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Prestigious European grant for Purushothaman Varadhan

Published on March 31, 2022

DIFFER researcher Purushothaman Varadhan has acquired a Marie Curie Fellowship. This European grant will allow him to spend two years researching low-cost and environmentally friendly ways to produce hydrogen. He will conduct the research at Herriot-Watt University in Edinburgh (UK).

With his Marie Curie Fellowship, Varadhan will dive deeper into the electrolysis of water and into cheaper methods for the production of hydrogen. He gets 240.000 euros and 2 years from the European Commission to do research at Herriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. Varadhan stays connected with DIFFER as the project is a collaboration of Herriot-Watt and DIFFER.

Short biography of Purushothaman Varadhan
Purushothaman Varadhan is a real globetrotter. In 2014 he obtained his PhD at Bharathidasan University, India. After that, he was a research fellow in Australia. In 2015 Varadhan moved to Saudi Arabia, to the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. There he investigated the conversion of solar energy and the production of green, sustainable hydrogen. In 2019 Varadhan came to DIFFER.

Turn water into hydrogen
Varadhan is a postdoc in the Catalytic and Electrochemical Processes for Energy Applications group of Mihalis Tsampas The group focuses on so-called electrochemical membrane reactors that turn carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and water into fuels and chemicals.

For the last two years, Varadhan worked on Air2Hydrogen NWO project. In that project, the researchers make hydrogen out of water vapor in the air. One of the approaches examined is the coupling of concentrated photovoltaic cells directly with an industrially feasible electrolyzer unit.

Vaporized water has three big advantages over liquid water. First, since the water is vaporized, there are no distorting bubbles. Second, the vaporized water does not need expensive purifiers. And third, since the vaporized water is present in air, it is even available in distant places.

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