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Peter Hugh Middleton

Peter Hugh Middleton

Department of Engineering Sciences >

 

+47 37 23 30 62

+47 468 12 066

Office:
H4047 ( Jon Lilletuns vei 9, Grimstad )

Peter Hugh Middleton, born Nottingham, UK in 1956, called by middle name “Hugh”

I became interested in Science around the age of 15 when I had my own lab in my grandfather’s outhouse- in those days you got chemical from the local Apotek – for free! Set up my own coal distillation plant and made the usual things!

I naturally went on to study Chemistry at Newcastle University (UK), graduating Bachelor (BSc) in 1978. Back in those day Newcastle had one of the largest chemical faculties in the country-serving the enormous chemical industry in the North East of England, such as ICI, BP, Glaxo, etc.

I then continued with a PhD at Newcastle in the field of Electrochemistry, studying organic electrode processes – graduation with PhD in 1983. Working with mercury pool electrodes and liquid ammonia at -40 °C– in the same apparatus was quite a challenge – anyone else seen frozen mercury? –forms beautiful crystals!

Then I became a Postdoc at Manchester University (UK), in the “Corrosion and Protection Centre”, developing high pressure corrosion test apparatus- tested the first “Solartron 1286 electrochemical Impedance amplifier “- Lived next to Man City so got front row seats!

Afterward in 1984, I moved to London to start a long career at Imperial College as a Research Fellow. Initially in the Chemistry Department, then in the Materials Department and also the Chemical Engineering Department. I also held a visiting academic position at UCL. While at Imperial, I started in the field of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) and electrochemical reactors. We did a lot of ground-breaking stuff in those days- all taken for granted now.

In addition to academic work, I also held consultancy positions is several companies including BNFL (British Nuclear Fuels Ltd), where I was working on the alternative uses of uranium oxide for fuel cells. Yes, I handled nuke materials!

I wrote software for Matelect Ltd, an SME based in London making high-end electronic instrumentation for materials testing. This was a wonderful time – learning to program from scratch and still a skill I use today. It has to be said that DOS was so much better that Windows!

In 2003, I worked for a while in Japan forTrekion Co Ltd (Kyoto, Japan), who make Lithium Ion batteries. Great to handle Lithium metal with all the kit on.

In 2004, I moved to Norway as a Professor at HiA which became the University of Agder in 2007. My mission was to build up competence in fuel cells and hydrogen technologies, within the Renewable Energy Group and the newly created Energy Materials Group. This has expanded a huge amount in recent years and we are providing a much-needed service in the south of Norway.

One area that is gathering momentum now is the application of thermoelectric generators for harvesting waste heat in the process industry - with strong links with ELKEM and other local companies in the area close to UiA.

I have held an honorary visiting academic position at EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne),Switzerland for many years and am currently on sabbatical at EPFL in Sion where I am working with Prof. Jan Van herle in his group on energy materials (GEM) 

Academic interests

Teaching 

Bachelor course in Fuel Cell Technology

Masters courses in Renewable Energy and Fuel cells

PhD course in Materials Testing

Bachelor course in Thermoelectric Materials

Bachelor projects

Master projects

Occasional course in Corrosion to support local industry

Main method of teaching-

Project based teaching with hands-on lab experience

Guest lecturing

Stralsund Spring School, at the Hochschule, Stralsund, Germany

Associated partner in TeachHY an EU sponsored program on Hydrogen Technologies


Hobbies and Interests

Guitar playing and music, drawing and painting, pottery and ceramics, house restoration and brick laying, car mechanics, snowboarding and ice skating…oh and of course homemade beer and cats.

Projects

Publications: 50 or so articles, 2 patents

Most cited paper –

Ammonia as a Fuel in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells – Journal of Power Sources, volume 118, p 342-348, May 25 (2003)

Book contribution-

Comprehensive Renewable Energy – volume 4, chapter 2, Alkaline Fuel Cells – Theory and Application, Elsevier, May 2012, ISBN: 9780080878720

This 8-volume work received the PROSE Award 2012 from the American Association of Publishers

 

Most significant discoveries–             

Electrochemical control of stearic reactions with acyclic vicinal dibromides

Use of Lanthanum Chromite as a catalytic anode in fuel cells

Ammonia as a fuel in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC)

Platinum replacement catalysts based on conducting ceramic composites

Novel Direct Ethanol Fuel Cell with near theoretical EMF and operating voltage

Other significant achievements -

Solid Oxide Fuel Cell stack concept

Alkaline Fuel Cell stack development

Start of a new research group in the field of Thermoelectric materials. This has resulted in 1 PhD project completed, 5 peer reviewed articles, and 1 Postdoc position.  This is now a major part of the UiA Faculty Research Strategy and is expanding into waste heat recovery with collaboration from local industry partners including ELKEM and GLENCORE. We currently have a new PhD project to continue the work.

Novel method for making Titanium metal, resulting in a high-profile contract with the European Space agency (ESA)– called the LEKKER process.

Novel apparatus for testing materials properties with 1-micron positional accuracy.

 

Recently completed PhD Fellows

1)      Fabrice Bidault – graduated ICL, 2010

2)      Zhonglin Jiang – graduated UiO, 2011

3)      Espen Dahl – Graduated Aarhus, 2012

4)      Trine Tønnessen – Graduated UiO, 2012

5)      Gunstein Skømedal- Graduated UiA 2016

 

Current Research Fellow

Antoine de Padoue Shyikira

 

Research Funds and Projects successfully completed

2004 - 2005     Elkem Research – 50% contracted research time for 1 year for Hugh Middleton at HiA

2005 - 2009     BIP funded PhD project with Elkem Research and HiA, Total funding to HiA  - 3 M NOK over 3 years

2007 - 2010     NODE-ART project – 600 hours contracted time used by Hugh Middleton at HiA/UiA

2010 - 2013     Norsk Titanium Technology (NTiT) BIA funded project – 1.2 M NOK to UiA

2012 - 2013     TEGma – thermoelectric project – NFR funded Energi-X pre-project – 300 k NOK to UiA

2012 - 2015     RoxSolidCell – EUROSTARS, EU initiated, funded by NFR – 453,469 euro over 3 years

2013 - 2016     European Space Agency (ESA) THERMOMAG project -90,000 euro over 3 years

2014 - 2017     Thermomat 2 project NFR funded Energi-X full project -1,3 M NOK over 3 years

2015 - 2018     European Space Agency –LEKKER project 2M NOK over 3 years- senior researcher

 

Currently active projects

2014 - 2018     THELMA project – 100% funding by NFR - 2.4 M NOK over 2 years – postdoc

2017 - 2019     TESIL project – 100% funded by NFR with ELKEM as coordinator and lead partner

Scientific publications

  • Ferriday, Thomas Benjamin; Middleton, Peter Hugh; Kolhe, Mohan Lal (2023). Determining the change in performance from replacing a separator with an anion exchange membrane for alkaline water electrolysis. Journal of Physics: Conference Series (JPCS). ISSN: 1742-6588. 2454 (012003). doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2454/1/012003.
  • Ferriday, Thomas Benjamin; Nuggehalli Sampathkumar, Suhas; Middleton, Peter Hugh; Van Herle, Jan; Kolhe, Mohan Lal (2023). How Acid Washing Nickel Foam Substrates Improves the Efficiency of the Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution Reaction. Energies. ISSN: 1996-1073. 16 (5). doi:10.3390/en16052083.
  • Ferriday, Thomas Benjamin; Sampathkumar, Suhas Nuggehalli; Middleton, Peter Hugh; Van herle, Jan (2023). Investigation of Wet-Preparation Methods of Nickel Foam For Alkaline Water Electrolysis. Journal of Physics: Conference Series (JPCS). ISSN: 1742-6588. 2430doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2430/1/012002.
  • Ferriday, Thomas Benjamin; Middleton, Peter Hugh; Kolhe, Mohan Lal; Van Herle, Jan (2023). Raising the temperature on electrodes for anion exchange membrane electrolysis - activity and stability aspects. Chemical Engineering Journal Advances. ISSN: 2666-8211. 16doi:10.1016/j.ceja.2023.100525.
  • Sampathkumar, Suhas Nuggehalli; Ferriday, Thomas Benjamin; Middleton, Peter Hugh; Van Herle, Jan (2023). Activation of Stainless Steel 316L Anode for Anion Exchange Membrane Water Electrolysis. Electrochemistry communications. ISSN: 1388-2481. 146doi:10.1016/j.elecom.2022.107418.
  • Shyikira, Antoine de Padoue; Akhtar, Naureen; Skomedal, Gunstein; Sætre, Tor Oskar; Middleton, Peter Hugh (2021). High temperature oxidation of higher manganese silicides. Corrosion Science. ISSN: 0010-938X. 185doi:10.1016/j.corsci.2021.109327.
  • Sampathkumar, Suhas Nuggehalli; Sun, Xiufu; Joris, Steve; Van Herle, Jan; Middleton, Peter Hugh; Frandsen, Henrik Lund (2021). Performance Analysis of Ammonia in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells. ECS Transactions. ISSN: 1938-5862. 103 (1). s 185 - 199. doi:10.1149/10301.0185ecst.
  • Ferriday, Thomas Benjamin; Middleton, Peter Hugh; Kolhe, Mohan Lal (2021). Review of the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction—A Basic Approach. Energies. ISSN: 1996-1073. 14 (24). s 1 - 42. doi:10.3390/en14248535.
  • Shyikira, Antoine de Padoue; Akhtar, Naureen; Skomedal, Gunstein; Middleton, Peter Hugh (2021). The effect of Mo and Ge reactive elements on high-temperature oxidation of higher manganese silicide. Corrosion Science. ISSN: 0010-938X. doi:10.1016/j.corsci.2021.109920.
  • Yakdehige, Sanath Kumara de Silva; Middleton, Peter Hugh; Kolhe, Mohan Lal (2020). Performance comparison of mono-polar and bi-polar configurations of alkaline electrolysis stack through 3-D modelling and experimental fabrication. Renewable Energy. ISSN: 0960-1481. 149s 760 - 772. doi:10.1016/j.renene.2019.12.087.
  • Shyikira, Antoine de Padoue; Skomedal, Gunstein; Middleton, Peter Hugh (2020). Performance evaluation and stability of silicide-based thermoelectric modules. Materials Today: Proceedings. ISSN: 2214-7853. 44 (4). s 3467 - 3474. doi:10.1016/j.matpr.2020.05.193.
  • Ferriday, Thomas Benjamin; Middleton, Peter Hugh (2019). Experimental analysis of materials in proton exchange membrane electrolysis cells. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. ISSN: 0360-3199. 44 (51). s 27656 - 27663. doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2019.09.020.
  • Skomedal, Gunstein; Vehus, Tore; Kanas, Nikola; Singh, Sathya Prakash; Einarsrud, Mari-Ann; Wiik, Kjell; Middleton, Peter Hugh (2019). Long term stability testing of oxide unicouple thermoelectric modules. Materials Today: Proceedings. ISSN: 2214-7853. 8 (2). s 696 - 705. doi:10.1016/j.matpr.2019.02.070.
  • Yakdehige, Sanath Kumara de Silva; Middleton, Peter Hugh; Kolhe, Mohan Lal (2019). Performance Analysis of Single Cell Alkaline Electrolyser Using Mathematical Model. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering. ISSN: 1757-8981. 605:012002s 1 - 14. doi:10.1088/1757-899X/605/1/012002.
  • De Silva, Y Sanath K; Rasul, Mohamed Jemsy Mohamed Ashik; Middleton, Peter Hugh; Kolhe, Mohan Lal (2018). PEM FC Single Cell Based on a 3-D Printed Plastic Housing and Experimental Validation with the Mathematical Model. Energy Procedia. ISSN: 1876-6102. 144s 63 - 74. doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2018.06.009.
  • Skomedal, Gunstein; Kristiansen, Nils Randulf; Sottong, Reinhard; Middleton, Peter Hugh (2017). Evaluation of Thermoelectric Performance and Durability of Functionalized Skutterudite Legs. Journal of Electronic Materials. ISSN: 0361-5235. 46 (4). s 2438 - 2450. doi:10.1007/s11664-017-5309-z.
  • Ranasinghe, Sasanka Niromi; Middleton, Peter Hugh (2017). Modelling of Single Cell Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Using COMSOL Multiphysics. 2017 IEEE International Conference on Environment and Electrical Engineering and 2017 IEEE Industrial and Commercial Power Systems Europe (EEEIC / I&CPS Europe). ISBN: 978-1-5386-3917-7. IEEE conference proceedings. chapter.
  • Ranasinghe, Sasanka Niromi; Gardiyawasam Pussewalage, Harsha; Middleton, Peter Hugh (2017). Performance analysis of single cell solid oxide fuel cells. 2017 Moratuwa Engineering Research Conference (MERCon). ISBN: 978-1-5090-6491-5. IEEE conference proceedings. chapter.
  • Coquoz, Pierre; Coton, Noelia; Cottier, Florian; Pappas, Andre; Middleton, Peter Hugh; Ihringer, Raphael (2017). Short Stack Kit for the Open Flange™ Set-up Using Soft Mica Seals. ECS Transactions. ISSN: 1938-5862. 78 (1). s 2171 - 2179. doi:10.1149/07801.2171ecst.
  • Skomedal, Gunstein; Holmgren, Lennart; Middleton, Peter Hugh; Eremin, IS; Isachenko, GN; Jaegle, Martin; Tarantik, Karina; Vlachos, Nikolas; Manoli, Maria; Kyratsi, Theodora; Berthebaud, David; Dao Truong, Nhi Y; Gascoin, Franck (2016). Design, assembly and characterization of silicide-based thermoelectric modules. Energy Conversion and Management. ISSN: 0196-8904. 110s 13 - 21. doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2015.11.068.
  • Skomedal, Gunstein; Burkov, Alexander; Samunin, Alexander Yu; Haugsrud, Reidar; Middleton, Peter Hugh (2016). High temperature oxidation of Mg2(Si-Sn). Corrosion Science. ISSN: 0010-938X. 111 (1). s 325 - 333. doi:10.1016/j.corsci.2016.05.016.
  • Sesselmann, A; Skomedal, Gunstein; Middleton, Peter Hugh; Muller, E (2015). The Influence of Synthesis Procedure on the Microstructure and Thermoelectric Properties of p-Type Skutterudite Ce0.6Fe2Co2Sb12. Journal of Electronic Materials. ISSN: 0361-5235. doi:10.1007/s11664-015-4046-4.
  • Skomedal, Gunstein; Kristiansen, Nils Randulf; Engvoll, Marianne Aanvik; Middleton, Peter Hugh (2013). Methods for Enhancing the Thermal Durability of High-Temperature Thermoelectric Materials. Journal of Electronic Materials. ISSN: 0361-5235. 43 (6). s 1946 - 1951. doi:10.1007/s11664-013-2917-0.
  • Middleton, Peter Hugh; Bidault, F. (2012). Alkaline fuel cells: Theory and application. Comprehensive Renewable Energy. ISBN: 9780080878720. Elsevier. Kapittel i Vol. 4. s 159 - 182.
  • Jiang, Zhonglin; Dai, Xin; Middleton, Peter Hugh (2011). Effect of silicon on corrosion resistance of Ti-Si alloys. Materials Science & Engineering: B. Solid-state Materials for Advanced Technology. ISSN: 0921-5107. 176 (1). s 79 - 86. doi:10.1016/j.mseb.2010.09.006.
  • Jiang, Zhonglin; Dai, Xin; Norby, Truls; Middleton, Peter Hugh (2011). Investigation of pitting resistance of titanium based on a modified point defect model. Corrosion Science. ISSN: 0010-938X. 53 (2). s 815 - 821. doi:10.1016/j.corsci.2010.11.015.
  • Jiang, Zhonglin; Dai, Xin; Middleton, Peter Hugh (2011). Investigation on passivity of titanium under steady-state conditions in acidic solutions. Materials Chemistry and Physics. ISSN: 0254-0584. 126 (3). s 859 - 865. doi:10.1016/j.matchemphys.2010.12.028.
  • Middleton, Peter Hugh; Leavers, V. (2011). The Case for Developing Industry Specific Standards for Condition Monitoring in Offshore Dynamic Systems. Proceedings of the 24th International Congress on Condition Monitoring and Diagnostics Engineering Management (COMADEM2011). ISBN: 0-9541307-2-3. COMADEM International. Artikkel. s 1641 - 1647.
  • Bidault, F.; Brett, D.J.L.; Middleton, Peter Hugh; Abson, N.; Brandon, N.P. (2010). An improved cathode for alkaline fuel cells. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. ISSN: 0360-3199. 35 (4). s 1783 - 1788. doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2009.12.035.
  • Grigoriev, Sergey A.; Millet, Pierre; Dzhus, K.A.; Middleton, Hugh; Sætre, Tor Oskar; Fateev, Vladimir (2010). Design and characterization of bi-functional electrocatalytic layers for application in PEM unitized regenerative fuel cells. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. ISSN: 0360-3199. 35 (10). s 5070 - 5076. doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2009.08.081.
  • Jiang, Zhonglin; Norby, Truls; Middleton, Peter Hugh (2010). Evaluation of metastable pitting on titanium by charge integration of current transients. Corrosion Science. ISSN: 0010-938X. 52 (10). s 3158 - 3161. doi:10.1016/j.corsci.2010.03.012.
  • Dahl, Espen Hvidsten; Osinniy, v.; Larsen, Arne Nylandsted; Tronstad, Ragnar; Middleton, Peter Hugh; Sætre, Tor Oskar; Friestad, Kenneth (2010). IRON IMPURITIES IN WAFERS BASED ON DIFFERENT So-G SILICON FEEDSTOCK. Conference record of the Photovoltaic Specialists Conference. ISSN: 0160-8371. (36). s 1571 - 1575.
  • Bidault, F.; Brett, D.J.L.; Middleton, Peter Hugh; Abson, N.; Brandon, N.P. (2009). A new application for nickel foam in alkaline fuel cells. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. ISSN: 0360-3199. 34 (16). s 6799 - 6808. doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2009.06.035.

Sectors

Research groups

Last changed: 20.02.2019 12:02