BIOWET

Advanced Biological Waste-to-Energy Technologies

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The concern of the international community in utilizing renewable energy sources is ever rising. The reasons are both economical (rising oil/gas/coal prices) and ecological (greenhouse gas emission mitigation). Biological methods for energy production such as anaerobic digestion or microbial fuel cells have a great potential to substitute fossil fuels. Moreover, these biological methods often utilize waste, contaminated materials or polluted environments (e.g. wastewater, solid waste or contaminated sediments), thus coupling energy production to waste minimization/reclamation. The proposed IRSES “BioWET” project will integrate a number of advanced biotechnologies for waste-to-energy conversion. It will include anaerobic digestion of wastewater and solid waste, bio-hydrogen production from industrial wastewater and direct electricity production using sediment fuel cells. As the quality of biogas/hydrogen gas produced via anaerobic processes is crucial for further utilization as source of heat and electricity, experimental work on gas quality up-grading (CO2 sequestration and H2S removal) is included too. The project includes six research work packages and two transfer of knowledge (summer school and international workshop) work packages. Besides the research tasks, this IRSES project aims to 1) transfer knowledge between the partners, 2) explore new research lines and 3) stimulate (knowledge for knowledge) networking via support of the mobility of early-stage and experienced researchers. The consortium consists of three partners, 2 from Europe (Institute for Chemical Technology [ICT Prague], the Czech Republic and UNESCO-IHE Institute for water Education, the Netherlands) and 1 from USA (University of South Florida [USF]). The mobility of experienced staff and early-stage researchers (MSc. and Ph.D. students) is always between one of the EU partners and the USF and is always mutual to ensure good exchange of knowledge.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Exploiting microorganisms to convert biowaste into electricity and heat is a highly sustainable and eco-friendly route to energy production. It is getting the attention it deserves from a prominent Czech research institute.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Many countries around the world are actively investing in renewable energy sources as an alternative to fossil fuels. The geographic disparity of fuel reserves combined with regional political unrest has important effects on energy security and cost. At the same time, industrialisation and growing energy demand contributes to the increasingly detrimental impact on the environment of the combustion of fossil fuels.

The EU-funded project 'Advanced biological waste-to-energy technologies' (http://web.vscht.cz/~bartacej/biowet/biowet.html (BIOWET)) was launched to investigate several ways to exploit biological waste for electricity production. These consist of anaerobic digestion of wastewater and solid waste, bio-hydrogen production from industrial wastewater and direct electricity production using sediment fuel cells. Since the cost and efficiency of electricity and heat production is highly dependent on the quality of produced biogas, scientists are addressing this issue as well.

Given that the field is immature, transfer of knowledge will play an important role in more widespread uptake of any developed technology. The project is fostering sharing of ideas and information among partners and to young and experienced researchers in this and related fields.

The project has already hosted an international summer school and a mini-symposium at the University of Southern Florida (USF) in the United States. In addition to the many technical topics at the summer school was a section on EU and United States policies supporting bioenergy production from waste. http://biowet.blogspot.cz/2012/07/biowet-2012-lectures-presentations-pdf.html (Presentations from the summer school) are available online.

In addition, six short secondments of experienced researchers, three from Europe to the United States and three from the United States to Europe, were made possible within the first reporting period. Two early-stage researchers from the Czech Republic visited the USF as well.

Developing efficient and cost-effective biotechnologies to produce biogas for electricity from wastewater and solid waste would put sustainable energy in the hands of citizens everywhere. BIOWET is actively pursuing several options whose realisation will have profound impact on the socioeconomic state of people and nations around the globe.