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Thermal Systems Engineering Lab
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A lab that pursues energy conversion, transport, and storage from the perspective of heat and fluid flow.
AboutAbout the lab
Pioneering the future of energy conversion, transport, and storage
The Thermal Systems Engineering Lab conducts research to improve technologies that convert, transport, and store energy.
Its current work focuses on phenomena that occur inside electrochemical devices, such as high-temperature fuel cells and secondary batteries.
The lab also studies catalytic reactions of fuels blended from hydrocarbons and ammonia, approaching them through the mechanical engineering perspective of heat, mass, and charge transport.
By elucidating complex phenomena spanning the micro to the macro scale, the lab aims to lead to the creation of new energy systems.
Key terms
- Solid oxide fuel cell
- A fuel cell that uses a ceramic electrolyte and operates at high temperatures. Also called SOFC
- Porous medium
- A material with countless fine pores inside. Gas can pass through it, and the pores serve as sites for reactions
- Reforming reaction
- A reaction in which hydrocarbons are reacted with steam or other agents to convert them into a hydrogen-rich gas
NewsLab news
A paper on the suppression mechanism of methane steam reforming by ammonia was published in Journal of Power Sources
A paper on interfacial structure and rSOC performance was published in International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
A paper on numerical simulation of SOFC electrodes using PINNs was published in International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer
A master's student received the Miura Award from the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
An undergraduate student received the Best Presentation Award at the Kansai Student Members' Graduation Research Presentation Conference
ResearchResearch themes
Building on thermal engineering, heat transfer engineering, and fluid engineering, the lab conducts research to improve energy conversion, transport, and storage. In recent years, it has been working to elucidate and control heat, mass, and charge transport phenomena that occur inside porous media, such as the electrodes of electrochemical devices and various catalysts.
*Illustrative imageStructure and performance of fuel cell electrodes
The lab handles the entire process in-house: fabricating cells, measuring their performance, analyzing and quantifying their structure before and after operation, and feeding the results into its own power generation simulations.
*Illustrative imageBatteries that store energy in iron
The lab studies iron-air batteries, which combine a solid oxide electrochemical cell with redox reactions of porous iron. Because their essence is energy storage through iron redox, they have the potential to become low-cost, high-capacity storage devices.
*Illustrative imageReactions and heat flow on catalysts
Targeting reforming and oxidation reactions of hydrocarbon fuels and the thermal decomposition of ammonia, the lab is working to understand these phenomena and to develop control methods for highly efficient and safe operation.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Thermal Systems Engineering Lab consist of faculty, postdoctoral researchers, secretaries, technical assistants, and doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorHiroshi Iwai
- Associate ProfessorMasashi Kishimoto
- Associate ProfessorReiko Kuriyama
- Assistant ProfessorYuting Guo
VoicesStudent voices
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “HEXAGONAL FUEL CELL STACK - NARA - 17472482” 作者不詳 / Public domain (cropped)
- Structure and performance of fuel cell electrodes: “Solid oxide fuel cell protonic” R.Dervisoglu / Public domain (cropped)
- Batteries that store energy in iron: “Rust on iron” Laitr Keiows / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Reactions and heat flow on catalysts: “Haber-Bosch-Nummern” Antonsusi (talk) / CC BY 3.0 de (cropped)
- Related lab (Structural Materials and Strength Lab): “XCARAT Overview Optimization Methods” FEMopt Studios / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Energy Materials Design Lab): “Typical reversed fatigue stress cycles” Yapparina / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Environmental Thermo-Fluid Engineering Lab): “Kelvin-Helmholtz waves” Astronautilus / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Solid Mechanics Lab): “Transmission electron microscope (Morgagni 268D) 2pl” Pleple2000 / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
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