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Material Science toward achieving Carbon Neutrality

Posted: 2023-05-29

Time: 29th May 2023, 08:30-10:00am

Venue: M1-3 Conference Room, Energy College

Lecturer: Prof. Takayuki Ichikawa

Abstract:

Growing global energy demand and exhaustion of fossil fuels are gradually becoming a big concern for all the people on the Earth. it is important to establish hydrogen utilization technology as a countermeasure against long-term fluctuations in renewable energy. Meanwhile, in order to achieve carbon neutrality, it is impossible to avoid the development of high-performance secondary batteries and the establishment of a hydrogen-utilizing society.

Our group has so far focused on various kind of metal hydrides and focused on exploring their functions to solve the above problems. On the other hand, as characteristic properties related to hydrogen gas, not only for high capacity hydrogen storage but also for obtaining high pressure H2, producing heat by control of H2 pressure, and absorbing NH3 with relatively low pressure, we focused on various kinds of hydrides related materials, such as MgH2, TiFe intermetallic compound, TiH2, and LiBH4 And then, for high performance properties, “nano-composite techniques” played an important role. Of course, material modification to achieve required performance can only be accelerated by precise and accurate characterizations based on materials science. Moreover, the synthesis of hydrogen gas from renewable energies is also quite important technology to be developed with a reasonable cost (in Japan, target cost for hydrogen production is about 2 USD/kg). To achieve this economic requirement, thermochemical method to produce hydrogen is attracting a significant attention. And some suitable way to control this promising reaction would be demonstrated.

Introduction:

Takayuki Ichikawa was born on April 16, 1974 in Okayama, Japan. In 2002, he obtained Ph.D from Graduate School of Biosphere Science, Hiroshima University in the field of theoretical physics. His research focuses on solid state hydrogen storage materials in metallic and non-metallic states, Li-ion batteries, ammonia storage materials, and thermo chemical hydrogen production. The number of his publication is about 250, and total citation is over 6200.