Dr Alexander Harrison joined the Energy Storage and Energy Carriers group at Oxford in 2024 as a PDRA, with his main research work focussing on thermochemical heating and cooling for heat management in solid hydrogen storage systems, alongside other projects on applying chemical looping for processes such as ammonia production and CO2 utilisation.
His doctoral research, performed at the University of Cambridge in the group of Dr Ewa Marek, focussed on the fundamentals and applications of chemical looping catalysis for selective oxidation reactions.
Research Interests
- Solid hydrogen storage
- Thermo-chemical energy storage
- Carbon capture
- Catalysis and reaction engineering
- In-situ characterisation of reactive materials
Current Research Projects
- Reactors for coupled hydrogen storage and carbon capture: Experimental project investigating the use of magnesium looping carbon capture in tandem with hydride-based hydrogen storage, in order to recover the heats of reaction.
- Solid hydrogen storage for balancing renewable energy: Computational project modelling the use of thermally-integrated hydrogen storage with real-world windfarm power output.
- Materials for solid-state hydrogen storage: Collaborative experimental project investigating the use of recycled Magnesium-Aluminium alloys as hydrogen carriers.
- Chemical looping ammonia production: Experimental project investigating materials for two-step ammonia production using hydride-imide nitrogen carriers, with a particular emphasis on mechanisms of catalyst degradation and poisoning.
- Nonstoichiometric materials for chemical looping catalysis: Ongoing experimental and computational project understanding the interactions between metal catalysts and reactive metal oxides during chemical looping reactions for selective oxidation.
