Background
Ronald’s postdoctoral work at Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST) commenced in 2021 and focuses on developing heat storage and recovery solutions to bring distributed thermal storage concepts for decarbonising low temperature heat in industrial processes to fruition.
He holds BSc in Mechanical Engineering from Makerere University (Uganda:2006), MSc Sustainable Engineering: Renewable Energy Systems and the Environment from University of Strathclyde (UK: 2010), and PhD on Solar polygeneration for access to energy in off-grid rural households in developing countries from Ulster University (Belfast, UK: 2020). Ronald’s PhD was funded by the Department for Education (DfE), Northern Ireland, UK. His work contributed extensive research on the energy consumption front in the frame of Sustainable Development Goal #7. It delivered novel solar polygeneration concepts with PV and reflector based (planer and line-axis CPCs) solar thermal, ray-tracing simulations, techno-economic studies, and extensive experiments using a large-scale solar simulator.
Associated work earned the best literature review prize (2019) at Ulster University. As a recognised professional member of the Association of Energy Engineers (AEE), he is committed in solving energy efficiency challenges in various end use applications and developing approaches for mitigating climate change. As research associate at Ulster University, he worked on various multidisciplinary research, consultancy and prototyping projects including solar barrier films in ice-cream vending freezers (Unilever, 2020), roofing PowerPanels with integrated photovoltaic cells (Kingspan, 2020), smart mobile solar-storage with embedded LoRaWAN technologies (UKRI SolaNetwork project, 2021), and solar-storage for energy access, energy efficiency and grid stability (UKRI SwanaSmartStore project, 2021).
He has also been in a higher education lectureship position at Busitema University in Uganda, delivering mechanical engineering science courses. Over the years, he has professionally performed technical and non-technical work in various sectors including hydropower, consultancy, and beverage manufacturing, where he conducted industrial electrical energy audits, implemented ISO9001, and managed production line operations. Ronald often conducts voluntary peer review activities for various journals in Elsevier and Springer nature group.
Selected Publications
[1] Muhumuza R, Zacharopoulos A, Mondola JD, Smyth M, Pugsley A. Meeting energy needs of low-income Sub-Saharan households with a Partially Hybridised Solar Technology (PHST): Experimental performance evaluation based on simulated solar radiation and demand profiles. Sustain Energy Technol Assessments 2021; 46: 101302.
[2] Muhumuza R, Zacharopoulos A, Mondol JD, Smyth M, Pugsley A. Energy consumption levels and technical approaches for supporting development of alternative energy technologies for rural sectors of developing countries. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 2018; 97:90–102.
[3] Muhumuza R, Zacharopoulos A, Mondol JD, Smyth M, Pugsley A, Giuzio GF, et al. Experimental investigation of horizontally operating thermal diode solar water heaters with differing absorber materials under simulated conditions. Renew Energy 2019; 138:1051–64.
[4] Muhumuza R, Zacharopoulos A, Mondol JD, Smyth M, Pugsley A. Experimental study of heat retention performance of thermal diode Integrated Collector Storage Solar Water Heater (ICSSWH) configurations. Sustain Energy Technol Assessments 2019; 34:214–9.
[5] Muhumuza R, Zacharopoulos A, Mondol JD, Smyth M, Pugsley A. Experimental investigation of heat retention in a novel Asymmetric Formed Reflector with Integrated Collector and Storage (AFRICaS) System. 2nd Int. Conf. Sol. Technol. Hybrid Mini Grids to Improv. energy access, 2018.
[6] Muhumuza R, Zacharopoulos A, Mondol JD, Smyth M, Pugsley A, McGee J. Simulation and experimental validation of solar radiation distribution on the absorber of a line-axis asymmetric compound parabolic concentrator. Sol Energy 2020; 198:36–52.
[7] Smyth M, Barone G, Buonomano A, Forzano C, Giuzio GF, Palombo A, et al. Modelling and experimental evaluation of an innovative Integrated Collector Storage Solar Water Heating (ICSSWH) prototype. Renew Energy 2020;157:974–86.
[8] Smyth M, Mondol JD, Muhumuza R, Pugsley A, Zacharopoulos A, McLarnon D, et al. Experimental characterisation of different hermetically sealed horizontal, cylindrical double vessel Integrated Collector Storage Solar Water Heating (ICSSWH) prototypes. Sol Energy 2020;206:695–707.