Profile
Simon RIHM
PhD Student
Simon obtained a Bachelor of Science (2015) and a Master of Science (2019) in Chemical Engineering at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany. In his Master thesis, he created a 3D mass transfer model of microporous structures in Li-Ion electrodes. In October of 2021, Simon started working towards his doctorate at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at Cambridge University with funding from CARES, Cambridge Trust and The Lee Kuan Yew Fitzwilliam Scholarship Fund.
At CARES, he is mainly working on the automation of computational and experimental techniques of investigating novel processes to accelerate their development, e.g. electrochemical CO2 reduction. He developed a full microkinetic model of CO2 electrocatalysis on single-facet copper surfaces in order to assess the influence of different mechanistic pathways and hypothesised a general mechanism for C2-C5 products based on the detailed analysis of mass spectrometry data collected within the eCO2EP project. Currently, he is working on creating a full digital twin of the CARES laboratories to automate processes across different levels.
Read: CARES laboratory gains second award for improved sustainability practices
Read: CARES laboratory wins award by improving sustainability practices
Read: Simon Rihm wins Distinguished Paper Prize for CO2 reduction research
Cambridge
Researchers
C4T extended projects
Research Interest
Simon's research interest lie mainly in the application of computational methods to physical systems in order to accelerate sustainability-driven technology. These include:
- Simulation of Fluid Dynamics and Mass Transfer
- Ontological Web Technologies and Artificial Intelligence
- Utilization and integration of data from first-principle calculations with experimental results
Key Publications
Rihm, S. D., Akroyd, J. & Kraft, M. 2022. ‘Modelling a detailed kinetic mechanism for electrocatalytic reduction of CO2’. Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 39: . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proci.2022.07.096
Rihm, S. D., Kovalev, M., Lapkin, A. A., Ager, J. W. & Kraft, M. 2023. ‘On the role of C4 and C5 products in electrochemical CO2 reduction via copper-based catalysts’. Energy & Environmental Science 16 ( ): . https://doi.org/10.1039/D2EE03752A.
Achievements
Simon Rihm's article “Modelling a detailed kinetic mechanism for electrocatalytic reduction of CO2” contributing to the 39th International Symposium on Combustion was selected as Distinguished Paper in the colloquium “Multi-Physics Phenomena”.