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MErgELab combines expertise on Materials with Electrochemical skills aiming at optimized materials and devices for production, conversion and storage of Energy. As “physical room”, hosted at DICCA – UNIGE, in Via all’Opera Pia 15, MErgELab was established in 2016, thanks to a 15 years old fruitful collaboration between CNR-ICMATE and DICCA on these topics. MErgELab can perform all steps from powder synthesis to pre industrial scale up of devices for energy.
To improve the efficiency of total conversion of solar thermal collectors, the conversion of solar energy into thermal energy has to be improved, for example by improving the solar absorption.
Nowadays, more than 90% of hydrogen production comes from fossil fuels, as estimated by the US Department of Energy (DOE). Therefore, the systems of purification of hydrogen from by-products such as CH4, H2O, CO and CO2 represent a crucial step of the entire manufacturing process.
The increasing demand for alternatives to fossil fuels lead scientists to search for new materials to be used as energy vectors. Nowadays, it is generally accepted that hydrogen is the best solution to this issue. One of the reasons why hydrogen is not yet commonly employed in everyday life lies in the lack of a safe, practical and effective method for its storage. A possible solution that meets the above requirements is given by intermetallic hydrides, which can be charged with hydrogen at high-pressure to form stable hydrides, then releasing hydrogen by heating the host intermetallic.
Read more: Production and characterization of metallic materials for hydrogen storage
Activities are focused on functional materials (metals or ceramics with protonic-anion and mixed conductivity) for fuel cells (SOFC), electrolysis cells (SOEC) and stacks. In addition to the formulation of new materials, a detailed study of the effects of composition, microstructure and degradation phenomena on performance is carried out on state-of-art materials.
The research aims at improving performance of devices by addressing degradation phenomena also through innovative cell designs.
Read more: Innovative Materials for Energy production, transformation and storage
