Aman graduated in 2004 with a First class Masters of Engineering degree in Chemical Engineering with Honours at the University of Birmingham. Aman has also worked (2002) at an industrial process plant (South Wales) where he worked on energy optimisation projects and the environmental impacts of chemical production.

He is currently manages the SCRATCH project. This project is a £1.5m project and is aimed at encouraging local companies into a new technology sector.  This is achieved by conducting projects in the area of clean energy and fuel cells.  The goal being to develop a locally developed fuel cell system, from hydrogen production, to storage, to utilisation and application. 

Aman also has several other responsibilities: -

• Day to day operations of the Fuel Cell lab.  This includes tours and dissemination of the technology to visitors from UK and abroad.

• Microcab vehicle training.

• Fuel Cell lab Health, safety and awareness.

• Supervisor of several research projects - BEng & MEng.

• Projects with secondary schools.

• Guest lectures on "SOFC" and "Hydrogen & Fuel cells" for undergraduate, postgraduate and residential courses.

• Headstart - Chemical Engineering Labs,

• Chemical Engineering Taster Course  

• University Open Days & Admissions tours.

• Mentor to new PhD students.

• Website manager.

Aman completed his PhD (July 2008) in micro tubular solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) under the supervision of Prof. Kevin Kendall in the Fuel Cell Group. His project examined optimisation parameters of micro-SOFC for usage on available fuels. 

Information on PhD

Hydrogen is a clean fuel; however there are many issues in using pure hydrogen such as logistics and storage. Hence being able to operate a fuel cell on available fuels is of high importance. However when pure hydrogen is not used as the fuel, the fuel cell degrades in performance rapidly. Fuels cells in general will suffer from degradation when operated for specific length of time, but when carbon containing fuels are used the time period is accelerated.

The aim of the project was to study how we can process and optimise the manufacture process to limit the degradation and improve the performance & reliability when using carbon containing fuels such as methane. Methane and other hydrocarbons (natural gas) are readily available and the infrastructure is in place for transportation thus makes them a desirable alternative to hydrogen.

The manufacture process of micro-SOFC has many facets and avenues of research. His thesis was based on optimising the anode for enhanced performance. This can be achieved by modifying the cell design to circumvent component failure.

The anode plays a pivotal role in the fuel cell; it acts both as a catalyst (when using Methane) as well as the electronic electrode. Simply modifying 1 step in the preparation process of the anode can lead to an increased cell performance. This is because the catalytic activity is enhanced by changes in surface characteristics. These changes also affect the fuel activity and the durability of the cell. In addition to this the fuel cell becomes more usable on carbon containing fuels.

The goal of the project was to identify the parameters that govern the performance of the cell and minimise the discharge of global warming gases such as Carbon Dioxide. Methane is a greenhouse gas in itself and is readily available, thus hence the overall aim was use the fuel cell to utilise one green house gas to produce less of another and generate heat and electricity in the process.

Publications

1. K. Kendall, B.G. Pollet, A. Dhir, I. Staffell, B. Millington, J. Jostins. (2010)  "Hydrogen Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicles (HFCHV) for Birmingham Campus".  (Accepted by J. Power Sources Dec 09)

2. K. Kendall, A. Dhir & C. Yong  (2010) "Strength by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM): Molecular dynamics of water layer squeezing on magnesium oxide” (Accepted by Phils Trans. Nov 09)

3. K. Kendall, A. Dhir & S. Du (2009) “A new measure of molecular attractions between nanoparticles near kT adhesion energy”.  Nanotechnology 20 Link

4. A. Dhir (2008) "Improved Microtubular Solid Oxide Fuel Cells"  PhD thesis, University of Birmingham

5. A. Dhir and K. Kendall (2008) "Microtubular SOFC anode optimisation for direct use on methane" Journal of Power Sources 181(2): 297-303 Link

6. A. Dhir and K. Kendall (2007). "Improving Reliability of Microtubular SOFCs for Direct Use on Methane." ECS Transactions 7(1): 823-828. Link

7. Yong, C., W. Smith, A. Dhir and K. Kendall (2007). "Transition from elastic to plastic deformation as asperity contact size is increased." Tribology Letters 26(3): 235-238. Link

Presentations