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Dr Solomon F. BrownI am a Professor of Process and Energy Systems in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at The University of Sheffield.
I'm the Director of the EPSRC's CDT in Energy Storage and its Applications and lead the Brown Group at Sheffield with ongoing projects funded by the EPSRC, BEIS, DASA, RAEng, the EC and Industry. My research focusses on mathematical modelling, process analysis and optimisation with a particular focus on clean energy processes, energy storage and energy systems. Key areas include:
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Current Group members
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Jude Ejeh joined us as part of the Energy Open Piazza – Power Forward Challenge project, he works on developing optimisation models for electrical energy systems. This involves and extends to models for optimal scheduling of electrical energy storage devices for efficient integration of renewable energy sources – solar and wind, energy arbitrage, balancing mechanism services and other energy services for behind-the-meter and front-of-meter applications. It further covers the use of static electrical energy storage devices as well as the optimal scheduling of electric vehicle charging/discharging for vehicle-to-home (V2H) and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) applications. He also has experience in developing techno-economic optimisation models for process systems, with emphasis on multi-floor process plant layout configurations; in research relating to obtaining fuels from plastic wastes, as an intern in a Petroleum refining company and a Nuclear research laboratory. His current research interests lie in operations research (OR) applications to energy systems and supply chains.
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Peter Bugryniec's research focuses on developing a better understanding of the safety of Li-ion batteries. Specifically, my work investigates the hazard of thermal runaway with the aim of determining the governing processes and influencing factors that affect thermal runaway severity. This involves employing experimental methods to study the thermal runaway process under different environmental conditions and battery states. It further involves computational techniques for the development of an advanced abuse model of Lithium-ion phosphate cells.
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Mathew Wilkes is a Research Fellow in Clean Energy at the University of Sheffield. He uses process models developed in gPROMS, ASPEN, and Fluent, to simulate and analyse and a wide range of emerging energy technologies. He initially joined the Brown Group as an Engineering Doctorate student in the EPSRC CDT in Carbon Capture and Storage and Cleaner Fossil Energy. His EngD looked at techno-economically comparing post-combustion capture (PCC) technologies for CO2 capture on small quick-response fossil power generators, focusing on existing technologies and evaluating their performance under transient operation. He has produced peer reviewed papers on gas turbine operation, flexible CO2 capture, and linking CO2 sources to transportation options.
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Diarmid Roberts: The goal of my project is to perform a techno-economic analysis of Redox Flow Batteries in grid-connected applications. The work has two major components:
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Robert Milton is a mathematician, with a diverse background in finance, polyglot software development and applied mathematics. His interest is in creating novel mathematical and computational methods, which he has contributed to a variety of fields including McCabe-Thiele iteration and hydrological flow duration curves. A novel combination of techno-economic, process and supply-chain modelling was a major software project. The centrepiece of his research is building the rom-comma python package, combining original and existing machine learning techniques in a novel way. This tool uses Gaussian Processes to perform Global Sensitivity Analysis and locate an Active Subspace, dramatically reducing the problem dimension. It is already being applied to carbon capture, thermal runaway in batteries, wet granulation, and syntheses from Metal-Organic Frameworks to personalised medicines to mRNA vaccines. His short term goal is to integrate these techniques into a new class of device called an Agile Soft Sensor.
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Tim Hutty's project seeks to assess the efficacy and cost of reversible solid oxide fuel cells (ReSOFC) as a tool for implementing a small scale, low-carbon distributed energy generation/storage system when interacting with a larger grid. To this end a microgrid simulation will be constructed using AnyLogic software.
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Flora Biggins' research looks at how energy storage can be utilised to generate value in different integration scenarios. Case studies have explored locational effects of co-locating battery storage with solar, optimising bidding strategies in competitive energy markets and community storage partially accessed by a value-maximising aggregator. Ongoing work includes developing a model for a wind-based hydrogen electrolysis and applying a real-options approach to energy storage projects.
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Thomas Cowley’s research looks at the modelling, design, and operation of district heating networks (DHN), alongside the geothermal output of mine water heat for expansion of DHNs. Agent based modelling will be used as a tool to simulate DHNs and GIS mapping, dynamic system inefficiency and seasonal variability in energy demand used to improve temporal and spatial sensitivity at a greater resolution. Other research areas include design and validation of heat demand models. Applying case studies allows different scenarios in techno-economic case studies to be generated to inform decisions around utilisation of mine water heat in the region and support the UK’s decarbonisation agenda.
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Min Tao is a Research Associate in Soft Sensors and Digital Twins for RNA Vaccine Manufacture
funded via the Welcome Leap R3 Program. His project focuses on developing advanced digital tools for enhancing the development and operation of RNA vaccine and therapeutics production processes. Previously, He got his PhD degree at The University of Manchester. |
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Oludayo Asuni is a PhD student in the Brown research group. Her research currently involves the technical and economic analysis of biomass gasification processes integrated with carbon capture technologies for the production of Hydrogen gas. She uses modelling and simulation tools such as Aspen Plus to evaluate these processes and where necessary validate using existing data to make recommendations for process improvement on different operating scales.
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Alumni Members
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