Aliya Toleuova

Aliya received her undergraduate diploma, BEng (Hons) in Chemical Technology of Organic Substances at Kazakh-British Technical University in 2009.

In the same year Aliya won an International Scholarship of President of Republic of Kazakhstan. This stipend provided covered all the funds to study an MSc programme in Environmental Engineering at University of Nottingham.

After obtaining an MSc degree from University of Nottingham in 2010 Aliya returned to Kazakhstan and joined Nazarbayev University (NU) where she worked as Chemistry Teaching Assistant for School of Science and School of Engineering at NU. She later has been promoted to junior research assistance in the Centre for Energy Research. She was working on analysis and modelling of energy system of Kazakhstan and its connection to the global model.

In 2011 she has been promoted under Graduate Skills Development Programme at NU, which allowed her to obtain PhD degree from a desired World Top University. Aliya decided to obtain her PhD degree from the partner of Nazarbayev University in the School of Engineering – University College London that she joined in October 2011

Research project

Title: Studies relating to Solid Oxide Fuel Cells with Liquid Metal Electrodes

Much interest is currently being shown in the liquid metal anode solid oxide fuel cell (LMA SOFC) which allows operation on a variety of carbonaceous fuels – gaseous or solid, while remaining tolerant towards fuel contaminants. With respect to reported earlier uncertainties in performance limitation of LMA SOFC greater understanding of the electrochemical reactions, redox, and transport processes within liquid metal electrodes is needed.

This project aims to investigate fundamentals of electrochemical processes in LMA SOFCs. This is planned to be done with a novel for high temperatures studies technique involving rotation of electrolyte in liquid anode. The rotating electrolyte disc (RED) technique enables determination of parameters controlling mass transport of dissolved oxygen (and other gases) and oxidised species including metal oxide in the liquid metal; the technique also provides the possibility of the investigation of heterogeneous and homogeneous reaction kinetics as well as the influence of electrode contaminants.

Education

BEng(Hons) in Chemical Technology of Organic Substances, Kazakh-British Technical University, Kazakhstan 2009
MSc in Environmental Engineering, University of Nottingham, 2010