Thesis developed at EACH receives Honorable Mention in the CAPES Thesis Award 2021 Edition

The thesis “Energy generation in a new microbial fuel cell: characterization and dynamics of microbial communities using organic matter and ammonia as electron donors”, authored by Vitor Cano, received honorable mention in the CAPES Thesis Award 2021 Edition.

Under the guidance of Professor Marcelo Antunes Nolasco, the work was developed in the Graduate Program in Sustainability, with a sandwich period at Columbia University and a doctoral fellowship from CAPES.

The thesis presents a new microbial electric generator cell configuration, which was developed to generate energy from agroindustrial effluents. The interdisciplinary approach – combining molecular biology, electrochemistry, biochemistry, chemical engineering and environmental science – applied in this research allowed for new advances in bioelectrochemical processes that could hardly be obtained in a disciplinary investigation.

The results have a potential positive impact on society, to the extent that the new technology developed in the thesis can contribute to enable socio-environmental public policies with multiple gains, which would allow to associate advances in basic sanitation, a historical demand in Brazil, with the generation of electricity from wastewater and also demonstrate the feasibility of a new technology for generating clean and renewable energy combined with the treatment of organic and inorganic compounds in wastewater. The use of low-cost electrodes for the power generation process is also a promising result.

Learn more about the CAPES Thesis Award 2021

(text originally published at: http://www5.each.usp.br/premios/tese-desenvolvida-na-each-recebe-o-premio-capes-de-tese-edicao-2021/)