About the team

MAGNETO is a team of scientists, researchers and industrial technology developers from the UAE, Switzerland and Italy. The team is led by Dr. Faisal AlMarzooqi (Assistant professor of chemical engineering at Masdar Institute - Khalifa University). From the UAE, in addition to Dr. Faisal, the team include Dr. Sgouris Sgouridis (Director of R&D at Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) R&D Center). From Italy the team includes, Dr. Efrem Curcio (Professor of Environmental Engineering - University of Calabria), Dr. Raffaele Zinno (Associate professor of Strength of Materials and Structural Engineering - University of Calabria), Dr. Sergio Santoro (Post-Doctoral Fellow of Environmental Engineering - University of Calabria) and Dr. Soccorso Gaeta, Dr. Luca Querze and Dr. Marta Boiarska from GVS Filter Technology, Italy. From Switzerland the team includes Dr. Wendy L. Queen (Assistant profess of chemical engineering - EPFL).

Technical Information

Our proposal is based on the synergic exploitation of membrane processes, photothermal nanotechnology and solar energy to guarantee a sustainable and efficient selective recovery of raw materials from brine useful in Magnesia-based cement thanks to the development of innovative, robust and easily up-scalable solar-driven Photothermal Assisted Evaporation system (PhAEV).

PhAEV will consists of arrays of vertically-mounted multifunctional polymeric surfaces fed by gravity with the retentate outlet stream from Reverse Osmosis plant. Photothermal materials immobilized on the polymeric surface will promote water evaporation, whereas Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks (ZIFs) will induce the selective crystallization of NaCl obtaining a highly concentrated brine rich in magnesium. Mg will be precipitated from the brine and subsequently calcined to produce MgO-based cement whereas NaCl will be processed in a Chlor-Alkali Electrolytic system for Sodium Hypochlorite (NaClO) production to be used as disinfectant.

About Team Leader

Team members