Rakel Wreland Lindström
Professor of Chemical Engineering
The energy sector is undergoing a transition from the combustion of fossil fuels to the use of renewable energy sources. The result is the far-reaching electrification of our society, in which the transport sector is among the areas that has gone furthest. Success requires innovative development and implementation of electrochemical energy storage and conversion solutions, such as batteries and fuel cells. A Key to this is to obtain an efficient conversion between electrical and chemical energy with low losses.
Rakel Wreland Lindström’s research focuses on the areas of fuel cells and batteries. In particular, her research addresses performance and durability of polymer electrolyte fuel cells, lithium-ion batteries and redox flow batteries for electrical vehicles and grid applications. Her research evaluates properties of individual materials and components in the cell and the interplay between different cell components with the target to identify major performance limitations. In addition, her studies focus on the effects of usage and operation parameters such as temperature, load/power and fuel supply on performance and lifetime.
The research is mainly based on electrochemical methods but also includes other physical and chemical methods to build understanding of the processes that take place in the cells. By developing new ways of combining electrochemical methods with other microscopic or analytical techniques, such as mass spectrometry, she is for instance able to follow gas evolution during cell operation.