Professor Kevin M. Ryan holds a Personal Chair in Chemical Nanotechnology at the Department of Chemical Sciences at the University of Limerick. He is coordinator of the H2020 EU projects Si-Drive and NEILLSBAT in the area of Li-ion and Lithium-Sulfur batteries respectively, Co-Principal Investigator on SFI Centres MaREI and AMBER and funded Investigator on SSPC. He is holder of SFI IVP and IRC Laureate awards.
Address: MS1021, University of Limerick, Limerick Ireland. Phone: + 353 (61) 213167, Email: Kevin.M.Ryan@ul.ie.
Dr Hugh Geaney is a native of Kildimo, County Limerick. He has a degree in Industrial Chemistry (2008) and PhD in Chemistry (2012) with both carried out in UL. His PhD. was carried out with Prof. Kevin M. Ryan and focussed on Si and Ge nanowire growth using new synthetic approaches. After completing his PhD., he was a postdoctoral researcher in University College Cork, where he worked with Prof. Colm O’Dwyer on Li-O2 batteries for the EU project STABLE. He returned to the Bernal Institute in 2016 with Prof. Ryan, to work on an Enterprise Ireland funded commercialization project. In 2018, he was part of the team that secured the UL coordinated EU funded project ‘Si-DRIVE’, which is developing next generation Li-ion batteries for electric vehicle applications. In late 2018, he was awarded a starting research grant from Science Foundation Ireland worth 425k€. The project ‘SAND’ is examining the development of new Si active materials for better performing Li-ion batteries. Since January 2020, Hugh has been a Lecturer in Chemistry in the department of Chemical Sciences. To date, he has published 65 peer reviewed articles (mostly battery related) with approx. 2000 citations and a h-index of 23.
Battery Related Research interests: Li-ion materials development with particular focus on full-cell testing Ex situ and In situ analysis of battery materials ‘Beyond Li-ion’ technologies (e.g. Li-S, Li-O2, Na-ion, Al-ion).
Active Grants in Battery Area:
- SAND - Silicon Anodes through Nanostructural Development - SFI SIRG
- Si-DRIVE - H2020-NMBP-ST-IND-2018
Tadhg studied Pharmaceutical and Industrial Chemistry at undergraduate level before obtaining his PhD in Chemistry in the University of Limerick. He is currently a lecturer in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Sciences where his teaching interests lie in analytical and inorganic chemistry. Tadhg’s research involves the development of high-capacity electrode materials for energy storage devices. His primary focus is on the application of nanostructured electrodes for next-generation lithium-ion and low-cost sodium-ion batteries. He has considerable experience in the development of low-cost synthetic methods for lithium-alloying electrodes based on Si and Ge and the enhancement of their cycling performance through morphology control and electrolyte optimisation.
Battery Related Research interests: Low-cost Na-ion battery development; EIS for performance evaluation of Li-ion batteries; High capacity Li-alloying materials for Li-ion battery applications
Active Grants in Battery Area:
Low-Cost Sustainable Battery Systems for Enhanced Grid Penetration of Intermittent Renewable Energy
• Principal Investigator
• Funded by Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland - National Energy Research Development and Demonstration (RD&D) Funding Programme 2019
• Scope of the project is to develop low-cost Na-ion battery electrode materials for grid scale storage of renewable energy
Digital Twin Modelling and Embedded Sensing of Batteries
• Supervising a PhD project funded through the IRC’s Enterprise Partnership Scheme
• Co-Funded by Analog Devices
Nanostructured Electrodes and Ionic Liquid Electrolytes for Ultra High Energy Density Lithium-Sulphur Batteries
• Co-applicant
• Funded by SFI through the EU funded network M-ERA.Net
In 2009 I started my Joint Doctoral degree in Madrid Institute of Advanced Studies and Autonomous University of Madrid doing research on Synthesis of quinone-based organic redox compounds and their applications in electrochemical energy storage devices. I was hired by Solvay SA. Research and Innovation Centre (Brussels) in 2013 upon finishing my Ph.D. as an experienced Marie-Curie scientist for the Energy Caps Project (EU Project: FP7-People Marie Curie Actions, Industry Academia Partnerships and Pathways) which aimed at the development of sustainable and safe lithium ion capacitors. I continue with my research career in Solvay until 2019 with some other important projects including polymer electrolytes for lithium metal batteries, hybrid cathodes for high power lithium ion batteries, silicon/carbon composite anodes for advanced lithium ion batteries.
Currently I am working on a polymer electrolyte project for lithium metal batteries as postdoctoral research scientist in Nanotechnology Research Group supervised by Prof. Kevin Ryan.
Battery Related Research interests: Advanced lithium ion batteries, lithium metal batteries, polymer electrolytes, solid state electrolytes
Active Grants in Battery Area: Career-FIT Grant (Enterprise Ireland-Marie Curie)
TBC
Dr. Shalini Singh is a newly appointed tenure-track Lecturer at the Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Limerick. After MSc (Chemistry) from DDU University India, she received a research fellowship by Depart. of Sci. and Tech., India to carry research on polymeric membranes and electro-membrane processes in CSIR, India. Following this, she moved to Limerick, Ireland to pursue PhD under the supervision of Prof. Kevin M. Ryan at University of Limerick with INSPIRE structured PhD Programme. In 2016, she received PhD degree for her work on designing multicomponent metal chalcogenide semiconductor nanocrystals using methods of colloidal chemistry. She subsequently started postdoc at Ghent University, Belgium to explore the surface chemistry of colloidal nanocrystals systems using solution NMR technique as a toolbox. She was awarded the prestigious FWO (Research Foundation, Flanders Belgium) postdoctoral grant in 2017 to work on designing novel semiconductors nanomaterials for photonic applications. Her research interest is focused on the investigation of conversion reaction mechanisms involved in batteries using solution and solid state NMR techniques.
Battery Related Research interests: Investigating the Electrochemical Processes in Alkali-metal Ion Batteries using NMR as a tool-box
Thomas Conway received the B.Eng. degree in electronic engineering and the Ph.D. degree in detection methods for magnetic recording channels from the University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland, in 1991 and 1996, respectively. He joined Hewlett Packard CPB, Bristol, U.K., in 1991 and worked for two years on the design and development of tape drives for computer storage. From 1996 to 1998, he worked as a Senior Design Engineer with Analog Devices B.V. Limerick, Ireland, and Adaptec Inc., Longmont, CO, USA, on disk drive read channels and controllers. He was a Design Consultant for a number of Irish and International Companies. He is currently a Researcher with the Centre for Robotics and Intelligent Systems (www.cris.ul.ie), the University of Limerick. Since 1999, he has been a Lecturer with the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, University of Limerick and has lectured on VLSI and analogue IC design, information theory and coding, and more recently power electronics and electric vehicles.
Battery Related Research interests:
Battery Modules/Packs for Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Renewable Energy Applications: Design, Implementation, Characterisation and Evaluation.
Lithium Ion Battery Management Systems, EV DC chargers, EV range extension: Circuit and System Design and Integration.
High Level System Issues for EV charging infrastructure:
Modelling, Implementation, Analysis and Policy.
E.g. Projects:
Electric Trike NiMh 180V (2010),
Electric Bike LiFePO 33V (2011),
EV Conversion PbA 96V (2012-2017),
EV Irish Charge Infrastructure Modelling (2016)
8kW Chademo DC Charger (2017)
Electric Trike 2.0 (2019-todate) 150V LiFePO
Dr Colin Fitzpatrick is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Electronic & Computer Engineering at the University of Limerick, Ireland where he is the course director for the BE/ME in Electronic & Computer Engineering. He teaches Energy Management, Electronics & the Environment, The Engineer as a Professional, Active Circuit Design and Sustainable Life Cycle Engineering. His research interests cover a range of topics in the area of technology and sustainability including the Circular Economy, WEEE, Electricity Demand Management, Planned Obsolescence & Environmental Sensing. He Chairs the National Standards Authority of Ireland Technical Committee 22 “Environmental Standardization for Electrical and Electronic Products and Systems” the national mirror committee for European and International Standardisation bodies in this area. He is the International Co-Chair for Electronics Goes Green 2020+ in Berlin in September 2020 https://electronicsgoesgreen.org/ and is the Conference Chair for Product Lifetimes & the Environment 2021 conference which will be hosted at the University of Limerick https://www.plateconference.org/plate-2021-conference/ . He has spent sabbaticals at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2013) and Franuhofer IZM (2015).
Battery Related Research interests: Repurposing of EV batteries in stationary applications; Battery recycling; Batteries and Extended Producer Responsibility
Active Grants in Battery Area:
- EPA PhD Co-Fund “Repurposing of Batteries from End of Life Electric Vehicles (ReBeleive)” Nov 2019-Nov 2023
- EPA “End of Life Management of Long-Life Products (LongWEEE)” Mar 2020-March 2021
Michael holds a D. Phil. in Applied Mathematics from Oxford University in the UK, and has previously held research posts in Brazil, France, Ireland and Japan, before returning to Limerick in 2019. His primary research interests lie in the deterministic mathematical modelling of natural and industrial processes, involving the use of asymptotic and numerical methods. He is the author of around 115 peer-reviewed journal publications and over 50 contributions papers in international conference proceedings. He has also coordinated a 7-partner EU FP6-funded project entitled ”Development of novel, efficient and validated software-based tools for proton exchange membrane fuel cell component and stack designers” (PEMTOOL).
Battery Related Research interests: Redox flow batteries, Li-ion batteries, fuel cells, mathematical modelling, numerical simulation
Active Grants in Battery Area: Si-DRIVE - H2020-NMBP-ST-IND-2018
Dr Maurice N Collins is a lecturer at the School of Engineering and Principal Investigator at the Bernal Institute and the Health Research Institute, all at the University of Limerick. He has secured in excess of €8 million in research funding as PI and Co-PI. Currently, he is the Principal Investigator and coordinator of the H2020 funded LIBRE consortium (lignin for carbon fibre), the largest consortium in bio-based carbon fibre research in Europe, as well as being Co-PI on multiple nationally-funded projects. His research interests include tissue engineering, hydrogels and bio-based sustainable carbon precursor materials for varying applications as for example fibres and nanostructures for battery anodes, as well as the development of 3D printable materials. Dr Collins has a strong track record in attracting industrially-funded research and this has led to two licencing agreements and six patent applications. Coupled to this, he has authored >70 WoS journal articles with several highly cited awards and >60 conference publications. He is a reviewer for all the top journals in his field. He is editor of the International Journal of Biological Macromolecules and sits on the editorial board of Carbohydrate Polymers both published by Elsevier. He is proposal assessor for the Polish Academy of Science, Israeli Ministry of Science and H2020. Dr Collins lectures polymer science to postgraduate students and tissue engineering to undergraduates. He currently supervises 5 PhD candidates, 4 postdocs and is Course Director for the MSc in Biomedical Device Materials. His current h-index is 26 and his citations are in excess of 2.5K (Scholar). He is a member of the SFI AMBER centre and was recently awarded the Bernal Institute senior research of the year for 2019.
Battery Related Research interests: Sustainable carbon-based nanomaterials to replace fossil based carbons in batteries
Active Grants in Battery Area: LIBRE H2020 BBI grant number 720707