Eni announces the names of the researchers and scientists winners of the eleventh edition of Eni Award, the award established in 2007 and which over the years has become an international reference point for research in the fields of energy and the environment. Eni Award aims to promote better use of energy sources and stimulate new generations of researchers in their work, reflecting the importance that Eni gives to scientific research and innovation.
The Energy Transition Award, one of the three main awards and rewards the best innovations in the hydrocarbon sector for the decarbonisation of the energy system, has been awarded to Omar M. Yaghi of the University of Berkeley, California, one of the most brilliant scientists working in the research on new generation crystalline-porous solids, and their application in the selective separation of CO2 from combustion gas as well as in the capture of atmospheric moisture, a particularly interesting application if conducted in desert areas.
The Energy Frontiers Award, for research on renewable energy sources and energy storage, was awarded to Zhong Lin Wang of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta (USA). Wang has developed a new family of devices, the "triboelectric nanogenerators", capable of converting mechanical energy into electrical energy at high yields by various types of movement, with applications on various scales, from macroscopic (for example: marine waves) to microscopic (body movements, muscular contractions, blood flow), opening vast fields of application to energy recovery.
Finally, the Award for Advanced Environmental Solutions Award, dedicated to research on the protection of air, water and land and the reclamation of industrial sites, was awarded to Sang Yup Lee of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology of Daejeon in South Korea.
Sang Yup Lee is an exponent of worldwide importance in the development of microbial biological processes for the sustainable production and low environmental impact of chemical products, fuels and non-food biomass materials, using engineered bacteria.
For the Young Talent from Africa section, set up in the 2017 on the occasion of the Eni Award ten year and dedicated to young talents from the African Continent, the award was given to Emerance Jessica Claire D'Assise Goma-Tchimbakala of the Marien NGouabi University of Brazzaville in Congo and Elvis Tinashe Ganda, Zimbabwean, a student of Durban University of Technology (South Africa).
Goma Tchimbakala's proposal concerns the role of microorganisms and substances synthesized during their metabolism for the reclamation of the environment. In addition, biosurfactants produced by bacteria can be produced on a large scale, which could open a new industrial era in the Congo, thanks to their exploitation also as pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. Ganda's research work is in turn particularly important in the transition to renewable energy forms for the transport sector. Alternative fuels available from renewable sources of biomass in the form of biomass studied by the researcher are also an opportunity to reduce the environmental impact associated with the transport of people and goods.
For the Young Researcher of the Year award, which annually awards two researchers under 30 who have obtained a research doctorate in Italian universities, the awards were awarded to Michele De Bastiani and Gianluca Longoni. The first, a student of the University of Padua - Italian Institute of Technology, presented a thesis on the mechanisms that determine the stability of two of the emerging photovoltaic technologies: organic photovoltaics and perovskite-based cells, and on the set-up of possible solutions, while the second, from the University of Milan Bicocca, was awarded for a thesis on the development of innovative electrodes for sodium ion based batteries, which constitute an alternative and safer electrical "storage" technology than the one based on lithium ions.
The award ceremony will take place at the Palazzo del Quirinale next 22 October in the presence of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella.