by cidaut | Feb 10, 2017 | Sin categoría
The first Steering Committee of VULKANO project was held in Zaragoza from the 14th to the 15th of December 2016. Representatives of all the 12 different companies and research centres that make up the VULKANO consortium attended the two-day meeting.
The first day, the state of progress of the activities after the first months of implementation was reviewed. As Task leader, CIDAUT presented the preliminary results obtained in the feasibility assessment of natural gas substitution by alternative fuels (Co-firing) in furnaces.
Exploitable results coming out from VULKANO’s integrated solution were also analysed through a dedicated workshop where both the developers and end-users had the chance to come up with different perspectives.
The second day, a project monitor from the Commission attended the meeting to evaluate the progress of the ongoing tasks and to support the partners towards the challenging objectives of VULKANO project. Specific working sessions on the different technologies to be implemented at the pilot sites took place afterwards to discuss technical details. One of the most relevant sessions where CIDAUT participated was held to determine and collect the most significant data of burners and furnaces in order to start with the modelling and computer simulations.
by cidaut | Feb 10, 2017 | Sin categoría
On December 1st, El Norte de Castilla organized a conference to bring the electric vehicle closer to the public.
Electromobility experts from the three companies exposed their point of view on the difficulties, opportunities and challenges for the electric vehicles promotion. The vehicle manufacturers presented their new innovations in the market and focused on the need of a continued support from the administration. The public needs a better understanding of the electromobility advantages and also a stable scenario of economic support to effectively promote the sale of this kind of vehicles. The strategy followed by different European countries was discussed, paying special attention to Norway and China. The first country has established many positive discrimination measures to promote the electric vehicle purchase and use and some provinces of China are working to facilitate the manufacturing and use of lightweight electric vehicles.
Regarding the development of electric vehicles, Cidaut presented some of the developments and innovations achieved in the last projects. Improvements on efficiency, the importance of energy harvesting to reduce the carbon footprint, the main technologies for weight optimization and the need to ensure the passive of electric vehicles were some of the targets presented.
Special attention was paid to the difficult compromise between lightweight and crashworthiness for small urban electric vehicles. The European Commission and also the users are asking for reduced size mobility solutions propelled by electricity but without renouncing to the passive safety. Cidaut is really concerned about this issue and showed the last crash simulations and real tests carried out in its facilities.
by cidaut | Feb 10, 2017 | Sin categoría
Both European projects have run parallel for three years to balance the vehicle and infrastructure development.
Both projects are aimed to take advantage of the solar energy for electromobility. They work on the same vehicle, but Free-Moby is focused on the infrastructure while Plus-Moby’s target is the vehicle itself, which is an L7 type vehicle.
The vehicle has the possibility to be charged trough a connector but also by battery swapping. Then the batteries can be charged both in the vehicle and at home. Free-Moby has developed an innovative charging system based on photovoltaic energy. The photovoltaic installation is connected to a battery rack where there are several modules equal to the ones installed in the vehicle. The battery rack has been developed to allow the control of the energy flux attending to the user’s needs.
The battery rack is connected to the grid and the home in such a way that allows the energy flux between photovoltaic panels, vehicle, home grid and stationary batteries. The efforts made to develop the communication of the whole system allow making the best decision on the energy flux taking into account the state of charge of the batteries, the energy necessity at home and the energy pricing or the foreseen consumption. Cidaut has developed its own rack based on a 6kW photovoltaic parking that has installed at its facilities.
Plus-Moby project has been focused on the development of the vehicle and in order to harvest solar energy, it has several panels in the roof of the vehicle and an additional panel covers the wind screen when the vehicle is closed. Other particularity of the vehicle is the two independent motors for each of the axles. In the last phase of Plus-Moby, Cidaut’s efforts have been focused on ensuring the crashworthiness of the vehicle. After the optimization of the vehicle through a iterative simulation process, three frontal crash tests and one lateral crash have been performed demonstrating that the safety level of this light vehicle is equivalent to conventional M category ones. The crashes have demonstrated the great stability of the vehicle structure, and the high protection of the passengers. After all the crashes it was possible to open the doors and the evaluation of the damage in the occupants has been positive.
by cidaut | Feb 10, 2017 | Sin categoría
In mid 2015, CIDAUT started the LIFE-SOUNDLESS project (New Generation of eco-friendly asphalts with recycled materials and high durability and acoustic performance). CIDAUT is member of LIFE-SOUNDLESS project together with the Consejería de Fomento de la Junta de Andalucía (coordinating beneficiary) and Eiffage Infraestructuras (associated beneficiary).
The LIFE-SOUNDLESS project aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of innovative noise reducing asphalt mixes (SMA-like thin layer), using waste products from other industries, to mitigate acoustic contamination at the point of origin, while ensuring their durability, and ultimately to encourage public bodies to integrate environmental aspects into their calls for tender in pavement construction. Hence LIFE-SOUNDLESS has been conceived as an effective solution to shape a sustainable and healthy future for urban areas.
This project is an EU-funded project under the LIFE programme, with a total budget of 1,512,511 Euros, whose general objectives are the following ones:
- To reduce noise from roads inside densely populated urban and interurban areas by means of innovative noise reducing asphalt mixes with new additives.
- To improve environmental performance of urban areas by implementing eco-friendly, long-life and cost-effective pavements.
- To validate a feasible initiative to valorise rubber, plastic and fibre waste and to facilitate a new and wider market for these waste materials.
- To improve the knowledge data for the development of recommendations on the use of low noise surfaces and therefore to contribute to the adoption of European specifications for noise-reducing asphalt pavements.
- To assess the evolution of the acoustic performance of this type of mixes in warm zones where the increment of bitumen could generate another issues different from the northern countries.
Different tasks have been carried out, like searching and characterising of the pilot sites in different roads of the Junta de Andalucía. Also an initial characterization of different mixes (up to 20 different mixtures) has been carried out; not only under durability point of view but also a noise characterization has been done. The mixes to carry out the test tracks have been selected in order to be installed in proximate dates.
by cidaut | Nov 17, 2016 | Sin categoría
Last October 28th, the Automotive Cluster of Castilla y León (FACYL) organized a working day focused on Energy and Environment in the automotive sector: “Meeting of Strategic Reflection: Energy and Environment Working Groups”. The meeting was divided into two sections, so that the first turned around challenges and opportunities for the automotive sector in the area of Energy, while the second focused on the new regulations on waste transport, the Circular Economy and the challenges and opportunities in the area of Environment for automotive companies.
In addition to participating in the discussions on both sections, CIDAUT participated very actively as speaker within the Environment group where we conducted the conference about Circular Economy: “CIDAUT’s Approach and Experiences”. The conference began with a brief general explanation about the Circular Economy, as well as its bases and objectives, to later review several projects in which CIDAUT applies this philosophy.
The European Environment Agency (EEA)’s publication The European environment-State and outlook 2015 highlights‘ stimulating resource-efficient, low-carbon economic and social development is considered as essential to achieving the 2050 vision of ‘living well within the limits of the planet’ as set out in the European Union (EU)’s 7th Environment Action Programme. This requires Europe and the rest of the world to move away from the current linear economic model of take-make-consume-dispose, which relies on large quantities of easily accessible resources and energy, to a circular model in which planetary boundaries are respected through resource conservation and by maximising the use of resources already available within the economy. The concept of a circular economy has recently gained traction in European policymaking as a positive, solutions-based perspective for achieving economic development within increasing environmental constraints.
The concept of Circular Economy is widely used in CIDAUT from the definition and approach of the projects where the main objective is to give value to those materials that are considered waste and that still can enter in the circle. To achieve this goal it is necessary the development of technology, role played by CIDAUT as the main actor. During the conference, a review of several projects developed by CIDAUT was presented. These projects are related with the recovery of high performance aluminum, obtaining rare earth elements – magnesium alloys, as well as the recovery of plastics with improved properties or the obtaining of chemical or plastics from waste: waste-to-chemicals.
To conclude, a final review of the opportunities in Horizon2020 programmes was performed, as well as the different topics and calls open to develop ideas and projects encouraged by EC in this so interesting and necessary field that is Circular Economy.
