Summary
Dr. Billy Wu is a Reader (Associate Professor) and Director of Research in the Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London. He works in the area of electrochemical design engineering and jointly leads the Electrochemical Science and Engineering group and is on the editorial board of Scientific Reports, Energy and AI, and HardwareX. His research activities focuses at the interface between fundamental science and engineering application of electrochemical devices such as batteries, fuel cells and supercapacitors, with work including: energy materials, continuum level modelling, understanding degradation, thermal management system and control.
Inside a lithium-ion battery
He is a Faraday Institution Industrial Fellow through his partnership with Williams Advanced Engineering on battery diagnostics and control, a co-investigator on the Faraday Multi-Scale Modelling project and chair of the Faraday Institution Training and Diversity panel. Within the Dyson School of Design Engineering he is course leader for the 1st year Materials and Manufacturing course and is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
He was previous a post-doctoral research associate in the department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College London working on large scale energy storage systems. He gained his PhD from Imperial College London in 2014 on modelling and testing of proton exchange membrane fuel cell hybrid powertrains for electric vehicles, which was sponsored by Nissan, under the supervision of Dr. Gregory Offer, Professor Ricardo Martinez-Botas and Professor Nigel Brandon. Prior to his PhD he graduated from Imperial Collge London in 2010 with a Masters (Honours) in Mechanical Engineering (MEng).
He is a keen outreach enthusiast, having done a range of public engagement events including presenting at the Royal Institution in 2022 on "Can batteries help to save the world?" with The Faraday Institution.
He previously developed a 9.5 kW fuel cell-supercapacitor hybrid power generator which featured on the BBC's Energy Day at their television studios in Manchester, where he appeared on BBC Breakfast News and Blue Peter. Our activities focus on developing a fuel cell system for a Shell Eco-Marathon car together with Dr. Gregory Offer, Dr. Marc Masen and Dr. Fred Marquis as part of the Imperial Racing Green programme.
He manages and is involved in a number of industry research/consultancy projects looking at topics including: lithium-ion batteries, hydrogen fuel cells, supercapacitors, solid oxide fuel cells, redox flow cells and additive manufacturing. He also often performs technology foresighting activities, having presented at the annual Imperial TechForesight event.
Prospective students/researchers
I welcome discussions from prospective students and researchers interested in joining our research group. Please send a CV and 1 page cover letter to billy.wu@imperial.ac.uk.
Featured research
Our paper on a freeze aligned ionogel supercapacitor electrolytes was features as a cover page in Advanced Science
Aligned ionogel electrolytes for high-temperature supercapacitors. Xinhua Liu, Oluwadamilola Taiwo, Chengyao Yin, Mengzheng Ouyang, Ridwanur Chowdhury, Baofeng Wang, Huizhi Wang, Billy Wu, Nigel Brandon, Qigang Wang and Samuel Cooper. Advanced Science 2018.
Our paper on a low cost desktop electrochemical metal 3D printer was featured as a cover page in Advanced Materials Technologies.
A low cost desktop electrochemical metal 3D printer. Xiaolong Chen, Xinhua Liu, Peter Childs, Nigel Brandon and Billy Wu. Advanced Materials Technologies. Volume 2, Issue 10. October 2017.
Our paper on 3D printed structural pseudocapacitors was featured as a cover page in Advanced Materials Technologies.
3D-Printed Structural Pseudocapacitors. Xinhua Liu, Rhodri Jervis, Robert Maher, Ignacio Villar-Garcia, Max Naylor-Marlow, Paul Shearing, Mengzheng Ouyang, Lesley Cohen, Nigel Brandon and Billy Wu. Advanced Material Technologies. Volume 1, Issue 9. December 2016.
Featured Media mentions
Plug it in: EV dream of 1,000-mile mega battery - Evening Standard postcast - 2022
Investors jumpstart battery funding to plug clean energy gap - The Financial Times - 2022
QuantumScape: can battery pioneer live up to the hype? - The Financial Times - 2021
Electric vehicles need to arrive as fast as vaccines - The Financial Times - 2021
Low cost metal 3D printing by electrochemistry - Hackaday - 2021
International EV Batteries 2020...60 seconds with Billy Wu, Imperial College London - IMechE - 2020
This week in clean tech podcast - 2019
Power-hungry Tesla picks up supercapacitor maker - Chemistry world - 2019
Multi-metal 4D printing. 3D Printing Industry - 2019
Children of the 3D printing resolution. The Guardian - 2018
Building better batteries for future electric car. Imperial College London - 2018
The quest for better batteries. Shell - 2017
Electrochemical Additive Manufacturing: A Low Cost Desktop 3D Printer. Science Trends - 2017
Sky News interview about electric vehicles - 2017
Batteries included. BBC Click - 2017
Our electric vehicle future. BBC World Service - 2017
Innovate or perish: Is first mover advantage always an advantage? Electric and hybrid vehicles magazine - 2017
It's not easy being green: Decarbonising transport and the grid - Imperial Business School - 2017
The impossible dream: perfecting the smart phone battery - Techradar - 2017
Charged issue: How phone batteries work and why some explode - The Guardian - 2016
Creative computers and 3D printed iPhones: experts map out the future of design - Imperial College London - 2016
3D printing: Imperial academic talks about advances being made in the field - Imperial College London - 2016
BBC Inside Science (Batteries) - Radio 4 - 2016
Huge profits in store for firm that can make a great leap in battery technology - The Guardian - 2016
On the flightpath to a friendly footprint - The Engineer - 2016
New technology could help increase electric vehicle range - The Engineer - 2013
Students rock on at the BBC - Imperial College London - 2013
Publications
Journals
Bonkile MP, Jiang Y, Kirkaldy N, et al., 2023, Coupled electrochemical-thermal-mechanical stress modelling in composite silicon/graphite lithium-ion battery electrodes, Journal of Energy Storage, Vol:73, ISSN:2352-152X
Ruan H, Barreras JV, Steinhardt M, et al., 2023, The heating triangle: A quantitative review of self-heating methods for lithium-ion batteries at low temperatures, Journal of Power Sources, Vol:581, ISSN:0378-7753, Pages:1-16
Wu B, Ai W, Kirkaldy N, et al., 2023, (Invited) Multi-Scale Battery Modelling: Understanding Coupled Electrochemical and Mechanical Effects, Ecs Meeting Abstracts, Vol:MA2023-01, Pages:1634-1634
Dubarry M, Howey D, Wu B, 2023, Enabling battery digital twins at the industrial scale, Joule, Vol:7, ISSN:2542-4351, Pages:1134-1144
Niu Z, Zhao W, Wu B, et al., 2023, π learning: a performance‐Informed framework for microstructural electrode design, Advanced Energy Materials, Vol:13, ISSN:1614-6832, Pages:1-14