Muhammad Irfan Maulana Kusdhany

I am a PhD candidate in Kyushu University in the Nanomaterials for Energy Conversion and Sustainability Lab under the co-supervision of Prof. Stephen M. Lyth (University of Strathclyde) and Prof. Masamichi Nishihara. I am studying the application of porous carbon materials for gas storage in clean energy applications, and how materials informatics can be applied to accelerate the development of such materials.

Research

There are two ways we can reduce emissions from the energy sector: by replacing fossil fuels with clean fuels like hydrogen, and by capturing the emissions from fossil fuel combustion. For these applications, gas storage is an important issue. Hydrogen used as fuel needs to be stored in a compact manner, and carbon dioxide capture requires the separation and purification of carbon dioxide from mixtures with low CO₂ concentration (<15%) .

Current gas storage solutions suffer from certain issues which hinders the deployment of clean energy technologies. For example, hydrogen storage requires high pressures of up to 70 MPa, while conventional carbon dioxide capture plants still use liquid amines which incur large energy costs.

I synthesize and optimize porous carbon materials which are cheap, scalable, and are capable of storing large amounts of gases while avoiding the pitfalls of other storage solutions. They can store gases at a lower pressure and can desorb gases without needing a lot of energy. Recently, I have also used machine learning and applied statistical techniques to understand and control the properties of these materials.

Publications

• Vorokhta, M.; Kusdhany, M. I. M.; Švábová, M.; Nishihara, M.; Sasaki, K.; Lyth, S. M. Microporous carbon foams: The effect of nitrogen-doping on CO2 capture and separation via pressure swing adsorption. Separation and Purification Technology. 2025, 354, 5, 129054. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seppur.2024.129054
• Vorokhta, M.; Kusdhany, M. I. M.; Vöröš, D.; Nishihara, M.; Sasaki, K.; Lyth, S. M. Microporous carbon foams: The effect of nitrogen-doping on CO2 capture and separation via pressure swing adsorption. Chemical Engineering Journal. 2023, 471, 144524. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2023.144524
• Dimov, N.; Staykov, A.; Kusdhany, M. I. M.; Lyth, S. M. Tailoring the work function of graphene via defects, nitrogen-doping and hydrogenation: A first principles study. Nanotechnology. 2023, 34, 415001. 10.1088/1361-6528/ac7ecf
• Kusdhany, M.I.M., Ma, Z., Mufundirwa, A., Li, H-W., Sasaki, K., Hayashi, A., & Lyth, S.M. Hydrogen and carbon dioxide uptake on scalable and inexpensive microporous carbon foams. Microporous and Mesoporous Materials. 2022, 112141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.micromeso.2022.112141
• Kusdhany, M. I. M.; Lyth, S. M. New Insights into Hydrogen Uptake on Porous Carbon Materials via Explainable Machine Learning. Carbon N. Y. 2021, 179, 190–201. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbon.2021.04.036.

Presentations

• Machine Learning as a Tool for Interpreting Variables in Hydrogen Sorption Data (2022). World Hydrogen Energy Conference 2022. Istanbul, Turkey.
• Reaching a Better Understanding of Hydrogen Physisorption on Carbon Materials Using an Explainable Machine Learning Algorithm (2021). Materials Research Meeting 2021: Materials Innovation for Sustainable Development Goals. Yokohama, Japan.
• Designing Porous Carbon for Cheaper Hydrogen Storage (2021). 1st UK-Japan Symposium on Advanced Materials for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells. (Won Poster Award 1st Place) Online.
• Data-driven design of porous carbon for gas storage in energy applications (2021). 2nd European Sorption Science Symposium. Online.
• Hydrogen storage on nanoporous carbon foam for electrochemical applications (2020). Pacific Rim Meeting for Electrochemical and Solid State Science. Online.
• High Surface Area MOF-derived Hierarchically Porous Carbon for Energy Storage Applications (2020). Kyushu University Energy Week. Kyushu University, Japan.

• Development of Porous Carbons for Hydrogen Storage and Validation via Explainable Machine Learning (2024). The 18th International Symposium on Metal-Hydrogen Systems. St Malo, France.
• Porous carbon materials for hydrogen storage (2024). The 2nd UK-Japan Symposium on Advanced Materials for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells. (Won Presentation Award) University of Hull, UK.
• Nanocellulose as a precursor to carbon foams (2019). 4th Sheffield-Kyushu Workshop on Electrochemical Energy Conversion. Kyushu University, Japan.

Education

Skills

• X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy
• Raman Spectroscopy
• Scanning Electron Microscopy
• X-Ray Diffractography
• Adsorption Experiments Using Volumetric Devices

• Machine Learning
• Bayesian Data Analysis

Awards & Certifications

• Oral Presentation Prize Winner. 2nd UK-Japan Symposium on Advanced Materials for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells.
• Kyushu University's Q-Energy Decarbonization Research Fellowship Recipient. (2022-2025).
• 1st Place Poster Prize Winner. 1st UK-Japan Symposium on Advanced Materials for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells.
• Monbukagakusho (MEXT) Japanese Government Scholarship Recipient (2016-2021)
• Kyushu University Award for Academic Excellence (2020). Awarded for graduating with the best GPA in my cohort.