Press releases

Number of Entries: 26

27/02/2024

EU project SMHYLES develops novel salt- and water-based hybrid energy storage systems (HESS) on an industrial scale.

Munich/Trento (Italy) - One of the greatest challenges of the 21st century is the transition to climate-neutral energy sources. Here, reliable energy storage plays a key role, as production and load peaks in the electricity grid require flexible storage systems that can be used for a wide range of applications. The recently launched EU project SMHYLES aims to develop innovative, sustainable, and safe salt- and/or water-based hybrid energy storage systems. These combine two storage technologies and their respective advantages: long duration capacity and high power density. The new low-CRM (critical raw materials) systems will also contribute to Europe’s energy independence. The SMHYLES project, coordinated by the “Fondazione Bruno Kessler” (Italy), is funded by the EU under Horizon Europe with around €6 million for a period of four years from January 2024 on. The consortium includes 16 partners from seven countries.

25/05/2023

Successful LIGNOFLAG project completion: EU-funded large-scale commercial plant produces bioethanol from agricultural residues

Planegg (Germany) - The Swiss specialty chemicals company Clariant has built the first large-scale commercial plant for the production of cellulosic ethanol based on its sunliquid® technology in Podari, in southwestern Romania, and commissioned it. The European Union supported the project with around 25 million euros as part of the LIGNOFLAG project. At today's final conference of LIGNOFLAG in Planegg, the project partners presented the results of six years of successful cooperation.

31/01/2023

EU Project TwinVECTOR – Pooling European competence in the development of world-class next-generation batteries

Zlín (Czech Republic)/Munich – New battery technologies that are affordable and sustainable over the entire life cycle are crucial to achieve the goals of the European Green Deal. As part of the EU project TwinVECTOR, the centre of excellence at the Tomas Bata University (TBU) in Zlín, Czech Republic, is to be expanded technically and institutionally with the support of the consortium partners to enable multidisciplinary national and international project teams to network, create synergies and work together on the further development of battery energy storage technologies. The EU is supporting the recently launched project with EUR 1.3 million over a period of three years. Five partners from the Czech Republic, Germany, Finland and Austria are participating in the project coordinated by the Tomas Bata University.

26/01/2023

EU Project IntelliMan – How robots will learn in the future: Developing an AI-controlled manipulation system for advanced robot services

Munich/Bologna (Italy) - The potential of intelligent, AI-controlled robots that "give a helping hand" to people in hospitals, care facilities for the elderly and children, factories, restaurants, the service industry and households is enormous. However, an intelligent and interactive robot can only be effective if it can react flexibly to different environments and situations. It therefore needs to be able to learn – and this presents an attainable challenge for researchers and developers. The EU-funded research and innovation project IntelliMan aims to develop such intelligent and learning robots. Thirteen partners from six countries are working together on the project, coordinated by the Università di Bologna (Italy). The EU is supporting the project with EUR 4.5 million under the European framework programme for research and innovation, "Horizon Europe".

13/07/2022

EU project InShaPe – Next innovation leap in metal-based additive manufacturing

Munich, Germany – In many industrial sectors, such as in the automotive industry, in aerospace or in the energy sector, the demand for special metal components that are light and have a high strength is increasing. Modern gas turbines, for example, require extremely stable and at the same time lightweight heat shields. An important manufacturing process for this is the powder-bed fusion process of metals using laser beam (PBF-LB/M). Depending on the application, the process is not yet always competitive compared with conventional production in terms of unit costs. The research and innovation project InShaPe, funded by the EU with EUR 6.8 million, aims to make a decisive contribution to the further development of the technology. Under the coordination of the Technical University of Munich (TUM), here the Professorship of Laser-based Additive Manufacturing, ten partners from seven countries are working together on the project.

14/06/2022

Clariant produces first commercial sunliquid® cellulosic ethanol at new plant in Podari, Romania

  • After construction completion in October 2021, the plant underwent a thorough commissioning process and has successfully started  production
  • The offtake of the entire production has been contracted to global energy company Shell for several years
  • The flagship plant will process approx. 250,000 tons of straw to produce approx. 50,000 tons of cellulosic ethanol per annum
  • The production start at this first sunliquid® cellulosic ethanol plant proves the commercial viability of Clariant’s innovative technology and with that supports the licensing business strategy

01/09/2021

EU funded project CIRCULAR FoodPack to develop a system for circularity of packaging for direct food contact applications

Freising, Germany – CIRCULAR FoodPack aims to facilitate the circular use of plastic packaging addressing the most sensitive product category: Food. The food packaging sector constitutes of 87%1 of all European flexible plastic multilayer-composites. Such composites are used to fulfil the high requirements for food preservation and safety. Since such material combinations are inseparable, the multi-layer composites cannot be recycled into high-quality materials by state of the art recycling technologies, which counteracts the intentions of a circular use. Instead, most multi-material composites go to landfill or energy recovery. Furthermore, the reuse of recyclates in food packaging applications is clearly restricted by EU legislation2. The potential presence of undesired substances in the recyclates hence requires appropriate methods of decontaminations. Therefore, CIRCULAR FoodPack will further develop the Tracer-Based-Sorting systems to separate food from non-food packaging, enhance mechanical and physical recycling processes and eco-design innovative mono-material food and personal care packaging that will be easy to sort and to recycle.

11/05/2021

UAS4EUROPE Networking Conference: From breakthrough ideas to breakthrough innovation

Brussels - On 11 May 2021, UAS4EUROPE, the informal network of European Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS), held its biennial Networking Conference, this time as a virtual event, with high-level keynote speeches, a political discussion, interactive workshop sessions, face-to-face matchmaking and a virtual exhibition.

21/01/2021

The best of two systems: New EU project “HyFlow” to develop a smart hybrid energy storage system

Landshut, Germany - Modern energy grids rely on renewable energies such as wind and solar power and are characterised by higher fluctuations in both power generation and energy consumption. In order to absorb resulting power peaks and to cope with the increased demand for renewable energies, modern energy grids need more dynamic storage systems. The task is to optimally dimension the capacity and power of such energy storage systems and to ensure a secure, affordable and environmentally friendly energy supply. Smart combinations of storage systems, so-called hybrid storage systems, offer a solution for this. The development of such an efficient, sustainable and cost-effective hybrid system is the objective of the European research project HyFlow, in which eleven partners from Germany, Italy, Spain, the Czech Republic, Austria, Portugal and Russia work together under the coordination of Landshut University of Applied Sciences. HyFlow is being funded by the EU until 2023 with EUR 4 million.

05/09/2019

Advanced biofuels require a favourable legal framework in the EU

  • Innovative, climate-neutral technologies are ready for the market and can significantly reduce CO2 emissions within the European transport sector.
  • Advanced biofuels will be in use soon and are critical for achieving the ambitious climate objectives of the EU.
  • Policy makers must set the course for industry and create a stable framework for climate-friendly innovations and investments in the European transport sector.
  • With REDII, the European Union is making a step in the right direction.

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