Italy and Tunisia together for innovation and the energy transition.
The Flottant – Filières de l’Énergie Optimisée avec Transducteurs et Technologies Avancées project focuses on the integration and optimization of renewable marine energy sources through advanced technologies.
Funded by the European Union under the Interreg Next Italy–Tunisia programme, the research is led by the University of Catania, with the participation of the University of Palermo and the Tunisian universities of Sfax and Gabes. The project aims to develop a system capable of harnessing energy from multiple marine sources, thereby reducing environmental impact.
The project seeks to enhance the role of the sea as a resource for the Mediterranean energy transition by developing energy harvesting technologies to recover and integrate energy from different marine sources.
The system is based on various technologies, including microbial fuel cells installed on the seabed that exploit bacterial activity to generate energy, capacitive transducers designed to convert water movement into electrical current, as well as piezoelectric cables and floating thermoelectric transducers capable of exploiting tidal motion and thermal gradients.
In addition, the system supports environmental monitoring, coastal lighting management, and energy storage solutions.
With a total budget of approximately one million euros, the Flottant project will run until May 2028.