Ethylene is the chemical industry’s primary building block. SolDAC’s ambition is to reinvent the ethylene industry by proving (TRL4) an emerging breakthrough technology for producing technically and economically competitive, socially desirable and climate-neutral (sustainable) ethylene and co-product ethanol (C2 products) from solar energy and air. The project features a photo-electrochemical conversion (PEC) unit, being electrochemistry the only possible route for direct conversion of carbon dioxide into ethylene. The PEC exploits bandwidth-selected light from a solar collector (FSS) that splits the solar spectrum for electricity and heat generation at efficiency higher than standalone PV modules and standalone solar thermal collectors. Heat is used in an innovative direct air capture (DAC) unit at ultralow temperature (~60°C), fostering the eventual circular integration with heat networks. The DAC unit removes carbon dioxide from the air, concentrates it to 95+% and compresses it to feed the PEC stack and a pipeline for carbon dioxide storage. This allows the carbon footprint of the whole sun-to-chemicals process to be offset and enables gain in carbon credits, opening an opportunity to exceed climate-neutrality and produce carbon-negative C2 products. The process is energetically self-sufficient, economically viable and carbon-negative on the condition that each unit (DAC, PEC, FSS) reach new targets in efficiency. That is exactly the high-risk/high return outcome expected in the project. The research is balanced to overcome technical, early-stage social and market barriers by exploiting the expertise of its 8 partners (SMEs in the renewable technology field, leading EU research institutions and one networking NGO). This project performs all the necessary groundwork for the full deployment of the process before 2050 through activities that build up a new ecosystem of stakeholders, making Europe the first circular, climate-neutral and sustainable economy.

PeCATHS is committed to developing an integrated long-term energy storage system utilizing hydrogen in the form of liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs), coupled with innovative biomass conversion. This approach enables the direct transfer of hydrogen from biomass to LOHCs without the hydrogen gas production, while simultaneously generating high-value chemicals. By integrating chemical and energy sectors, the project aims to synthesize platform chemicals and achieve long-term energy storage in liquid form, enhancing both the sustainability and efficiency of energy systems. A major advantage of LOHC technology is its ability to transform hydrogen gas into a stable liquid energy carrier, significantly facilitating the storage, transport and distribution. To tackle the economic challenges associated with this technology, PeCATHS employs a cost-effective strategy that utilizes biomass as a hydrogen source and solar power as a renewable energy source. This method allows for the direct integration of hydrogen into LOHCs without the complexities of gas compression and storage, thereby reducing costs and enhancing competitiveness against conventional energy storage systems. PeCATHS addresses the critical need for sustainable and viable energy storage, transport, and distribution solutions through the use of advanced (photo)electrocatalytic transformations. This project not only aims to reduce operational costs but also seeks to contribute to the development of sustainable energy infrastructures vital for future energy networks.

The concept of integrated knowledge centre UMA3 (Unique Materials for Advanced Aerospace Applications) is based on creation a value chain of knowledge of research entities in the scope of powder metallurgy process, additive manufacturing, surface technology (coatings) and fully 3D investigations. In this period of disruptions when innovation is redefining future success of organizations, it is extremely important to provide a coherent network, allowing for transnational cooperation for researchers and industry. The project members join forces to develop new material systems and create new solutions, while using their competencies (knowledge, human resources, infrastructures) and cooperating in synergistic. The multi-step process of the project (from theoretical elaboration and experimental engineering to computational modelling) will remarkably contribute to existing know-how and concept-driven, market-based innovation and scientific & research progress as well. Knowledge transfer between partners is realized on each topic, led by an internationally recognized researcher. The implementation of the UMA3 is linked to the Regional Smart Specialization Strategy (RIS3) for Advanced Vehicle and Machine Engineering Technologies and Intelligent Technologies for Research and Development of Special Materials at county level. The implementation of the project is fitted on Institution Development Plan of the University of Miskolc in the framework of Centre for Excellence of Advanced Materials and Technologies and carried out by Special Materials Scientific Workshop: in Modern materials, Nanotechnology, Aerospace Applications topic.

The purpose of HYCOOL-IT is to develop a set of processes supported by both digital and technical equipment innovative solutions for an efficient and reliable development of IT Server Rooms for advanced tertiary buildings, with a special focus on its replicability through standardisation. In parallel, a highly innovative Rack-integrated adsorption chiller for waste-heat powered server cooling is developed and optimized to carry out efficient liquid cooling of IT servers and, simultaneously, provide cooling to the server room itself in a compact, self-contained, and cost-effective way. The Building Digital Twin Environment (BDTE) will be developed as a PaaS with their specific Web API communication microservices to connect specific tools to support planning and design assessment, commissioning and performance evaluation processes including advanced technical equipment solutions digitalized through as BDT SimBOTs (interactive simulators) in the ICT Ecosystem to enable a more effective integration and operation of these advanced server rooms within the whole buildings. Moreover, SimBOTS pave the way for the future prescription of the innovative technical equipment proposed in the project. In addition, existing rooms can be mirrored and enhanced with the usage of BDT Environments to generate improved baselines and forecasting to support designers in the design phase, choosing the best design option and for maintenance engineers to enable performance contracting to realise the KPI’s. All Methodology and Software solutions will be tested and validated in one of the POLIMI Campus Building undergoing renovation of campus server room as a representative TRL 5 Living Lab, whereas the innovative Rack-integrated adsorption chiller for waste-heat powered server cooling will be tested in a dedicated calorimetric laboratory as TRL 4 testing environment.

DYMAN targets the development of a completely new design of adsorption chillers based on the following innovations (1) New low-temperature adsorbents achieving high capacities at very low driving temperatures below 50 °C. (2) New type of adsorption heat exchangers made of 3D printed structures integrating the adsorption material into a porous structure, which reduces the internal thermal resistances and improvement of heat transfer by two-phase flow, enhancing the heat transfer rate and reducing the internal electricity consumption of the unit. Additionally the project aims to develop at second core concept to further develop an existing two-phase cooling system, for high-performance computing servers to handle thermal loads more efficiently from next-generation processors. Goals include increasing cooling capacities for processors generating high heat fluxes like the Nvidia H100 chip which produces 70 W/cm2. An additional objective is to recover 50% of waste heat from processors to generate additional cooling power through a sorption heat pump. Combining two-phase cooling directly with heat-powered cooling could significantly improve efficiency over conventional air or water-based cooling methods alone. The objective here is to 1)further develop the present two-phase cooling system to work in an efficient way in combination with the sorption heat pump (concept 1) 2) Development of new evaporator with new advanced surfaces for high heat transfer coefficients (3) Development of new condenser integrated with the heat adsorber of sorption heat pump. This is a crucial component that can improve the efficiency of the whole integrated system to recovery up to 50% of rejected heat. Furthermore, the cooling data center management is a complex engineering system with interactions with different components of the data centers. So, DYMAN proposes a new way of active management of the data center integrating the cooling system as part of the optimization of processor management