This study addresses the Wind Farm Layout Optimization (WFLO) problem to maximize the Annual Energy Production (AEP) of an offshore wind farm composed of IEA 15 MW reference turbines. By utilizing a Genetic Algorithm (GA), we optimized the positioning of turbines within the complex, non-convex boundaries of the IEA Task 37 Case Study 3 site. The optimization process considers a wake effects model to minimize velocity deficits and turbulence intensity.

This study systematically investigates shock wave interaction with a localized, smoothly contoured sinusoidal narrowing in a straight conduit. Using high-order implicit Large Eddy Simulations we characterize how the coupling of blockage ratio and axial length governs the transient startup process and the partitioning of energy between reflected and transmitted shocks.

Organic bioelectronic devices bridge the gap between signal processing and ionic communication in biological environments. Among them, Organic Electrochemical Transistors (OECTs) are particularly attractive for biosensing due to their low operating voltage and stability in aqueous media. This work presents a simple, energy-efficient strategy to integrate multiple bio-response functionalities within a single electrolyte-based transistor. By blending either two Organic Mixed Ionic-Electronic Conductors (OMIECs) or an OMIEC with a semiconducting polymer, device microstructure can be precisely tuned through composition and processing, enabling properties unattainable in single-material systems. In a first example, an OMIEC fullerene is blended with a semiconducting polymer to control the transistor operation mode, selectively enabling either p-type EGOFET operation via interfacial charge modulation or n-type OECT operation via bulk ionic-electronic coupling within the same device. In a second example, balanced ambipolar OECT behavior is achieved by combining p-type and n-type OMIECs, allowing detection of both cations and anions, including chloride, nitrate, potassium, and calcium. Overall, these work demonstrates how blend-based ambipolar transistors can unify distinct operating mechanisms within a single, biocompatible platform, enabling multi-ion sensing and adaptive bioelectronic functionality.

No section is explicitly labeled “Abstract.” The text that most clearly serves as the abstract is the Introduction: Anion exchange membranes (AEMs) play a critical role in electrochemical devices, enabling hydroxide (OH⁻) transport. When exposed to air containing CO₂, it rapidly converts to the less conductive CO₃²⁻ and even less conductive HCO₃⁻ forms. Although recovery strategies during operation are known, the actual amount of CO₂ that different membranes adsorb and how fast this adsorption occurs is not still quantified. This study aims to characterize both CO₂ adsorption capacity and adsorption kinetics: capacity serves as a material metric indicating how much CO₂ a membrane can accumulate, while kinetics show how rapidly CO₂ adsorbs to the membrane, enabling proactive CO₂ management strategies.

This study evaluates polyolefin-derived pyrolysis waxes from high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), and polypropylene (PP) as PCM feedstocks for improving building energy efficiency. Thermophysical performance was measured using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), focusing on melting and latent heat for energy storage applications. The most promising wax was further treated to enhance PCM properties. The LCA study, based on DSC results, quantifies the environmental impacts of producing PCMs delivering 100 MJ m⁻³ of thermal storage and benchmarks waste-derived wax against commercial PCM feedstocks.

Chlorella ohadii, a unicellular green alga from the Negev Desert survives extreme irradiance, prolonged darkness, and severe energy limitation. Using long-term spinning-disk confocal time-lapse imaging, we compared cells pre-illuminated for 2h or 20h before dark imaging. C. ohadii undergoes multiple fission (4/8/16 daughters), and extended pre-illumination accelerates division and increases fission output, demonstrating that pre-dark energy allocation governs cell-cycle commitment and proliferation under fluctuating desert conditions.

No section is explicitly labeled “Abstract.” The text that most clearly serves as the abstract is the combination of the Introduction and Motivation sections: Pacemakers today rely on internal and rigid lithium-ion batteries, limiting their lifetime and flexibility. Boc-dip-dip BDD peptides are biocompatible and show high piezoelectric coefficient of d33(eff)= 78 pC/N, which makes them suitable to be integrated in energy-harvesting devices. The average longitudinal and circumferential strains of the heart are -0.2 and -0.15, respectively. The work aims to design and simulate a soft peptide-based piezoelectric energy harvesting device using a COMSOL Multiphysics setup, compare sandwich and tube-shaped geometries, obtain high electric voltage and power, examine the best polymeric matrix material of the composite, and determine the optimal peptide concentration by correlating the mechanical and electrical properties.

Platinum group metal (PGM) have many advantages as electrocatalysts. However, it suffers from scarcity, high cost and geopolitical unreliability. These problems inspired the exploration of alternative materials for electrocatalysis. My project proposes a synthesis and research of novel class of ultra-thin ferrosilicate electrocatalysts (Fe@SiO2/C), combining the high activity of iron with the exceptional stability of silica. The hybrid system introduces iron ions into a conductive, ultra-thin silica shell supported on carbon, enabling electron tunneling through the ultra-thin oxide film. My main synthesis strategy involves using different wet chemical methods for synthesizing the Fe/SiO2 nanostructures and doping them on carbon matrix. These catalysts will be examined for key reactions such as hydrazine oxidation. My project aims to establish a durable, earth-abundant, and highly active family of materials that could significantly improve the performance and lifetime of electrochemical energy systems.

We quantify interfacial morphology and connectivity during two-phase flow in a porous medium analogue using image-based segmentation plus cluster and network statistics. These metrics map directly to trapping, mobility, and leakage risk relevant to subsurface H₂ storage. Subsurface H₂ storage is promising for large-scale energy systems, but performance depends on multiphase flow. Residual/capillary trapping controls retained inventory, ganglia mobilization affects deliverability and cycling, and interfacial area and curvature relate to capillary pressure and stability. The goal is to build measurable, image-derived interfacial metrics that connect pore-scale physics to storage-scale implications.

A novel hybrid electrochemical device inspired by fuel cells and water electrolyzers, merged into a single, compact, all-solid-state system. This system is designed to separate oxygen directly from ambient air, by using only a low external potential (~1.2V), without the use of solvents. Answering the continuously rising need for pure oxygen!

Nickel (oxy)hydroxide electrodes are used in electrochemical technologies: rechargeable alkaline batteries, supercapacitors, alkaline water electrolysis and electrochemical wastewater treatment. Here, we focus on the self-discharge behavior of charged electrodes, 4NiOOH + 2H₂O → 4Ni(OH)₂ + O₂, an effect that is usually treated as detrimental in batteries, yet especially beneficial in E-TAC water electrolysis. Ni(OH)₂ exists mainly in two polymorphs, α and β, whose charged counterparts are γ and β' NiOOH. Phase evolution is driven by aging and electrochemical cycling, as summarized by the Bode diagram. In this work, we show that the γ-NiOOH phase exhibits markedly higher self-discharge activity than β'-NiOOH. The central motivation of this study is to understand the origin of this enhanced activity and to develop strategies to stabilize the α/γ pathway for efficient, controllable and stable charge – self-discharge cycles in decoupled electrolysis.

Anion-exchange membranes (AEMs), as the core components of AEM water electrolyzers and AEM fuel cells, play an imperative role as the medium to transport the hydroxide ions (OH−) from cathode to anode. However, while most research efforts focus on improving conductivity, mechanical stability is often sacrificed, leading to reduced durability, performance degradation, and safety concerns. Among various reinforced strategies, pore-filling technology is presented as a highly targeted and effective solution to achieve the trade-off between satisfying electrochemical properties and mechanical stability. The stated goal is to design a pore-filling AEM that strikes an intricate balance between high mechanical stability and superior ionic conductivity.

Black Soldier Fly (BSF) larvae are efficient consumers of various organic waste types, yielding a protein- and fat-rich output to be used as a food source. Black Soldier Fly Frass (BSFF), the residual mixture of insect feces and exoskeletons left from the bioconversion process, is usually used as a low-value fertilizer by direct field application. Previous Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) reviews have outlined electricity consumption and frass direct field application as significant environmental impact factors. Utilizing BSFF and wastewater as bioenergy sources is therefore proposed to mitigate the high energy demand of the bioconversion and the environmental costs of frass field application. Hydrothermal Carbonization (HTC) offers a potential solution by transforming biomass into a carbon-dense solid (hydrochar) at elevated temperature and pressure in an aqueous environment, with lower temperatures and lower energy inputs than other thermochemical processes such as pyrolysis. Initial LCA results show that the proposed “frass-to-energy” system performs 84% better across environmental impact factors than the conventional method of treating black soldier fly frass.

High–heat-flux environments demand cooling mechanisms far beyond the conventional limits. Passive cooling can’t handle high heat flux. Severe space, weight, and reliability constraints eliminate complex active cooling networks. Confined liquid sheet based active cooling is presented as a viable solution enabling high heat flux removal in a compact setup, with applications ranging from high-density power electronics to hypersonic vehicle thermal management. The poster’s stated objectives are to optimize micro-nozzle geometries for superior spray characteristics that enhance heat transfer, experimentally evaluate heat transfer distributions of multiple sheet sprays in conjunction with engineered surfaces, and evaluate local heat transfer distributions on realistic curved leading-edge geometries.

The increasing global energy demand driven by population growth and technological advancements necessitates the exploration of sustainable and renewable energy sources. Solar energy holds significant potential for addressing both the energy crisis and environmental concerns linked to fossil fuel consumption. The effective conversion of sunlight into energy relies on advanced photocatalysts, with protein-based photocatalysts playing a critical role in natural photosynthesis. A key example is fatty acid photodecarboxylase (CvFAP), a photoenzyme from Chlorella variabilis NC64A, which catalyzes the redox-neutral hydro-decarboxylation of fatty acids into alkanes. Additionally, potential FAPs, such as CoFAP from Chlorella ohadii—an extremophile organism that exhibits greater thermal and photo stability than CvFAP—demonstrate a significant similarity to CvFAP. This indicates the broad applicability of algal species in the development of innovative photocatalytic technologies for sustainable energy solutions.

Urea oxidation is a complex electrochemical process with significant potential for hydrogen generation, direct urea fuel cells, and wastewater treatment. However, the reaction suffers from slow kinetics due to multi-electron and proton transfers, and the need for efficient, stable, and affordable catalysts. Nickel hydroxide-based catalysts are promising alternatives to expensive platinum group metals, but their activity and stability are limited by a lack of mechanistic understanding and challenges in nanostructure design. Recent studies highlight the importance of structural disorder and hierarchical porosity in enhancing catalytic performance, but further research is needed to optimize these features and clarify their impact on selectivity and product distribution. This research focuses on developing a high-rate urea oxidation electrocatalyst based on high surface-area, disorder-engineered nickel hydroxide nanoparticles dispersed on a hierarchically porous carbon support, at different pore sizes.

Methanol has high potential to serve as an energy storage feedstock, while CO₂ is considered as a climatic nuisance considering the high emissions due to the modern lifestyle. This research goal is to study the possibility of converting CO₂ to methanol through a sustainable, cost-effective process using visible sunlight-driven photocatalytic reaction. The heterojunction consists two half cells: an Oxidation type photo-catalyst (graphitic Carbon Nitride) to allow OER - Oxygen Evolution Reaction and reduction-type photo-catalyst (Metal Organic Framework) to allow CO2RR. Tuning the band gaps with ~ 0.2-0.3V will allow the two half-cell reactions to coexist despite challenges such as reverse reactions and charge transfer. The research is designed to optimize photocatalytic structural and chemical properties by different methods. Testing, characterization and selection of the most promising photocatalyst will enable the choice of the most appropriate combination of MOFs and KPHI.

Hierarchical porosity is used to increase power in electrochemical applications, because the combination of high surface area and rapid mass transfer enhances device performance. Larger pores improve mass transfer, but the optimal size of the main porous pathways remains unclear. This work synthesized carbons using polyacrylonitrile (PAN) with different pore sizes—40, 80, 120, and 200 nm—with monodisperse, well-defined pores, in order to determine how pore architecture affects electrochemical behavior. The poster concludes that pore size is coupled with a trade-off between tortuosity and pore confinement effects, that current density rises as pore size decreases, that smaller pore size (40 nm) provides better mass transfer results, and that bubble release depends more on nucleation site distribution than on pore size.

No section is explicitly labeled “Abstract.” The text that most clearly serves as the abstract is the Introduction: Clean energy transition requires efficient and sustainable hydrogen production technologies. Water electrolysis is a key method for generating green hydrogen, yet existing electrolyzer technologies face significant challenges. Alkaline Water Electrolyzers (AWEs) suffer from low efficiency, safety concerns, and difficulties in producing pressurized hydrogen. Meanwhile, Proton Exchange Membrane Water Electrolyzers (PEMWEs) rely on expensive platinum-group metals (PGMs) and fluorinated polymers, which pose economic and environmental concerns. Anion Exchange Membrane Water Electrolyzers (AEM-WEs) offer a promising alternative by combining the advantages of both AWEs and PEMWEs. They enable efficient hydrogen production while reducing reliance on scarce raw materials and hazardous components. However, AEM-WEs remain in the early stages of development and require further optimization to enhance degradation resistance and long-term stability. Addressing these challenges is essential for their widespread commercial adoption.

Polylactic acid (PLA) polymer is a widely used polymer, and the demand for it is expected to triple by 2028. While PLA can be degraded using harsh basic conditions, greener methodologies are needed for a sustainable world. Utilizing enzymes for depolymerizing PLA into lactic acid is a promising direction for recycling it. Recently, it has been shown that proteinase k can degrade PLA. Here we present the development of a bioreactor for the photo-driven conversion of PLA to energy. Cadmium sulfide (CdS) nanoparticles with NiS co-catalyst were developed. Proteinase k enzyme was utilized for PLA degradation to lactic acid. Lactic acid was photooxidized to yield pyruvate and H2. Our results show that high amounts of H2 can be generated using the CdS@NiS synthesized NPs under visible light illumination and in the presence of lactic acid. The designed system was then coupled with an enzymatic reaction to enable conversion of bioplastic into pyruvate, an essential material in the industry, and H2 fuel using only light-induced activation.