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Serban Stamatin

- UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI

Researcher | Teaching staff

Web of Science ResearcherID: not public

Curriculum Vitae (06/10/2020)

Expertise & keywords

Carbon based artificial leaf for solar fuel production Call name:
H2020-MSCA-IF-2017-797781 2018 - 2020

Role in this project: Project coordinator

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI (RO)

Affiliation: UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI (RO)

Project website: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/214370/factsheet/en

Abstract:

Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions have seen a steady increase since the industrial revolution. Recent estimates show that 496 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide will be released in the atmosphere between 2010 and 2060. To address climate change, EU needs other technologies that can reduce the carbon dioxide emissions but also that can use the carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere to produce chemicals or fuels; looking at carbon dioxide as a carbon feedstock rather than an undesired waste.

Small organic fuel molecules (e.g. formic acid, methanol) can be produced via photoelectrochemical carbon dioxide reduction. Materials that can harvest sunlight to electrochemically reduce carbon dioxide are the “Holy Grail” of energy sustainable societies; they have the potential to reproduce what nature learned in billions of years: photosynthesis. The action at hand aims at creating a carbon based arificial leaf that can convert carbon dioxide into solar fuels.

Hybrid installation for water treatment using low pressure reverse osmosis and denitrification of the wastewater with bio-fuel cells Call name: Joint Applied Research Projects - PCCA 2013 - call
PN-II-PT-PCCA-2013-4-0742 2014 - 2017

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA POLITEHNICA DIN BUCURESTI

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA POLITEHNICA DIN BUCURESTI (RO); UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI (RO); INOE 2000 - FILIALA INSTITUTUL DE CERCETARI PENTRU HIDRAULICA SI PNEUMATICA BUCURESTI RA (RO); TEHNOPREST-2001 SRL (RO); ARMAX GAZ S.A. (RO)

Affiliation: UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI (RO)

Project website: http://ipoiden-upb.azurewebsites.net/

Abstract:

Hybrid installation for water treatment using low pressure reverse osmosis and denitrification of the wastewater with bio-fuel cells.

Because of the significant pollution of water resources, from ground or surface water, rural communities are consuming poor quality water with an increased risk to human health.

This project aims to provide research and development of an "environmentally friendly" installation in order to provide drinking water for rural communities where water sources are compromised or in a stage of vulnerability.

The project aims to produce a complex installation - functional model - for purification of water collected from groundwater and surface sources. The unit will operate on the principle of reverse osmosis using ultra-low pressure membranes, it will be equipped with a water post-processing system using microbial electrolysis cells in order to reduce the concentration of nitrates in the waste water and will be energy optimized in order to obtain a low cost of drinking water. The installation will be designed for a range of small (and medium) flows up to 25 m3/h, for which the reverse osmosis has competitive advantage over other known methods. The post-processing phase will ensure a reduction in nitrate concentration below the value corresponding to the point of entry (POE).

Using ultra-low pressure membranes will reduce the pressure required for filtration to approx. 4 ... 6 bar increasing the water flow, while maintaining the pretreatment phase through nanofiltration. The membranes cleaning problem will be considered by implementation of a double vibrator system that combines two methods: one by which shear forces are inserted in front of the membrane in order to avoid clogging the pores (VSEP-Vibratory Shear Enhanced Process) and one ultrasonic process.

The post-processing component of the system consists of batteries of microbial electrolysis cells formed in the divisions of a wastewater storage tank. In the biofuel cell systems, using microbial metabolism is obtained in addition to electricity a reduction of pollutant organic substances such as nitrates, sulphates, carbonates and chlorides in the environment [1].

The energy optimization of the installation consists in an increase of flexibility in operation at variable pressures depending on the nitrate concentrations in different sites, by designing an adjustable positive displacement pump, by using solar photovoltaic panels for energy supply in isolate sites and by automatic control of the entire system from the pre-treatment to the post-processing stage.

The project will be carried out in a partnership of two research entities from the academic environment, one national research-development institute and two economic agents.

Each partner's tasks are consistent with its skills and technical-scientific capacity. The amounts projected in the implementation plan are distributed among the partners according to the effort, contribution and importance of the activities performed during the project.

The risks of not reaching all the proposed results may occur in the project’s progress but there are relatively reduced and will be overcome by measures that do not affect the achievement of main project objectives.

The results of the research will be transferred to the economic agents who are co-financing the project. They will jointly produce the installations and provide them to local communities. The first beneficiaries of such installation - the object of the research - may be the almost 2,000 rural settlements which the environmental monitoring identified as affected by nitrate pollution from agricultural sources.

Advanced stationary energy supply based on Fuel Cells for bio-organic farming in greenhouses Call name: Joint Applied Research Projects - PCCA 2013 - call
PN-II-PT-PCCA-2013-4-1102 2014 - 2017

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI (RO); INSTITUTUL NATIONAL DE CERCETARE-DEZVOLTARE PENTRU TEHNOLOGII CRIOGENICE SI IZOTOPICE - I.C.S.I. RAMNICU VALCEA (RO); E-LABORATOR FEERIA SRL (RO); TECHNO VOLT S.R.L. (RO)

Affiliation: UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI (RO)

Project website: http://www.3nanosae.org/fc-farm-46-2014/

Abstract:

The proposal addresses two key issues in the field of sustainable energy, particularly standalone energy sources: 1kW-fuel cell stack as low risk solution for supplying energy to a demonstrative greenhouse and bipolar ionic exchange membrane fuel cell- advanced prototype (proof of concept)- high risk solution. An innovative idea is proposed -twining two promising fuel cells: proton exchange membrane fuel cells and alkaline fuel cells using a bipolar ionic exchange membrane. A boost of the actual state of the art in the field towards high power density at low cost and non-precious catalysts is expected.

This comes as a request from the Company S.C. E-LABORATOR FEERIA SRL that intends to implement a new greenhouse concept based on sustainable energy- fuel cells, solar energy, biomass- and recirculated water without pesticide, herbicide and similar toxics. Bioorganic vegetable farmers in association with S.C. E-LABORATOR FEERIA SRL, in Baleni- Dimbovita County, well known as suppliers all-around of South –EAST Romania, decided to implement the concept “from farm to fork”. The major drawbacks for vegetable farmers is winter time when high combined heat and power are needed to sustain the ambient conditions such as temperature (minimum 15oC), humidity, solarization, water and fertilizer temperature. In this context, designing a sustainable energy system for the greenhouse based on fuel cells and additional systems: solar cells, biomass reactor is the first Romanian initiative to implement renewable energy sources for new greenhouse concept.

Considering the above, the present proposal is subordinated to the expertise domain 2- Energy, Research Field: 2.1- Sustainable energy systems and technologies; energetic security, Thematic Area: 2.1.4- Promoting clean energy technologies, measures for environmental protection and reduction of greenhouse gas.

The consortium: 2 research organisations- University of Bucharest and ICSI Ramnicu Valcea and 2 private partners: SC TechnoVolt SRL and SC E-laborator Feeria SRL as beneficiaries proposes:

1)to develop the concept of greenhouse powered by sustainable energy sources: fuel cells and a local hydrogen production through a electrolysis process, roofs of the buildings being covered of photovoltaic solar cells able to supply power for the electrolysis along with a biomass reactor.

2)to demonstrate the feasibility of the use of the FC in greenhouses applications a minimum of 1kW power operating off-grid. Power generation system using Fuel Cell technology and H2 will be tested for a significant period.

3)To elaborate a new concept of ion exchange membrane for increased performances of the fuel cells by twining proton exchange membrane with anion membranes based on new emergent technology of the bipolar membranes aiming to reduce the platinum catalyst under o.5mg/cm2 (proof of concept). Different synthesis methods will be implied: layer by layer deposition using multilayer spin coating, sol-gel technics. An innovative approach - solution precursor plasma spraying will be considered.

The key aspect is the implementation of such a design by the bioorganic vegetable farmers, resulting in a demonstrative model of bioorganic greenhouse supported by renewable energy systems. The main advantage of this system is the modularity, once developed is just a matter of rescaling individual components (adding solar panels, fuel cell modules) for increasing the energy generated, and therefore, the greenhouse dimensions. Using this experimental model, farmers can develop greenhouse projects at larger scale, and, hopefully, they can apply for EU Structural Funding (increasing the winter vegetable production and also contributing to the increase of the adsorbtion rate). The economic objective of the project FC-Farm is to improve the competitiveness of SMEs participating in the market by introducing new concepts with high potential, competitive in cost, at European standards.

RFID device for food traceability Call name: Joint Applied Research Projects - PCCA 2013 - call
PN-II-PT-PCCA-2013-4-1268 2014 - 2017

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI (RO); INSTITUTUL NATIONAL DE CERCETARE- DEZVOLTARE PENTRU MICROTEHNOLOGIE - IMT BUCURESTI INCD (RO); UNIVERSITATEA POLITEHNICA DIN BUCURESTI (RO); OPTOELECTRONICA - 2001 S.A. (RO)

Affiliation: UNIVERSITATEA BUCURESTI (RO)

Project website: http://www.3nanosae.org/p/foodtrack/

Abstract:

“RFID device for food traceability (Food track)” aims specifically to develop a self-sustainable RFID device, equipped with a sensor, which allows, not only the traceability of a certain food package, but also the level of freshness of its content. The need for active intelligent packaging equipped with nano-systems that can monitor the conditions of the food during transportation and storage has led the scientific community to the development of a novel based on the electronics on plastic. Electronic circuits supported on a cheap, flexible polymeric support that can be miniaturized up to micro and nano level promise to assure a fast and inexpensive quality control available for everyone. Radio frequency identification tags (RFID) are the most important development field today, based on the implementation of conductive polymers onto a flexible plastic support; they are similar to bar codes and have been used in food industry traceability, inventory management and security. But RFID systems can carry much more complex information, like temperature, relative humidity, gases and electroactive species, when equipped with a specific sensor and have the ability to transmit information up to 50 m. Thanks to their low-level complexity and cost, RFID have the potential to become the leading market in food control, especially if they integrate chemical sensor. This RFID-sensor assembly is the central component of the intelligent packaging system which, in contrast to active packaging does not influence properties of the food products, but collects the information about its state and transmits it to retailers, manufacturer, food authorities or customer.

Wireless sensor and sensor networks are the state-of-the-art in detection technologies; their use varies from homeland security to environmental protection. The key requirements for a sensor refer to sensitivity (the minimal level of analyte to detect), selectivity (exclusion of “false alarms” and the identification of a specific analyte) and response time (high-speed electronics are preferred since they provide a real-time analysis). The challenges which have to be overcome refer to finding a single technology that can unify the multitude of fabrication methods for different kind of sensitive layers, cheap materials, moderate costs, easy to use and long-time batteries.

The proposed instrument will be comprised of a self-sustainable source, a micro-RFID device and an electrochemical sensor with four sensitive functions, modulated for each type of food. The main component of the instrument is the sensor-RFID assembly. The sensitive layer of the sensor will be design to detect a broad range of properties, characteristic for the qualitative control of food: temperature, relative humidity, pH, number of refreezing cycles, volatile organic compounds and biogenic amines. The micro-RFID device will store and transmit the information collected from the sensor. The system will be powered by two metallic electrodes, chosen from the appropriate position in the table of chemical reactivity; the electrolyte solution will be provided by the food itself (internal, organic juices that will diffuse through a permissive membrane and connect the two electrodes).

The novelty of this project is the incorporation of an interdigitized sensor, laser-printed on a cheap, flexible polymer, combined with a micro-RFID device and an incorporated self-sustainable battery for use if food industry and quality control.

Design of new advanced materials for Ionic Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells based on graphenes and superionic conductors Call name: Exploratory Research Projects - PCE-2011 call
PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0815 2011 - 2016

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA din BUCURESTI

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA din BUCURESTI (RO)

Affiliation: UNIVERSITATEA din BUCURESTI (RO)

Project website: http://3nanosae.org/iemfc/

Abstract:

The proposal goes to transformative research and technology.All fuel cells have the same operation principle: For any couple fuel-oxidant there is an appropriate set of catalyst-electrolyte and a range of temperature to accomplish in two steps fuel oxidation and oxidant reduction at maximum efficiency to generate electrical energy and heat. Three types of fuel cells are taken in account: Proton electrolyte membrane fuel cells, PEMFC; Alkaline electrolyte membrane FC ( once with the new development of hydroxylated ionomers) and one of the most advanced generation Solid Acid Fuel cells where the ionic conductors are a class of hydrogenated salts which have propriety of superprotonic conductors.They work in a medium range of temperatures (up to 250C) with theoretical efficiency >80%.They have in common: Assemble electrolyte(membranes)-electrod-catalyst(MECA); the same fueling system;fuel-oxidant couple; bipolar and collector plate; similar catalysts; auxiliary systems.Each one, reached medium performances with materials such as catalyst supported on carbon nanotubes,sulfonated or carboxylated membranes or simple electrolytes,Pt or Ni catalysts. New advances in nanotechnology open a new perspective to be explored: Graphenes obtained by supercritical fluid, support for catalyst; nitrogen dopped graphenes potential metal free catalyst; new ion electrolyte membranes via sol -gel, microwave synthesis. The workpackages deal with designing of new MECA for high efficiency of 75%

FILE DESCRIPTION	DOCUMENT
List of research grants as project coordinator or partner team leader
Significant R&D projects for enterprises, as project manager
R&D activities in enterprises
Peer-review activity for international programs/projects