This work presents the MoonWEC, a new device for wave energy conversion. This new concept encompasses several working principles as the heaving point absorber, the oscillating water column and the overtopping. The development of the new WEC has been carried out through numerical modelling. Three main parts of the device have been simulated: a hollow floating structure, a central moonpool and a CALM mooring system. All the parts of the model have been coupled to obtained the general behaviour of the device under the effect of irregular sea states. The device has been designed according to the Mediterranean Sea wave climate. Its dimensioning aims to maximize the power absorption by tuning both,device and moonpool, natural periods with the identified prevailing sea states. Six mooring system configurations have been tested in order to obtain a stable, safe and yet effective behaviour. Finally, performance indicators have been drawn to assess power production in two selected locations in the Mediterranean Sea.

Huge efforts have been done in the last years on electrochemical and photoelectrochemical reduction of CO ₂ to offer a sustainable route to recycle CO ₂ . A promising route is to electrochemically reduce CO ₂ into CO which, by combination with hydrogen, can be used as a feedstock to different added-value products or fuels. Herein, perpendicular oriented TiO ₂ nanotubes (NTs) on the electrode plate were grown by anodic oxidation of titanium substrate and then decorated by a low loading of silver nanoparticles deposited by sputtering (i.e. Ag/TiO ₂ NTs). Due to their quasi one-dimensional arrangement, TiO ₂ NTs are able to provide higher surface area for Ag adhesion and superior electron transport properties than other Ti substrates (e.g. Ti foil and TiO ₂ nanoparticles), as confirmed by electrochemical (CV, EIS, electrochemical active surface area) and chemical/morphological analysis (FESEM, TEM, EDS). These characteristics together with the role of the TiO ₂ NTs to enhance the stability of CO ₂ ^·- intermediate formed due to titania redox couple (Ti ^IV /Ti ^III ) lead to an improvement of the CO production in the Ag/TiO ₂ NTs electrodes. Particular attention has been devoted to reduce the loading of noble metal in the electrode(14.5 %w/%w) and to increase the catalysts active surface area in order to decrease the required overpotential.