Iwona Gajda (GB)

Dr. Iwona Gajda is a Research Associate at the University of the West of England in Bristol, UK, as part of the Bristol BioEnergy Centre research group at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory. During her PhD she was developing self-sustainable cathodes in both aqueous and open-to air configurations for use in the Microbial Fuel Cells in order to optimise the generation of electricity from wastewater. Currently she is working on the Urinetricity III Project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation developing Microbial Fuel Cell stacks for treatment, electricity production and nutrient recovery from urine. Iwona’s areas of interest include converting the abiotic cathode of the Microbial Fuel Cell into a self-sustainable biotic half-cell for prolonged operation in real implementation environments as well as the generation of catholyte within the Microbial Fuel Cell, membrane-less system configuration and the development of air-breathing carbon cathodes for use in ceramic reactors. Climate change and the depletion of fossil fuels increase the need for sustainable energy production. The Microbial Fuel Cell is a promising, principle-proven-technology which has the potential to fulfil a considerable part of the need for sustainable energy.