Dr Tongtong Zhang

School of Chemical Engineering
Assistant Professor

Contact details

Email
t.zhang.7@bham.ac.uk
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Dr Tongtong Zhang is an assistant professor at the Birmingham Centre for Energy Storage, school of chemical engineering, University of Birmingham. Her research interests focus primarily on thermal energy conversion, storage and utilisation, thermo-mechanical energy storage (liquid air energy storage and compressed air energy storage focused), industrial decarbonisation, and process/system integration, optimization, and simulation.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, 2021
  • MEng in Electrical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, PR China, 2017
  • BEng in Electrical Engineering, Xiamen University, PR China, 2015

Biography

Dr. Tongtong Zhang is an Assistant Professor in the School of Chemical Engineering at the University of Birmingham and a member of the Birmingham Centre for Energy Storage. She earned her MEng in Electrical Engineering from the Harbin Institute of Technology in China in 2017, followed by a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Birmingham in 2021. After completing her PhD, Dr. Zhang held a postdoctoral position at the same institution until 2023 when she was appointed as an Assistant Professor.

Dr Zhang has been working on thermal energy conversion, storage and utilisation since 2017, with extensive research experience in cryogenic energy storage, process optimization and simulation, and system integration. She has published over 15 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters as well as more than 5 patents.

Her current research interests cover a wide range including thermal energy (heat and cold) storage, thermo-mechanical energy storage (liquid air energy storage and compressed air energy storage etc.), and industrial decarbonisation.

Teaching

  • MSc Final Year Research Project
  • LM Thermal energy conversion, storage and applications
  • LM Energy Systems Design

Postgraduate supervision

Dr Tongtong Zhang is interested in supervising doctoral research students in the following areas:

  • Thermal energy (heat and cold) storage
  • Thermo-mechanical energy storage
  • Cryogenic energy storage (liquid air energy storage, liquid hydrogen storage etc.)
  • Industrial decarbonisation
  • Process and system simulation and optimization

If you are interested in studying any of these subject areas please contact Dr Tongtong Zhang on the contact details above.

Research

Energy storage system integration and optimisation

  • Thermo-mechanical energy storage
  • Thermal energy (heat and cold) conversion and storage
  • Process and system simulation and optimisation
  • System control

Industrial decarbonisation

  • Waste heat/cold recovery
  • Gas compression system optimisation
  • Carbon capture/recycle

Other activities

  • Member of the Supergen Energy Storage network+ ECR committee
  • Guest editor for a special issue of Energies ‘Thermo-Mechanical Energy Storage’
  • Member of the organising committee for the 2nd World Energy Storage Conference jointly with the 7th UK Energy Storage Conference (2022)
  • Member of the organising committee for the 1st International Conference on Carbon Neutrality (2023)

Publications

Journal chapters

Zhang, T., Uratani, J., Huang, Y., Xu, L., Griffiths, S., & Ding, Y. Hydrogen liquefaction and storage: Recent progress and perspectives. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 2023, 176, 113204.

Zhang T, She X, You Z, Zhao Y, Fan H, Ding Y. Cryogenic thermoelectric generation using cold energy from a decoupled liquid air energy storage system for decentralised energy networks. Appl Energy 2022;305:117749.

Zhang T, She X, Ding Y. A power plant for integrated waste energy recovery from liquid air energy storage and liquefied natural gas. Chinese J Chem Eng 2021;34: 242–57.

W. Zhao, T. Zhang, H. Kildahl, and Y. Ding, Mobile energy recovery and storage: Multiple energy-powered EVs and refuelling stations, Energy., 257 (2022) p. 124697.

Liang, T., Zhang, T., Lin, X., Alessio, T., Legrand, M., He, X., Kildahl, H., Lu, C., Chen, H., Romagnoli, A., Wang, L., He, Q., Li, Y., Yang, L., & Ding, Y. (2023). Liquid air energy storage technology: a comprehensive review of research, development and deployment. In Progress in Energy (Vol. 5, Issue 1).

Zhao, Y., Zhang, T., Sun, L., Zhao, X., Tong, L., Wang, L., et al. (2022). Energy storage for black start services: A review. International Journal of Minerals, Metallurgy and Materials, 29(4), 691-704.

She X, Zhang T, Peng X, Wang L, Tong L, Luo Y, et al. Liquid Air Energy Storage for Decentralized Micro Energy Networks with Combined Cooling, Heating, Hot Water and Power Supply. J Therm Sci 2020;29:1–17.

She X, Zhang T, Cong L, Peng X, Li C, Luo Y, et al. Flexible integration of liquid air energy storage with liquefied natural gas regasification for power generation enhancement. Appl Energy 2019;251.

Guo, Y., Zhang, T., Zhang, D., & Wang, Q. (2018). Experimental investigation of thermal and electrical conductivity of silicon oxide nanofluids in ethylene glycol/water mixture. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 117, 280-286.

Chapters

Yu Q, Zhang T, Peng X, Cong L, Tong L, Wang L, et al. Cryogenic Energy Storage and Its Integration With Nuclear Power Generation for Load Shift. Storage Hybrid. Nucl. Energy, Elsevier; 2019, p. 249–73.

She X, Zhang T, Meng Y, Liang T, Peng X, Tong L, et al. Cryogenic Energy Storage. Ref Modul Earth Syst Environ Sci 2021.

Liang T, Zhang T, Li Y, Tong L, Wang L, Ding Y. Thermodynamic Analysis of Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES) System. Ref Modul Earth Syst Environ Sci 2021.

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