Fueling Sustainable Energy

Grand Technion Energy Program Annual Research Day: Innovative Developments in Energy and Sustainability

The Grand Technion Energy Program (GTEP) held its annual Research Day on December 15, 2021. According to Professor Yoed Tsur, GTEP director, “GTEP’s mission is to advance research and to promote multidisciplinary cooperation in sustainable energy related fields on campus. This year, in addition to GTEP’s direct students, we invited all Technion graduate students who conduct energy related research to participate and present a poster. We are proud of the students’ impressive achievements.”

GTEP Research Day Participants 

During the event, graduate students presented their research on posters, and three lectures were given:

• Green hydrogen production using innovative technology – Professor Avner Rothschild, from the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, presented the innovative technology developed together with Professor Gideon Grader from the Faculty of Chemical Engineering that led to the establishment of the H2Pro start-up.
• Innovative flow batteries– This presentation explained research by Ph.D. student Rona Ronen-Manukovsky, under the supervision of Associate Professor Matthew Suss from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.
• Impact on porous medium through flow pressures–Research by M.Sc. student Arnold Bachrach, under the supervision of Dr. Yaniv Edery from the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was covered in this presentation.

L-R: Inbal Offen-Polak, Eliyahu Farber, Rona Ronen-Manukovsky, Emma Massasa and Joseph (Joey) Cassell

The first-prize winners in the poster competition were:

Eliyahu Farber, who developed new methods for the precise production of porous carbon materials. These materials are relevant to a wide spectrum of applications, including batteries, supercapacitors, and fuel cells.

Inbal Offen-Polak develops low-cost catalysts for urea oxidation – a useful process with applications in water treatment, hydrogen production, and even fuel cells.

Both Eliyahu and Inbal are GTEP Ph.D.students, conducting their research under the supervision of Professor David Eisenberg from the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry.

Second prize was awarded to two Ph.D. students:

Emma Massasa from the Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, under the supervision of Assistant Professor Yehonadav Bekenstein, developed a method for improving properties of proboscites – new materials used in the production of solar energy.

Rona Ronen-Manukovsky from GTEP, who is developing energy storage solutions of a significant size, under the supervision of Associate Professor Matthew Suss from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.

The Best M.Sc. Poster Award category was won by GTEP graduate student Joseph (Joey) Cassell, who developed technology for producing solar energy under the supervision of Associate Professor Carmel Rotschild from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. Joey and the two first-prize Ph.D. students, Eliyahu and Inbal, will represent GTEP with their research at the Technion’s Jacobs Graduate School Research Day on January 19, 2022.