Hussain Almajed
- Hussain Almajed
- CHEMICAL & BIOLOGICAL ENGINEERING
Research Bio
Hussain completed his PhD with the Electrobuffs in Summer 2025, while being co-advised by Dr. Bri-Mathias Hodge. During his PhD, Hussain developed process and techno-economic models to assess the integration of CO2 capture with electrochemical technologies. His research leveraged Aspen Plus and Python to build process simulations, conduct techno-economic analyses (TEAs) under uncertain assumptions, and understand the practical benefits and bottlenecks of emerging Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) and electrolysis technologies. While completing the last year of his PhD, Hussain participated in a full-time internship at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), where he was mentored by Dr. Omar José Guerra-Fernández. At NREL, Hussain investigated the status of electrolytic hydrogen in several Indo-Pacific countries and developed process-informed TEAs of electrolytic hydrogen and low-carbon ammonia production. After defending his thesis, Hussain joined the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in Pittsburgh, PA, as an ORISE Postdoctoral Fellow in the Energy Process Analysis Team, where he studies the techno-economics of sorbent-based direct air capture (DAC) and the geographic siting considerations for its deployment across the U.S. Hussain is currently mentored by Dr. Sally Homsy.
Outside of research, Hussain enjoys listening to podcasts, playing volleyball and football (a.k.a. soccer), and traveling with his family!
Education
- Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, 2025
- M.S in Chemical Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, 2021
- B.A. in Chemistry, University of Colorado Boulder, 2019
Scholarships & Awards
- ECEE Outreach Award (2023)
- Saudi Ministry of Education Scholarship (2019-2025)
Selected Publications
- Hussain M. Almajed*, Bri-Mathias Hodge*, Wilson A. Smith*, “Quantifying capital-energy trade-offs in bipolar membrane electrodialysis for atmospheric and oceanic carbon removal.” Joule (2025), in-review.
- Hussain M. Almajed, Recep Kas, Paige Brimley, Allison M Crow, Ana Somoza-Tornos, Bri-Mathias Hodge, Thomas E Burdyny, Wilson A Smith*, "Closing the loop: unexamined performance trade-offs of integrating direct air capture with (bi) carbonate electrolysis", ACS Energy Letters 9, 5 (2024): 2472-2483. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsenergylett.4c00807.
- Omar J Guerra*, Hussain M Almajed, Wilson A. Smith, Ana Somoza-Tornos, Bri-Mathias S Hodge, "Barriers and opportunities for the deployment of CO2 electrolysis in net-zero emissions energy systems", Joule, 7, 1111-1133 (2023). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2023.05.002.
- Paige Brimley+, Hussain Almajed+, Yousef Alsunni, Abdulaziz Alherz*, Zachary Bare, Wilson A. Smith, and Charles Musgrave*, “Electrochemical CO2 Reduction over Metal/Nitrogen-Doped Graphene Single Atom Catalysts Modeled Using Grand-Canonical Density Functional Theory”, ACS Catal., 12, 2022, 10161-10171. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.2c01832.