Green Alumni – The Planet’s Medics II
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We hope you enjoyed reading about your fellow alumni in our previous article. We complete this diptych with a few more alumni, and hasten to add that in our Entrepreneurs 1 article you will have found a number of alumni whose start-ups are focused on environmental issues.
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In this article:
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Rodrigo Lopez Torres (MS ’16) – making solar cells
Berenice Tellez (MS ’11) – environmental education
Madeleine Emms (MS ’15) – sea-life data to manage marine ecology
Jinkai Xue (MS ’11) – cleaner water
Luisa Javier (MS '11) – reducing water usage
Student Alumni:
Amira Alazmy – capturing carbon
Le Shi – purifying water​
Bending to Helios’ Will.
It feels like everyone is making and developing solar panels, or solar bricks or solar tiles (floor and roof). Good news I hear you say, however, Rodrigo Lopez Torres (MS ’16) is involved in supplying the machines to make solar cells from Copper-Indium-Gallium-Selenium solar (CIGS). These machines make solar panels that are lightweight, flexible and lower cost. Handily, flexible solar panels offer more opportunities to deploy them.
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Rodrigo’s customers can make customized solar panels that can be attached to any type of surfaces, such as; membrane roofs, portable power plants, marine installations, vehicles, or other infrastructure projects.
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Whilst Rodrigo mostly helps customers implement and run the machines, his company also conducts research and development on solar panels. The CIGS solar cell is one of three mainstream thin-film photovoltaic (PV) technologies. CIGS cells development work promises better efficiencies, while maintaining low costs.
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Needless to say we all look forward to better PV technology that we can all afford.
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A Class in the Grass
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Close to the municipality of Zitácuaro, Mexico, Berenice Tellez (MS ’11) and
her family have a start-up called Ecologico Albustan (www.ecoalbustan.com).
Formerly a farm, Ecologico Albustan is a park where companies, schools and
other groups can use the park’s recreational facilities for events. Alongside these,
Ecologico Albustan runs classes or workshops covering a variety of
environmental topics such as recycling, composting, climate change awareness,
and healthy/organic food.
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​The Park is around 6000 m2 (around the size of a hypermarket) and includes chalets and a swimming pool. Groups can camp in the grounds or hold other events of their own, giving them an opportunity to enjoy the nature in the park.
Berenice aims to take the Ecologico Albustan concept into the United States with the collaboration with US green organizations.
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‘’Through recreational and educational activities we promote the care of the environment, organic products, sustainable practices and the responsible use of natural resources,’’ said Berenice.
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Fishing in the Gene Pool
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This soon-to-be doctor’s travels in time may save Red Sea life. Who? We hear you say, no, Madeleine Emms (MS ’15).
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Through some very clever analysis of a large number of target genes, Madeleine can look back in time, and so understand fish population sizes have changed in response to environmental change. Her work on several Red Sea reef fish species will provide important information on populations on coral reefs that have experienced environmental change, and which are known to have recovered.
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In so doing, she can see the effects of differing environmental scenarios, for example higher salinity, higher temperatures, and the kind of conditions that could affect life on coral reefs in the future.
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Her methodology deploys population genetics models to study the response of several Red Sea reef fish species during the last glacial period when the Red Sea was effectively isolated, with high temperatures and salinity. Her goal is to determine the minimum size of any affected populations, and study their recovery following the re-connection with the Indian Ocean, including the influence of some Indian Ocean populations.
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Madeleine’s project is ongoing.
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“I hope this kind of information can be better integrated into conservation management, for example in guiding the size of proposed Marine Protected Areas to include the minimum population size for target species.’’
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Purer Water from Filtering, Gassing and Bugs
Jinkai Xue (MS ‘11) is a Postdoctoral Fellow sponsored by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), currently working in Environmental Engineering at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
‘’I have been working on water and wastewater treatment using multi-barrier-based approaches that take advantage of various technologies, such as membrane, ozonation and bio-degradation. In addressing the challenging water contamination issue, we are looking to the development of treatment strategies that are efficient, economic and resilient,’’ commented Jinkai.
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Technology Takes out Taps
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We simply have to mention entrepreneur and alumna Luisa Javier (MS '11). You may have heard of her environmentally sympathetic products before, but just in case you missed it Luisa is CEO and Founder of start-up Mexican company Sin Acqua (without water). Luisa is also currently a PhD student at KAUST, returning in 2017 to pursue further research.
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While at KAUST, Luisa developed the idea that launched the company Sin Acqua in 2014. The company now sells products for cleaning glass, windows, reflective surfaces, cars, vinyl, leather and cooking fats. The unique selling point is that all cleaners are 100% biodegradable and do not require water.
Student Alumni
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Sending a Poacher to Catch a Poacher
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PhD student, Amira Alazmi is investigating graphene oxide (a carbon-based material – of course). Working in the Laboratory for Carbon Nanostructures, her aim is to develop an efficient, environmentally friendly and low cost CO2 absorbent material.
In particular, Amira is studying the impact of surface chemistry and texture on the CO2 uptake capacity of graphene oxide.
To get a sense of the challenge in capturing CO2, the US Department of Energy’s 2020 Carbon Capture Program announced the post-combustion capture goal of achieving 90% CO2 capture with <35% increase in the levelized cost of energy.
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Carbonated Water - Perhaps
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With water becoming more precious, PhD candidate Le Shi’s work promises better water purification, and carbon may come to the rescue again. Efficient utilization of solar energy to drive water desalination and treat wastewater is a desirable system in order to avoid using fossil fuels.
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Le works in the Water Desalination and Reuse Center, and her research involves developing effective photocatalytic and photothermal materials for water purification.
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‘’We are developing photothermal materials such as a carbon-based material, to absorb more solar energy and convert it into heat,’’ said Le.
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In the lab scale experiment, Le can increase the water evaporation efficiency up to 83% with an evaporation rate of 1.31 kg m -2 h -1, which means a square meter of photothermal material can produce 1.31 kg pure water in one hour. This efficiency level is already one of the best in the literature.
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According to Le, there are still some challenges including: how to scale up the photothermal material for practical application and how to solve material fouling problems.
