Innovative Sensing Technology for Fugitive Hydrogen Emissions Detection

#Climate #sensors #sensing #hydrogen #emissions

The urgent need to address climate change is recognised globally with Australia adopting a net zero emissions target by 2050 and commitments to reduce carbon emissions by 2030. The adoption of hydrogen as a substitute for carbon-containing fossil fuels would prevent emissions of greenhouse gases. However, hydrogen is itself an indirect greenhouse gas and any leakage of hydrogen in the atmosphere because of fugitive emissions from a hydrogen economy will impact the climate, partially offsetting the climate benefits of a reduction in CO₂. Hydrogen is a volatile, and odorless gas with relatively small molecular size and low viscosity; thus, hydrogen systems are highly prone to leakage. As such, there is an urgent need to build capacity to detect and minimise fugitive hydrogen emissions to the environment. To address the risk of hydrogen fugitive emissions and leaks, robust, reliable, real-time, power efficient, and scalable sensing and leak detection technologies, including advanced hydrogen gas sensors should be employed. Currently many different types of hydrogen sensor are commercially available or in development. However, to meet the demands of an evolving future hydrogen economy, ongoing research has focused on continuously enhancing sensitivity, selectivity, response time, low detection limit and reliability in addition to reducing sensor size, cost, and power consumption. We have developed innovative gas sensing technologies via synthesising hybrid photoactive nanomaterials using facile chemical methods. These nanomaterials include Pd-TiO₂ hollow nanospheres, rGO-Pd-TiO₂ and Pd-TiO₂ solid nanospheres that have shown promising results to detect hydrogen gas at room or low operating temperature (i.e., low power requirements) with high sensitivity and selectivity and fast response (within seconds) by using photoexcitation. This talk discusses benefits of nanomaterial hybridisation and photoexcitation to hydrogen gas sensing, the underlying sensing mechanisms, and strategies to overcome current limitations.

• Date: 31 May 2024
• Time: 03:30 PM to 04:30 PM
• All times are (UTC-07:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)
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• ASB 10704
• Simon Fraser Unviersity - Burnaby
• Burnaby, British Columbia
• Canada V5A 0A7
• Building: Applied Sciences Building
• Room Number: 10704
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• Starts 07 May 2024 12:00 AM
• Ends 31 May 2024 03:00 PM
• All times are (UTC-07:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)
• No Admission Charge

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Mahnaz of Swinburne University of Technology, Australia

Biography:

 

Mahnaz Shafiei is an Associate Professor and former Vice-Chancellor’s Women in STEM Fellow at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia. She received a PhD degree from RMIT University in 2011. She followed this with postdoctoral research at Queensland University of Technology and an Australian Endeavour Research Fellowship at Simon Fraser University, Canada. Mahnaz’s research focus is on sensors and nanomaterials and their practical use for health and environmental monitoring. Mahnaz has been awarded an International Hydrogen Research Fellowship as part of the International Hydrogen Research Collaboration Program funded by the Australian Government.