Stand-alone Solar/waste-heat driven desalination unit, operating under a weak vacuum and employing wavy flows and novel wetting/de-wetting surfaces

Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) technology has given rise to a new form of renewable energy, namely electricity produced from material that would otherwise be considered as waste. This technology uses bacteria already present in the wastewater as a catalyst for generating electricity, while at the same time treating the wastewater. Although MFCs generate less energy than hydrogen fuel cells, the combination of both electricity production and wastewater treatment effectively reduces the cost of primary effluent treatment

In our laboratory we utilize MFC technology as a new biodegradation approach for toxic wastewater, particularly that containing phenolic compounds.

                           (a)                                                                                        (b) 

Figure 1:  Microbial fuel cell, [a] components scheme, [b] MFC in the lab.

The two largest groups of modern energy storage devices are batteries and supercapacitors. Batteries are capable of storing vast amounts of electricity, but have the disadvantages of long charging times and electrode damage which shortens their lifespan. Supercapacitors on the other hand can operate at high charge/discharge rates over an almost unlimited number of cycles, but with the disadvantage of a much lower energy density than batteries. The challenge therefore is to develop high energy density supercapacitors with modified electrodes.

Nano devices such as nano tubes, nanowires, nanodots and nanoparticles have become increasingly important for use as electrodes in supercapacitors. Their nanoscale size serves to increase the electrolyte/electrode surface area and creates reversible pseudocapacitance mechanisms, leading to a supercapacitor with a significantly larger capacitance and stored energy density.

In collaboration with Elbit Systems we at TAU are currently developing a new generation of supercapacitor-energy storage devices based on peptide nanostructured materials (PNM). PNMs are chemically synthesized peptide monomers which are able to self-assemble into bio-inspired nanostructured ensembles such as nanodots, nanotubes, nanofibres, etc.