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Staff Profile

Professor Marc Secanell Gallart

Professor of Electrochemical Energy Technoogies

  • Email: marc.secanell@ncl.ac.uk
  • Address: School of Engineering
    Room E3.21, Merz Court
    University of Newcastle
    Newcastle upon Tyne
Background

Introduction:

Electrochemical energy technologies are critical to enable the deployment of intermittent renewable energy. These technologies can convert excess renewable energy to chemical fuels, such as green hydrogen production via proton exchange membrane water electrolysers. These fuels can later be efficiently utilized in electrochemical devices, such as fuel cells for zero-emission mobility, heating or combined heat and power. The aim of my research is to develop computational design tools and experimental techniques to enable the computer-aided design of electrochemical systems. For example, my research team has developed an open-source software for fuel cell simulation, and pioneered the use of inkjet printing for regenerative unitized fuel cells.


Qualifications:

2004- 2008: Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, University of Victoria, Canada (Thesis title: Computational modeling and optimization of proton exchange membrane fuel cells).

2002-2004: M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, University of Victoria, Canada (Thesis title: Development of a design tool for aerodynamic shape optimization of airfoils).

1997-2002: B.Eng., Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Spain. (Thesis title: Differential-algebraic equation implementation of a three-phase transformer model).


Positions:

2025 - Present: Professor of Electrochemical Energy Technologies, Newcastle University, UK

2019 - Present: Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta, AB, Canada (presently on leave)

2022 - 2023: Sabbatical Research Visitor, Johnson Matthey Technology Centre (Fuel Cell Research Group), Sonning Common, UK

2015 - 2016: Sabbatical Research Visitor, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Energy Storage and Conversion for Transportation and Renewables (BESTAR)), CA, United States 2013 - 2019: Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta, AB, Canada

2009 - 2013: Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alberta, AB, Canada

2008 - 2009: Assistant Research Officer, National Research Council, Institute for Fuel Cell Innovation, Vancouver, BC, Canada

2001 - 2001: Engineer, AZM Engineering, Barcelona, Spain



Research

Research interests:

Electrochemistry; Hydrogen fuel cells; Electrolysers; Electrode fabrication; Finite element methods; Multidisciplinary design optimization.


Contributions:


Software development:

I am the lead developer of OpenFCST, an open-source software for the numerical analysis and design of electrochemical energy systems at cell and pore-scale level. The software has been focused on the simulation of hydrogen fuel cells and electrolysers, even though in recent years, my research team has expanded the software to also study lithium-ion battery micro-structures.


PhD Supervision:

  • Dr. Luis Padilla-Urbina (2014-2025), currently postdoctoral fellow at University of Alberta (Canada)
  • Dr. Ambuj Punia (2018-2024), currently postdoctoral fellow at University of Alberta (Canada)
  • Dr. Michael Moore, currently research scientist at Johnson Matthey (UK)
  • Dr. Himanshi Dhawan (2019-2023), currently research scientist at Accelera by Cummins (Canada)
  • Dr. Wei Fei (2017-2022), currently postdoctoral fellow at Shanghai Jiao tong University (China)
  • Prof. Vaishnavi Kale (2017-2022), currently assistant professor at University of Calgary (Canada)
  • Dr. Manas Mandal (2015-2022), currently research scientist at Accelera by Cummins (Canada)
  • Prof. Elaf Mahrous (2016-2021), current assistant professor at Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu (KSA)
  • Dr. Aslan Kosakian (2014-2021), currently postdoctoral fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US)
  • Dr. Baltej Rupal (2017-2021), currently engineer at Rapid 3D Ltd (Canada)
  • Prof. Mayank Sabharwal (2014-2019), currently assistant professor at University of Calgary (Canada)
  • Dr. Jie Zhou (2014-2018), currently staff machine learning engineer at AirBnB (US)
  • Prof. Lalit Pant (2011-2015), currently assistant professor at Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (India)
  • Dr. Shantanu Shukla (2010-2015), currently senior researcher and R&D team lead at Zinc8 Energy Solutions (Canada)


Academic collaborators: Prof. Mohamed Mamlouk (UK), Prof. Steven Holdcroft (Canada), Prof. Jason Olfert (Canada), Prof. Iryna Zenyuk (USA), Prof. Jeff Gostick (Canada), Dr. Adam Weber (USA)

Industrial collaborators: Johnson Matthey, Accelera, Ballard Power Systems, Ionomr Innovations, Sunfire, Fraunhofer IFAM, DLR (Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt)


ORCID: 0000-0002-7549-0863  

Marc Secanell (0000-0002-7549-0863) - ORCID

Web of science researcher ID: GBM-7534-2022

Secanell, Marc - Web of Science Researcher Profile

Google scholar

‪Marc Secanell‬ - ‪Google Scholar‬

Researchgate

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mohamed_Mamlouk2

linkedin

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-mohamed-mamlouk-3747596

academia.edu

https://independent.academia.edu/MohamedMamlouk

Teaching

Courses @ Newcastle University

  • SPG8007, Renewable Energy: Technology for Circular and Hydrogen Economies (Spring/S2 2025)
  • CME8417, Light Activated Process Technologies - Photovoltaics and Photocatalytic Reactors (Fall/S1 2025)


Courses taught @ University of Alberta, Canada

Publications