Energy / Environment
(a) In the Energy sector, the Institute activities are inspired by the societal need to switch to renewable sources, thus minimizing emissions and reducing their concomitant effects on earth climate
(b) In the sector of Environment, emphasis is placed on eco-innovative technologies, computational tools for the prediction of pollutant fate in air/water/soil, restoration of polluted natural resources, protection of monuments, recovery of valuable products and energy from wastes, problems related to air pollution and climate change. ICE-HT coordinates the Center of Studies on Air quality and Climate Change (C-STACC)Energy Sector: Electrical Energy Storage
The need for energy storage at various time scales will be of paramount importance in the future energy network. The involvement and expertise of ICE-HT refers to storage of electrical energy surplus as chemical energy in fuels such as hydrogen, which can be produced from water via electrolysis or methanol which can be produced from CO2 hydrogenation over suitable catalysts. Electricity may be also stored without prior transformation in electrochemical devices (batteries and supercapacitors) and the specific field is also gaining momentum at ICE-HT.
Energy Sector: Fuel Cells
When demand exceeds direct supply from Renewable Energy Sources (RES), the chemical energy of hydrogen (fuel) can be transformed to electricity (and heat) in fuel cell devices. Two types of fuel cells are being developed at ICE-HT: (a) solid oxide fuel cells, SOFC, and (b) high-temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells, HT-PEMFC (with possibility of internal fuel reforming).
Energy & Environment Sector: Circular Economy
According to the rules of circular economy FORTH/ICE-HT teams have been developing physicochemical and biological methods/processes for (i) industrial, agricultural, and residential waste treatment for producing hydrogen, methane, biodiesel, and bioplastics, (ii) GHG capture for the production of useful chemicals and (iii) biomass for renewable fuels.
Environment Sector: Air Quality and Climate Change
Laboratory and field measurements are combined with model development and application to solve problems related to local, urban, regional, and global air quality and their interactions with climate change. The measurement and modeling tools developed are made available to air quality control authorities for the design of better strategies for reduction of air pollution in the corresponding areas while limiting climate change.
Environment Sector: Advanced Methods for Soil/Water Remediation and Waste Treatment
The ICEHT research activities include polluted soil/wastewater/waste treatment by cold atmospheric plasma, wastewater treatment by photo-catalysis, and valorization of agricultural wastes for the development of low-cost adsorbents capable of removing multi-species pollutants from wastewater.