Yu Kakizawa received Best Poster Session Award at Grand Renewable Energy 2018 International Conference

　Yu Kakizawa, third-year Ph.D. student of the Special Program for Green Energy Conversion Science and Technology, supervised by Prof. Junji Inukai received Best Poster Session Award in Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Division at the “Grand Renewable Energy 2018 International Conference” (supported by Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, etc.) held from June 17th to 22nd at Pascifico Yokohama, Yokohama, Japan. The title of the presentation was “Voltage oscillation analyzed by operando monitoring of oxygen partial pressure inside running polymer electrolyte duel cell”.

　Kakizawa found a new oscillation phenomenon inside polymer electrolyte fuel cells and elucidated the mechanism by studying the influences of the gas flow rate at the cathode and the current density, while measuring the oxygen partial pressure inside the gas diffusion layer using a novel operando analytical instrument developed at the University of Yamanashi. The award was given for the superior academic values, the direct contributions to the industry, as well as for the excellent answers to the questions posed at the presentation.

　Kakizawa says “It is such an honor to have received this wonderful award. With this honor in mind, I will keep researching hard for further accomplishments. I truly thank Prof. Junji Inukai, my supervisor, Prof. Akihiro Iiyama, Director of the Fuel Cell Nanomaterials Center, Prof. Hiroyuki Uchida, Director of the Clean Energy Research Center, and all faculty members and friends in the laboratory.