Author: grahambj

Key FESC Research

Energy Currents

University of South Florida — Tampa Bay

Enhancing Energy Efficiency and Conservation
Zero Energy Homes
Developing Florida's Biomass Resources
Liquid Fuels from Biomass
Harnessing Florida's Solar Resources
Solar Thermal Power
Rectifying Antenna Solar Power
Clean Water using Advanced Solar Energy Detoxification
Ensuring Nuclear Energy and Carbon Constrained Technologies for Electric Power in Florida
Exploiting Florida’s Ocean and Wind Energy Resources
Securing our Energy Storage and Delivery Infrastructure
Power Generation Expansion
Establishing PV Industry in Florida

Inside this issue:

...from poop	2
Park	3
Flex	3
Visitors	3
Winner	3
Honors	4

Summit	4

Number 5

round up—winter 2011

(By Vickie Chachere, USF News, Nov. 7, 2011)
There are some unvarnished facts about life on our planet that need addressing, for USF Assoc. Prof. and FESC Co-PI, Daniel Yeh. First, there are 7 billion people who live on the Earth, all needing clean water to grow food and energy to power their communities, and all of them poop. So what if you could take some of the things humans really need - like clean water and energy - and harvest those necessities from the one thing everybody has to do? Even better, what if you could get Bill and Melinda Gates to agree this is a really intriguing idea?
Yeh is one of this year’s winners of a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Explorations grant to support his innovative anaerobic membrane bioreactor, a device trademarked as the “NEWgenerator.” It recovers nutrients, energy and water from human wastes, leaving very little to be disposed of and producing new products which are in short supply.
“How are we going to make enough food? Where’s the energy going to come from? We have to stop having everything being a one-way street. We need to close the loop,” said Yeh.
The project is one of 110 in six categories selected for support from the Gates Challenges fund, which is designed specifically for researchers to explore unconventional ideas that could solve persistent global health and development challenges.
Yeh will use the $100K grant to develop a prototype device that, once linked into a septic system, will convert human waste into water that has been thoroughly cleaned of pathogens and is suitable for crop irrigation or household uses such as in cooling systems or flushing. The process, which uses microbes to break down the waste, also produces methane gas which can be captured and used for heating and as a clean energy source.
Yeh is not the first to look at waste as a renewable energy source. Cruise ships and “green” buildings are already filtering wastewater to near drinking-water quality and recycling it for cooling systems and to flush toilets.
Yeh has developed a contained refinery system that is relatively inexpensive, doesn’t consume much energy itself and doesn’t leave much byproduct from the waste processing. The Gates grant will help fund the construction of larger prototype that will be put into use at Learning Gate Community School, a Hillsborough County charter school that has built its curriculum around sustainability.
Yeh’s machine uses anaerobic microbes to break down the wastes in a process which produces methane gas and separates the water out. A very small amount of sludge is produced, and it is easily returned to the septic system for usual disposal. The methane gas can be captured and piped out of NEWgenerator while the water is processed through a specialized membrane that removes other elements, along with bacteria and other pathogens that would make using the reclaimed water problematic.

Useable By-products from Waste

FESC co-PI Daniel Yeh harvests clean water, methane and nutrients from sewage.

See “… from poop to power” pg. 2)

Page #

FESC Universities

The Florida State University System provides the backbone of renewable energy expertise for the Florida Energy Systems Consortium. Member universities include:
University of Florida
Florida State University
Florida Atlantic University
University of Central Florida
University of South Florida
University of West Florida
University of North Florida
New College of Florida
Florida International University
Florida Gulf Coast University

Biowaste . . .
Exploring the conversion of biowaste to energy. This is a process that is renewable and environmentally attractive.

… from poop to power (from pg. 1)

What’s left behind is water that contains two nutrients: ammonia and phosphate. Those are exactly the two nutrients plants need to grow, making the water especially useful for crop irrigation, he noted.
In his lab at the CoE, a small version of the NEWgenerator has been built and perfected over more than four years. The “waste” matter used to test the machine’s isn’t what you might think; for the experimental stage Yeh uses dry cat food soaked in water which mimics the properties of human waste. “The dirtier the better,” Yeh explains of the raw matter going into the machine. “The more polluted it is, the more methane we can recover.”

The system differs from current wastewater treatment plants which use aerobic microbes to breakdown wastes. Those systems require more energy to run and leave considerable sludge byproduct that must be disposed. Yeh’s project also is intended for a much smaller scale than large centralized systems which are expensive for communities to construct.
The demonstration project at Learning Gate will be constructed in an area of the large school grounds where access is controlled, although the school will incorporate its design and planned functionality into its lessons on sustainability. The challenges in building a larger-scale device is keeping the cylinder where the anaerobic microbes do their work airtight and continually refining the design to make it rugged and affordable to operate as it would need to be in a developing nation.
The prototype model will return the water and sludge that comes out of the reactor to the septic system, but the eventual goal is to be able to plug the NEWgenerator into a variety of sanitation systems for waste treatment and recovery of water and nutrients.

Recently graduated Ph.D. student Ana Prieto, fine-tunes the NEWgenerator.

Energy Currents

Number 5

Page #

USF FESC RESEARCH
Campus Solar Park

A pilot solar thermal power plant and a zero energy home which will demonstrate and teach students new research in renewable energies and RE technologies will soon find a home at a newly developing Solar Park to be located off of Alumni Drive. This is an exciting arena for the USF, which is fast becoming a solar energy mecca for the Tampa Bay.
The innovative pilot solar thermal power plant will generate 100 KW of electricity from renewable/sustainable energy. This electricity will be used for
USF’s needs and will be fed into the

utility’s electricity grid. The power plant utilizes the ground breaking science of concentrated solar power and high temperature thermal energy storage capsules. (See related story, “Concentrated Sunshine,” pg. 1).
A zero energy building (“Zero Energy Learning Center”) will also be built on the Solar Park site. This “Flex House” will be built by “Team Florida,” made up of architecture students from the Univ. So. Florida, Florida State Univ., Univ. Central Florida, and Univ. of Florida, is entered into the National Solar Decathlon competition in Washington, DC scheduled for September. After the competition it will be brought back to the USF campus. “Zero Energy” does not mean that no energy is used — it produces the same amount of energy that it uses. The energy produced is from RE; when it produces more energy than is needed that energy will be fed directly into the utility grid; and those times it produces less energy than it requires, energy will be drawn from battery storage devices or from the grid.

Park site between Alumni Dr. and Spectrum Blvd.

USF FESC RESEARCH
Flex House

USF is leading the Zero Energy Home Learning Center (ZEHLC) project in collaboration with FSU and the Florida Solar Energy Center, construction and interior design experts from UF, and industry partner Palm Harbor Homes. The project is in the design and development phase. Prof. Stan Russell and his team have developed a hybrid envelope that can be opened during the cooler/dryer months of the year and closed when temperature and humidity

levels are too high to achieve an acceptable comfort range in the house. Informed by FSEC studies that have shown that the majority of heat gain comes through the roof of Florida homes, the ZEHLC employs a shading device that covers the entire roof and the east and west walls to reduce heat gain by eliminating direct solar radiation through the building envelope.
The building will use photovoltaic solar electricity and solar domestic hot water

The building will use PV solar electricity and solar domestic hot water heating systems using the grid as an energy storage system, producing more energy than needed during the day and relying on the grid at night. Plug-in hybrid automobile technology offers a promising means of providing distributed energy storage for such homes but has not been sufficiently tested. Using a systems approach to couple zero energy home technology with PHEVs, Russell’s team will explore opportunities to develop marketable products that meet Florida’s energy and environmental goals.
See http://www.flex.house.org
For more information: http://www.flexhouse.org/

Visitors

Student Winner

Investors from Sybac Solar, exploring clean energy as avenues for possible manufacturing operations in the Tampa area, visited CERC during the Summer. The tour was arranged by the Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corporation. Sybac Solar is a leader in the design and installation of high performance solar PV systems. Sybac Solar is the US subsidiary of Sybac Germany, one of the largest solar integrators in Germany.

Dr. Don Morel (R) explains his innovative PV research to Artur Madej and Markus Franz of Sybac Solar.

During the USF’s Interdisciplinary celebration week “Research One” in October, FESC-sponsored undergraduate Lucky Landrigan won First Place for his poster “Exploiting Metal-support Interaction to Optimize Dispersion and Reducibility of a Highly Active and Selective Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis Catalyst.” Landrigan was awarded a $500 travel grant. The annual event highlights the projects of faculty, students, scientists and scholars. His advisor is Dr. John Wolan.

Faculty Honors, Awards, Activities

http://www.floridaenergy.ufl.edu/

At the

Published by the
Clean Energy Research Center

College of Engineering
University of South Florida
4202 E. Fowler Avenue, Mail Stop ENB 118
Tampa, FL 33620
Phone: 813-974-7322 Fax: 813-974-2050
E-mail: solar@usf.edu
Web: http://cerc.usf.edu

The USF FESC management team is led by CERC’s Prof. Yogi Goswami as Director. Ms. Barbara Graham coordinates communications and publications. For more information: http://cerc.eng.usf.edu
Yogi Goswami goswami@usf.edu
Barbara Graham grahambj@usf.edu

Energy Summit: Efficiency

Global Venture: Dr. John Wolan, grad student Syed Ali Gardezi and Jaideep Rajput of the USF Patents and Licensing, earned an Honorable Mention for their biomass fuel reactor which converts common organic materials into fuel, at the Global Venture Challenge 2010.
Excellence in Design Awards: Dr. Stanley Russell garnered an Honor’s Award for excellence in architectural design for the Zero Energy House Learning Center, during the 2010 Design Awards ceremony of the American Institute of Architects, Tampa Bay Chapter in August.
Presented: Dr. Bob Weisberg of USF-St. Petersburg gave an invited presentation on "Alternative Power Generation for Florida by Mechanical and Solar Means" at the Florida Atlantic University Alternative Energy Conference in November.
Presented: Drs. Sarina Ergas, Yu Zhang, James Milhelcic, and John Wolan gave a presentation on the integration of algal biofuel production into recirculating aquaculture systems at the Water Environment Federation Nutrient Recovery and Management Conference in Miami in January.
Mentioned: Dr. Matthias Batzill’s work on advancing graphene electronics was reported in Nature Nanotechnology. Graphene appears to be the material that will overcome the fundamental physical limitations of silicon.

More than 260 people attended the second annual FESC Summit, held September 28-29, 2010 at the University of Central Florida’s Student Union. Participants represented a broad cross-section of energy interests, ranging from government and industry to research, development, and education.
The Summit is organized yearly to bring together energy experts in the State University System of Florida to share their energy-related research findings and to promote future collaboration.
The keynote address, entitled “Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy: the 2020 Vision,” was presented by Mr. John Lushetsky, Manager of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technology Program (SETP) with responsibility for all solar technology development, grid integration, and market transformation activities under the Solar America Initiative announced by President Bush in 2006.
The Summit’s second day began with more technical sessions, then moved to a panel discussion, “Florida’s Energy Needs and Opportunities.” Serving as panelists were Sen. Mike Haridopolos, Rep. Steve Precourt, and James Murley, Chair of the Florida Energy and Climate Commission.
The complete program can be accessed at the FESC Website:
http://www.floridaenergy.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/

Round Table Discussions

Solar PV: Thermal Group –
Prof. Yogi Goswami (R)

Biomass Group –
Prof.’s Babu Joseph and John Wolan (Center)

Carbon Capture Group –
Prof. Mark Stewart (Center)

Example of heliostats arrayed around a concentrating tower.

At the

The thermo-chemical fuel project uses an ultra-high vacuum analytical tool which identifies the chemical species on the catalyst.

Clean Energy is Green Energy

Key lllxxx

In most developed countries the magic of indoor plumbing, urban sewer systems and wastewater treatment plants quite literally make human waste an “out of sight, out of mind” issue. But developing nations struggle with sanitation issues at the same time they are managing growing needs for water for crops and industry.
With the world’s clean water supply reaching a crisis-level in depletion, many experts acknowledge that using potable water for uses other than drinking is simply a waste of a dwindling resource and new solutions are needed.

Expansion	4

Sustainabe	4

Water	5

Thermal	5

Who	6

Biofuels	6

It is not clear yet if the U.S. will finally put a price on carbon. Currently, things do not look very good. However, maybe in a few months, the environment (in Congress) will change and the chances of passing climate change legislation will increase.
My research team is wrestling with one of the most salient questions related to the emission control programs: what is the optimal redistribution strategy for the revenue raised from either a carbon tax or the auction of allowances in a cap-and trade program?
Economists have long advocated for redistributing the carbon revenue among i) households, in order to compensate for the likely increase of electricity prices due to the price on emissions, and ii) renewable-based generators, so that they can improve their competitiveness against fossil-fuel generators and increase their market share. However, there is no agreement as to how the revenue should be split among these market participants and the timing of the redistribution.
My research team is developing a social-welfare maximization-focused mathematical model to obtain revenue redistribution strategies for a planning horizon among households and renewable generators. Their optimization model is founded on an Optimal Power Flow (OPF) problem and incorporates multi-period horizon, subsidies for households and renewable-based generators, and a set of constraints for the amount of revenue available for redistribution during each period.
The model will aid policymakers in proposing/evaluating revenue redistribution strategies that accompany emissions control programs. Currently, my team is testing the model with several sample problems and performing sensitivity analysis of the model parameters.

“To catch the reader's attention, place an interesting sentence or quote from the story here.”

The US DOE awarded a multiyear initiative to Goswami and his team for “Base-load Concentrating Solar Power Generation.” Combined with the DOE award, the State of Florida through the Florida Energy Systems Consortium, and SunBorne Energy Technologies, India, awards for “Development of a Modular Central Receiver Concentrated Solar Power Plant for Decentralized Power Generation” now provide a solid platform for continued ground-breaking research.

This 1,000 sq. ft. house prototype will function as a learning center for students, faculty and the general public on the USF-Tampa campus.

Courtesy of Sopogy.

Example of a solar trough array.

Ocean Expert Weisberg Testifies on Gulf Oil Spill Science Shortcomings

The competition is sponsored by the U.S. Dept. of Energy and leading technology and venture capital organizations.

Experts say that given strains on the planet’s resources, it’s only a matter of time before water and energy shortages become issues in the modernized world as well.

Phase change material pellets developed by Goswami’s research team.

The NEWgenerator could change all that, said Ana Prieto, who completed her Ph.D. this year as one of Yeh’s students and has worked on fine-tuning the project since 2007.

Continued page 2 “Spill”

Subramanian Krishnan, PhD

Back Page Story Headline

Before and after examples of photocatalytic technology killing Serratia marcescens bacterium.