Sustainable energy solutions are aimed to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels by using renewable energy sources and energy efficiency techniques. This thesis presents two new sustainable energy applications in the field of electrical machines.Polyphase induction motors dominate the energy usage spectrum for industrial and commercial applications. The conventional winding structure used in both synchronous and induction machines has a basic unit of the winding with a 60 degree phase belt and a three phase connection either in star or delta. A new winding structure using an innovative Star-Delta Series Connection (SDSC) which has a high winding coefficient and low harmonic content is presented in this thesis. The principle of the SDSC winding is described. The Electro-Magnetic Belt and Electro-Magnetic Space diagram are two important means to be used for optimization of the new winding. Experimental results from two prototypes confirm the theoretical analysis. The efficiency of the new machine at rated load increased by about 3.8% as compared to the standard machine with a conventional winding structure.Wind energy is one of the most attractive renewable energy options. Wind turbines are designed to couple either synchronous or asynchronous generators with various forms of direct or indirect connection with grid or diesel generators. Permanent magnet (PM) generators using high energy Neodymium- Iron-Boron magnets offer advantages such as direct coupling without gear box, absence of excitation winding and slip rings, light weight and smaller size. This thesis presents the design and development of an outer-rotor PM generator suitable for wind energy conversion. The initial electromagnetic design followed by a Finite Element Analysis is presented in detail. A 20 kW prototype machine was built and extensively tested. It was found that the machine could maintain an ++ / efficiency of about 85% for a wide operating range. Equivalent circuit models were developed. The results of the Finite Element analysis matches closely with the experimental and the designed values.

The need to reduce humankind reliance on fossil fuels by exploiting sustainably the planet renewable resources is a major driving force determining the focus of modern material research. For this reason great interest is nowadays focused on finding alternatives to fossil fuels derived products/materials. For the short term the most promising substitute is undoubtedly biomass, since it is the only renewable and sustainable alternative to fossil fuels as carbon source. As a consequence efforts, aimed at finding new synthetic approaches to convert biomass and its derivatives into carbon-based materials, are constantly increasing. In this regard, hydrothermal carbonisation (HTC) has shown to be an effective means of conversion of biomass-derived precursors into functional carbon materials. However the attempts to convert raw biomass, in particular lignocellulosic one, directly into such products have certainly been rarer. Unlocking the direct use of these raw materials as carbon precursors would definitely be beneficial in terms of HTC sustainability. For this reason, in this thesis the HTC of carbohydrate and protein-rich biomass was systematically investigated, in order to obtain more insights on the potentials of this thermochemical processing technique in relation to the production of functional carbon materials from crude biomass. First a detailed investigation on the HTC conversion mechanism of lignocellulosic biomass and its single components (i.e. cellulose, lignin) was developed based on a comparison with glucose HTC, which was adopted as a reference model. In the glucose case it was demonstrated that varying the HTC temperature allowed tuning the chemical structure of the synthesised carbon materials from a highly cross-linked furan-based structure (T = 180oC) to a carbon framework composed of polyaromatic arene-like domains. When cellulose or lignocellulosic biomass was used as carbon precursor, the furan rich structure could not be isolated at any of the investigated processing conditions. These evidences were indicative of a different HTC conversion mechanism for cellulose, involving reactions that are commonly observed during pyrolytic processes. The evolution of glucose-derived HTC carbon chemical structure upon pyrolysis was also investigated. These studies revealed that upon heat treatment (Investigated temperatures 350 – 900 oC) the furan-based structure was progressively converted into highly curved aromatic pre-graphenic domains. This thermal degradation process was observed to produce an increasingly more hydrophobic surface and considerable microporosity within the HTC carbon structure. In order to introduce porosity in the HTC carbons derived from lignocellulosic biomass, KOH chemical activation was investigated as an HTC post-synthesis functionalisation step. These studies demonstrated that HTC carbons are excellent precursors for the production of highly microporous activated carbons (ACs) and that the porosity development upon KOH chemical activation is dependent on the chemical structure of the HTC carbon, tuned by employing different HTC temperatures. Preliminary testing of the ACs for CO2 capture or high pressure CH4 storage yielded very promising results, since the measured uptakes of both adsorbates (i.e. CO2 and CH4) were comparable to top-performing and commercially available adsorbents, usually employed for these end-applications. The combined use of HTC and KOH chemical activation was also employed to produce highly microporous N-doped ACs from microalgae. The hydrothermal treatment of the microalgae substrate was observed to cause the depletion of the protein and carbohydrate fractions and the near complete loss (i.e. 90%) of the microalgae N-content, as liquid hydrolysis/degradation products. The obtained carbonaceous product showed a predominantly aliphatic character indicating the presence of alkyl chains presumably derived from the lipid fractions. Addition of glucose to the initial reaction mixture was found out to be extremely beneficial, because it allowed the fixation of a higher N amount, in the algae derived HTC carbons (i.e.  60%), and the attainment of higher product yields (50%). Both positive effects were attributed to Maillard type cascade reactions taking place between the monosaccharides and the microalgae derived liquid hydrolysis/degradation products, which were in this way recovered from the liquid phase. KOH chemical activation of the microalgae/glucose mixture derived HTC carbons produced highly microporous N-doped carbons. Although the activation process led to a major reduction of the N-content, the retained N-amount in the ACs was still considerable. These features render these materials ideal candidates for supercapacitors electrodes, since they provide extremely high surface areas, for the formation of electric double-layer, coupled to abundant heteroatom doping (i.e. N and O) necessary to obtain a pseudocapacitance contribution. / Die Notwendigkeit, die Abhängigkeit der Menschheit von fossilen Brennstoffen zu reduzieren ist die treibende Kraft hinter aktuellen Forschungsanstrengungen in den Materialwissenschaften. Folglich besteht heutzutage ein erhebliches Interesse daran Alternativen zu Materialien, die aus fossilen Resourcen gewonnen werden, zu finden. Kurzfristig ist zweifellos Biomasse die vielversprechendste Alternative, da sie aus heutiger Sicht die einzige nicht-fossile, nachhaltige und nachwachsende Kohlenstoffquelle ist. Konsequenterweise werden die Antrengungen neue Syntheseansätze zur Konvertierung von Biomasse und ihren Derivaten in kohlenstoffbasierten Materialien forwährend erhöht. In diesem Zusammenhang hat sich die Hydrothermalkarbonisierung (HTC) als sehr vielseitiges Werkzeug zur Konvertierung von Biomasse-basierten Ausgangsstoffen in funktionale Kohlenstoffmaterialien herausgestellt. Dennoch gibt es bisher wenige Ansätze um rohe Biomasse, genauer gesagt Lignicellulose, direkt in funktionale Materialien umzusetzen. Könnte der direkte Einsatz von roher Biomasse Verfahren wie der HTC zugänglich gemacht werden, würde dies die Nachhaltigkeit des Verfahrens immens steigern. Daher wurde in dieser Dissertation die Hydrothermalkarbonisierung von kohlenhydratreicher (d. h. Lignicelluse) und proteinreicher (d. h. Microalgae) Biomasse systematisch analysiert. Diese Untersuchung galt dem Ziel einen besseren Einblick in das Potential dieser thermochemischen Verarbeitungsmethode funktionale Kohlenstoffmaterialien aus unverarbeiteter Biomasse hervorzubringen zu gewinnen. Die hergestellten Materialien wurden mittels chemischer Aktivierung nachträglich weiter behandelt. Dieser zusätzliche Verarbeitungsschritt ermöglichte die Herstellung hochporöser aktiverter Kohlenstoffe (AC). Die aus Lignicellulose gewonnenen ACs zeigten exzellente Eigenschaften bei der Aufnahme von CO2 und der Hochdruckspeicherung von CH4 währen die aus Microalgae gewonnen Eigenschaften an den Tag legten (z. B. hohe Oberfläche und N-Dotierung), welche sie zu vielversprechenden Materialien für Superkondensatoren machen. Die in dieser Dissertation präsentierte Arbeit zeigte außergewöhnliche Fortschritte in Richtung der Anwendung von unbehandelter Biomasse als Ausgangsmaterial für die Produktion von funktionalen Kohlenstoffen.

Les matériaux céramiques poreux présentent des propriétés de grand intérêt grâce à leur potentiel dans les applications de l'énergie. L'objectif général de cette thèse concerne le développement de matériaux (carbo)nitrures pour la production et le stockage de l'hydrogène (synthèse, caractérisation, propriétés et applications). La voie polymère précéramique, offrant un grand nombre de possibilités dans la chimie et la science des céramiques, est utilisée pour élaborer ces matériaux. Tout d'abord, nous avons préparé les systèmes binaires poreux tels que AlN et BN en répliquant la structure du CMK-3 et du charbon actif. Après pyrolyse, nous avons démontré la faisabilité de produire des nitrures avec une porosité adaptée. Par ailleurs, en couplant la voie polymère précéramique avec la technologie des aérogels, nous avons réussi à préparer des aérogels AlN et BN avec une porosité relativement élevée. Nous avons évalué le potentiel de ces matériaux poreux pour le nanoconfinement de deux hydrures chimiques, l'alanate de sodium et l'ammoniaborane, respectivement. Dans les deux cas, la nanoconfinement a déstabilisé le réseau de l'hydrure et a permis la libération de H2 à de basses températures ; en outre, dans le cas de l'ammoniaborane confiné, aucun sous-produit gazeux indésirable n'a été détectée, ce qui confirme la pureté du H2 dégagé. Deuxièmement, nous avons préparé des systèmes quaternaires poreux par association de AlN/BN avec des céramiques à base de silicium. En particulier, nous avons élaboré des céramiques SiAlCN en utilisant deux approches: la voie à « 2 sources » et la voie à « source unique ». En ce qui concerne la première, nous avons préparé des matériaux mésoporeux ordonnés qui ont été utilisés comme supports catalytiques pour l'hydrolyse d'une solution alcaline de borohydrure de sodium. Nous avons réussi à générer du H2 avec des cinétiques élevées. En ce qui concerne la seconde approche, le travail a porté sur l'étude de la chimie de matériaux SiAlCN et SiBCN. Des mousses cellulaires SiAlCN ont été préparées par l'utilisation de charges sacrificielles. / Porous inorganic materials are of great interest owing to their potential in energy applications. The general objective of the present thesis concerns the development of functional (carbo)nitrides for hydrogen generation and storage (material design, elaboration, properties and applications). The PDCs route, which offers a large number of opportunities in chemistry and ceramic sciences, has been applied to produce functional (carbo)nitrides materials. Firstly, we prepared porous binary systems such as AlN and BN by replicating the structure of CMK-3 and that of activated carbon. After pyrolysis and removal of the template, we demonstrated the feasibility of producing nitrides with tailored porosity. Moreover, by coupling the PDCs route with the aerogel technology, we succeeded in preparing polymer-derived AlN and BN aerogels. We assessed the potential of these porous AlN and BN materials in nanoconfinement of two chemical hydrides, namely sodium alanate and ammoniaborane, respectively. In both cases, the nanoconfinement destabilized the network of the hydride and favored the release of H2 at low temperature. Besides, in the case of nanoconfined ammoniaborane, no evolution of undesired gaseous by-products was observed, which means that pure hydrogen was produced in our conditions. Secondly, we prepared porous quaternary systems through the association of AlN/BN with Si-based ceramics. In particular, we investigated the preparation of SiAlCN with tailored porosity by using two approaches: the “molecular building block” and “single-source precursor” approaches. Concerning the former, we investigated the preparation of ordered mesoporous materials to be used as catalytic supports for hydrolysis of alkaline solution of sodium borohydride. We succeeded in generating high amounts of H2 with attractive kinetics. Concerning the latter approach, the work was focused on the investigation of the chemistry of SiAlCN and SiBCN materials with a particular focus on the elaboration of SiAlCN microcellular foams by a sacrificial processing route.

This thesis deals with various physical-chemical aspects of agricultural and environmental applications of the South Moravian lignite. The main attention was paid to the behavior of lignite in an aqueous environment and the application potential of lignite as a cheap, effective and universal sorbent. In the experimental part of the thesis, aqueous extracts of lignite were characterized in detail (by measurement of pH, conductivity, and by the qualitative and quantitative determination of inorganic constituents). The high sorption affinity towards polar (cationic dyes) and nonpolar compounds (petroleum products) was confirmed experimentally. At last, simple methods of the laboratory preparation of lignite granules was designed and optimized. The main aim of this part was to combine the unusual sorption properties of lignite with an improvement of the end-use properties of the product (user-friendly handling, controlled release of the lignite into the aqueous environment, etc.). The thesis represents a complex compilation of the results of pilot experiments which represent the starting point of detailed future works focused on the non-energetic application of this valuable natural material.