The Eni Award 2020 prizes will be awarded on 14 October in Rome, during the official ceremony to be held at the Palazzo del Quirinale, in the presence of the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella.
Eni announces the names of the researchers and scientists who have won the thirteenth edition of the Eni Award, the award that 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, testifying to the importance that Eni attributes to scientific research and innovation.
The Energy Transition Award, one of the three main awards, which highlights the best innovations in the hydrocarbon sector for the decarbonization of the energy system, was awarded to David T. Allen of the University of Texas, Austin. Allen tackled the very current problem of fugitive emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas with a global warming potential much higher than CO2, in the production and transport phases of natural gas, with the aim of locating the emission points and estimating their amount. This is of vital importance today, considering that natural gas, of which methane is the main constituent, is a key energy source in the current energy transition phase. To this, Prof. Allen has contributed with the development of new tools capable of estimating fugitive emissions with a spatial (single sites) and temporal (minutes) resolution such as to allow the construction of increasingly complete and accurate inventories, necessary to be able to plan targeted mitigation interventions.
The Frontiere dell'Energia award, for research on renewable sources and energy storage, was awarded to Chintamani Nages Ramachandra Rao, of the International Center for Materials Science, Bangalore, for his studies on oxides
metals, carbon nanotubes and other materials, as well as two-dimensional systems, including graphene, hybrid carbon-boron-nitrogen and molybdenum sulfide (Molybdenite - MoS2) materials for applications in the energy field and in the production of green hydrogen. The latter can, in fact, be achieved by resorting to different processes: the photo-dissociation of water, thermal dissociation and electrolysis activated by electricity produced by solar or wind energy. The professor. Rao has worked in all three of these areas developing very innovative materials.
The same materials, or related materials, have also shown to have advantageous properties in the realization of systems for the storage of hydrogen and supercapacitors with high specific power and increased number of charge-discharge cycles. The latter are energy storage devices which, like batteries, will increasingly enter energy systems based on renewable sources.
The Advanced Environmental Solutions award, dedicated to research on the protection of air, water and land and on the remediation of industrial sites, was awarded to Jürgen Caro and Jörg Kärger, of the Universities of Hannover and Leipzig respectively, for their studies that led to the development of microimaging techniques for the in situ observation of diffusive flows of molecules in nano-porous materials. These techniques have been applied to study in detail the diffusion in metallorganic membranes (MOF - Metal Organic Framework) and in covalent-organic structure (COF - Covalent Organic Framework). These studies have led to the creation of new materials, used in pioneering membrane catalytic reactors, capable of improving the operating conditions in numerous applications involving separation processes. These materials showed excellent water permeability and good selectivity towards hydrophilic substances, specifically dyes. The simplicity of synthesis, combined with the possibility of preparing membranes with the desired specific characteristics, is very promising in the field of water nanofiltration.
The Young Talents from Africa section, established in 2017 on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Eni Award and dedicated to young talents from the African continent, confers, in this edition, three prizes, assigned to Alaa Abbas and Mohamed Ahmed Ismail Tarek, The American University in Cairo, Egypt, Djalila Ben Bouchta, Cairo University, Egypt.
Abbas's proposal concerns the improvement of wastewater treatment and energy production using anodes consisting of carbon / metal oxide nanostructures in microbial fuel cells. Tarek will develop a computational model to improve e-waste management.
Ben Bouchta's proposal concerns a multidisciplinary approach to the provision of energy services to enable productive use of energy for female entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa.
For the Young Researcher of the Year award, which rewards two researchers under 30 who have obtained their PhDs from Italian universities, the awards were assigned to Matteo Morciano and Francesca De Falco.
Morciano, a student of the Polytechnic of Turin, has developed innovative technologies for the passive production of drinking water using solar energy. In particular, he has developed an economic and ecological system for desalination of water, a possible solution to the water crisis.
De Falco, from the University of Naples - Federico II, conducted a study on an environmental problem of considerable importance such as pollution from microplastics, and, in particular, on the impact of synthetic fibers used in fabrics, identifying the main release mechanisms of these emerging micropollutants.
For the Eni Innovation Award section, which elects the most revolutionary projects developed by Eni researchers and technical experts, the following were awarded:
- Roberto Millini, Michela Belletta and Giuseppe Bellussi for having patented a process of mineralization of CO2 with natural mineral phases and the use of the products obtained in the formulation of cements,
- Giovanna Carpani, Ilaria Pietrini for the technological solution E-Limina (Trademark), which connects the isotopic and microbiological investigation for the analysis of natural biodegradation of contaminated sites (natural attenuation).
- Filomena Castaldo, Orazio Lo Chiano, Alessandro Riva for the technological solution of the ultra-intensified CO2 bio-fixation, which is based on the bio-fixation of CO2 by microalgae, in photo-bioreactors illuminated with an artificial light suitable for their photosynthesis .
The award ceremony will take place at the Palazzo del Quirinale next 14 October in the presence of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella.