Brendan Bulfin is a Lecturer in Physical Chemistry at University College Cork (UCC). His research lies at the interface of materials science, chemical reaction engineering, and chemical process design, with a focus on energy conversion and storage applications including sustainable fuel production.

He completed his PhD in Physics at the University of Dublin and has held research positions at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and ETH Zurich. His work combines materials development, reaction and process modelling, and experimental validation to develop scalable energy conversion technologies, particularly based on chemical looping reactor systems.

Dr Bulfin’s research is centred on materials science for energy applications, particularly the development and application of non-stoichiometric oxide materials in thermochemical processes.

His work spans materials science, chemical reaction engineering, and chemical process design, with a focus on:

• Chemical looping processes and countercurrent reactor design
• Thermochemical fuel production and hydrogen generation
• Oxygen storage materials (e.g. ceria–zirconia, perovskites)
• Thermodynamic and process modelling
• Long-duration and seasonal energy storage

Brendan teaches undergraduate physical chemistry, including quantum mechanics, thermodynamics (ideal gases and kinetic theory), and electrochemistry. At postgraduate level, his teaching focuses on sustainable chemical process development.

He integrates research-led content into his teaching and is actively involved in undergraduate laboratories, developing greener and more sustainable undergraduate teaching experiments. He also supervises student research projects in energy and materials-related topics.