usage of phase change materials (PCMs) and continued to design charging stations [2,3] for electric cars based on fuel cells
that use hydrogen.

Selected publications:

[1] journal-article. Pourrahmani, H., & Moghimi, M. (2019). Exergoeconomic analysis and multi-objective optimization of a novel continuous solar-driven hydrogen production system assisted by phase change material thermal storage system. Energy, 189, 116170.

[2] journal-article. Pourrahmani, H., Xu, C., & Van herle, J. (2022). Two novel cogeneration charging stations for electric vehicles: Energy, exergy, economic, environment, and dynamic characterizations. Energy Conversion and Management, 271, 116314. 

[3] journal-article. Pourrahmani, H., Gay, M., & Van herle, J. (2021). Electric vehicle charging station using fuel cell technology: Two different scenarios and thermodynamic analysis. Energy Reports, 7, 6955–6972.

Energy and computer science

So far, Hossein could bridge the gap between the computer science and energy concepts. This has been started during the master studies by the implementation of the artificial neural networks (ANNs) in the thermal management of the proton
exchange membrane fuels cells [1] and continued by the multi-objective optimization of the energy systems. Recently, Hossein has also considered the Internet of Things (IoT). In the first step, the obtained knowledge about the IoT and the literature review about the use cases of the IoT in the automotive industry (with a focus on the batteries, fuel cells, and combustion engines) has been gathered and published in ref. [2]. 

Selected articles:

[1] journal-article. Pourrahmani, H., Siavashi, M., & Moghimi, M. (2019). Design optimization and thermal management of the PEMFC
using artificial neural networks. Energy, 182, 443–459. 

[2] journal-article. Pourrahmani, H., Yavarinasab, A., Zahedi, R., Gharehghani, A., Mohammadi, M. H., Bastani, P., & Van herle, J. (2022). The applications of Internet of Things in the automotive industry: A review of the batteries, fuel cells, and engines. Internet of Things, 100579.