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Artur Bekisch
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Artur Bekisch

Data

  • RLS-year 2017

CV from Artur Bekisch

Artur Bekisch

Artur Bekisch was born in the rural region of Kazakhstan.

At the age of five, he and his family returned to Germany due to theirs family´s German descent. He finished the intermediate-level education at a secondary modern school (Hauptschule) and continued studying at an advanced technical school after that. To meet the school requirements he taught himself to be ambitious and disciplined. He graduated advanced technical school to complete the vocational diploma and went on to finish the bachelor program in environmental engineering at the University of applied science Hof. During his studies, natural sciences and research activities became his passion. That is why he enrolled in the master program "Chemistry-Energy-Environment" at the Friedrich-Schiller-University in Jena. The further he got into his studies the more he realized that power and hydro technology had to improve significantly to ensure the future well being of the environment. Accordingly, he graduated the bachelor thesis in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute UMSICHT on the field of recycling of nutrients from aqueous media. In respect to the master thesis, he worked at the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems on the topic of optimization of a stationary energy storage technology (Na-NiCl2-Battery). Environmental protection in a national and international context has always been a matter of the heart for him.

Short description of the doctoral thesis:

Development of a superhydrophobic gas-diffusion electrode for a sustainable zinc-air-accumulator.
 
Conventional energy storage systems (lithium-ion batteries) are not suited to store excess energy generated by renewable power sources. They are also not fit to replace the conventional combustion engine. This is due to their rather little energy density. Furthermore, Lithium is a rare and expensive element that is only being mined in a few regions of the globe. Accordingly, the development of an energy storage system consisting of environmentally friendly components exhibiting significantly higher energy densities could help to achieve the above-mentioned aims as well as lead to an eco-friendlier and more sustainable future.
 
A rather positive effect of storage systems with high energy densities is the acyclic relief of high-voltage lines which would lead to a reduced amount of coal- and gas-fired power plants. Furthermore, the same quantity of energy could be stored in fewer storage systems. For this reason, high energy density storage systems may lead to less dependence on the element lithium and therefore enable the reduction of toxic and environmentally harmful battery components.
 
The main target of the Ph.D. project is the development and testing of a sustainable superhydrophobic gas-diffusion electrode to exploit the maximum of the potential energy density of a zinc-air-accumulator (1500 W/l). Furthermore, the new system is going to be benchmarked against stationary and non-stationary storage systems and evaluated from ecological and economic standpoints.
 
A limiting factor of present zinc-air-batteries is that their potential energy density cannot be fully utilized. Slow chemical reactions on the gas-diffusion electrodes surface are the cause of this. In order to maximize the utilization of high energy densities, the accumulator has to be modified by integrating the hierarchic architecture of the floating fern in the gas-diffusion electrode. For this purpose, the electrode surface will be partly rendered superhydrophobic. Areas on the surface that have bifunctional catalysts attached will be kept hydrophilic. This results in a stable air layer on the surface of the gas-diffusion electrode in an aqueous media and a stable three-phase boundary. This leads to an optimization of the oxygen transport to the catalytic locations of the electrode. Furthermore, due to the reduction of varying accessibility of reaction components the charge and discharge reactions will be enhanced. In general, the weaknesses of conventional zinc-air-gas-diffusion electrodes (poor mechanical properties and low electrical conductivity) can be overcome and higher performance and efficiency can be achieved.