Group leader
Dr. Adriano Sciacovelli
Adriano Sciacovelli is a Lecturer in the School of Chemical Engineering working within the Birmingham Centre for Energy Storage. His research focuses on the design of new materials and devices to store hot and cold thermal energy for more efficient and sustainable energy systems. He works on multiple EPSRC and industrial projects.
Dr Sciacovelli has published more than 40 papers in international journals and regularly gives talks at international conferences. He has been recently awarded with the U21 Staff Fellowship and with the Edward F Obert Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineering.
Adriano collaborates with various research group across Europe including institutes in Germany, Spain and Italy. He is a passionate researcher and he regularly engages with stakeholders and general audience as dissemination activity.
Post-Doc researchers
Dr. Shivangi Sharma is a Knowledge Exchange fellow in the School of Chemical Engineering, working on an ERDF funded project called ATETA; Accelerating Thermal Energy Technology Adoption. She works on supporting SMEs in the GBS LEP area to address the technical challenges related to energy use, thereby promoting innovation and their business growth. She holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering, an MSc in Sustainable Energy Systems from the University of Edinburgh, followed by a PhD in Solar Energy (efficiency improvement with phase change materials) from the University of Exeter. Shivangi has published her research outcomes in various international journals and conference papers. In over seven years of her professional experience, she’s worked with Jaguar Land Rover, Volkswagen group, Tata Consultancy Services etc. Out of her passion for sustainable living, health and wellbeing in the developing world, Shivangi also volunteers for community energy initiatives and United Nations funded projects worldwide.
Research Fellow
Dr. Ruihuan Ge is a research fellow in the School of Chemical Engineering, working on additive manufactured energy storage devices and topology optimisation. He obtained double bachelor degree in Energy Engineering and Economics from Shandong University, China, and MSc in Energy Engineering from University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, followed by a PhD in 3D printing and powder technology (Creating Tuneable Agglomerates via 3D Printing) from Monash University. Ruihuan has published his research outcomes in several international journals including AIChE Journal, Powder Technology and Energy. His research interests include but not limited to: additive manufacturing, powder technology and optimisation algorithm development.
PhD candidates
Gabriele Humbert –
Topology Optimization for energy storage
Gabriele received his BSc and MSc (cum laude) in Energy and Nuclear Engineering from Politecnico di Torino in 2017, with a thesis on nanofluids for solar applications. After an experience in an Energy company, he joined MODES in January 2019. His research focusses on topology optimization for energy technologies, Gabriele aims to design fit for purpose component geometries and to develop and test innovative devices with optimal and smarter performances.
Andrea Vecchi – Thermo-mechanical energy storage
Andrea received BSc and MSc degrees in Energy and Nuclear Engineering from Politecnico di Torino. After a brief industrial experience, he joined the MODES group in October 2018. His current research focusses on thermo-mechanical energy storage. Through numerical modelling and system-level simulations, Andrea aims at highlighting the possibilities for future integration of large-scale energy storage in low-carbon grids and overcoming current technological bottlenecks.
Thermochemical
energy storage
Robin received BSc and MSc degrees in Process Engineering from ENSIACET, Toulouse, with a specialisation in Energy Technologies. After an internship with CMI Environment on the topic of storing waste heat in the steel-making industry, Robin joined the MODES group in January 2018. The topic of his research involves thermochemical energy storage through composite “salt-in-matrix” type materials. By conducting both experiments at the material level and CFD simulations of reactor systems, Robin aims to bridge the gap between these scales, and to improve the understanding of the behaviour of thermochemical heat storage reactors.