The AIHRE Project kicks off to boost the green hydrogen industry in Spain and Portugal

  • This initiative brings together nine partners including the CIDAUT Foundation, the Technological Corporation of Andalusia (CTA), the Universities of Seville, Oporto and Évora, the Galicia Institute of Technology (ITG), the Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre (IPP), the Institute of Science and Innovation in Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Engineering (INEGI) and the National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA).
  • The project has been financed with 1.5 million euros under the third call of the Interreg VI-A Spain-Portugal Cross-Border Cooperation Programme (POCTEP) 2021-2027.

The AIHRE European project, ‘Analysis and Boosting of Renewable H2 in the POCTEP area’, has initiated its activities to accelerate the green hydrogen industry in different areas of Spain and Portugal. The initiative, which has been financed with 1.5 million euros under the third call of the Interreg VI-A Spain-Portugal Cross-Border Cooperation Programme (POCTEP) 2021-2027, counts on the participation of nine partners from the two countries, including universities, research centers and business clusters.  

AIHRE aims to create a technological and business network to harness the potential of green hydrogen generation at industrial level. The project will focus its actions in certain areas of Spain and Portugal, the so-called cooperation area or POCTEP area, which includes regions close to A Coruña, Valladolid, Huelva and Seville; and the Portuguese regions of Évora, Oporto and Portalegre. These areas stand out for their natural resources and conditions for electricity generation, as well as for a corporate structure made up of small and medium-sized businesses that could take advantage of the hydrogen technologies to be proposed in AIHRE.

In a firm commitment to industrial decarbonisation, the project will promote the emergence of value chains based on green hydrogen that drive economic development at local and regional levels. To this end, it will involve players from the quadruple helix in its activities, namely the scientific and academic community, political decision-makers, companies from sectors such as energy or mobility, and end users.

The AIHRE project counts on nine partners, five Spanish and four Portuguese, including CIDAUT Foundation, acting as coordinator, Technological Corporation of Andalusia (CTA), the Universities of Seville, Oporto and Évora, the Galicia Institute of Technology (ITG), the Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre (IPP), the Institute of Science and Innovation in Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Engineering (INEGI) and the National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA). Starting in July 2023, the initiative has a duration of 36 months.  

Technological development

The analysis and development of technologies to incorporate value chains based on green hydrogen is a key element of the AIHRE project. This process will be undertaken in separate phases, ranging from the analysis of the current energy scenario to the generation of prototypes and business models.

Particularly, during a first stage, the needs of the green hydrogen value chain in the POCTEP area will be analysed, as well as the technologies available or relevant. To this end, two co-creation workshops will be organised, one in Spain and the second one in Portugal, where key players in the hydrogen value chain will be invited to participate. Later, models and algorithms will be designed for the management of green hydrogen systems, together with prototypes for their generation, transport, storage and use. In a final phase, the viability of the business models devised around the technologies developed will be assessed.

The tools and project outcomes shall be accessible to the public through the AIHRE website: www.aihre.eu

ESTELLA Project’s first year

ESTELLA project has just completed its first year of work. Therefore, the consortium met last 20th and 21st June its 2nd General Assembly.

During this period we have been working on different lines: we have worked on the functionalisation of cellulose and lignin nanofibres to subsequently form epoxy resins, on the reversibility of DA lace, on the treatment of fibres with CO2 technology and on the search for new enzymes with epoxy degradation properties, among many other things.

The meeting took place in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Our partners from NIC (National Institute of Chemistry) hosted the meeting and showed us their facilities, laboratories and the beautiful city of Ljubljana.

We also had the opportunity to meet with the partners of another European project, PROPLANET, with whom we had an interesting discussion on the search for synergies of action.

If you would like to learn more about the project, please do not hesitate to subscribe to our newsletter. And finally, don’t leave without taking a look at our first promotional video:

The research leading to these results has received funding from Horizon Europe Programme under grant agreement nº 101058371.

Circular Economy Forum: Challenge of plastic recycling

On the 27th of September, the Circular Economy Forum: Challenge of plastic recycling organized by the Institute for the Business Competitiveness of Castilla y León (ICE) in collaboration with the Cidaut Foundation was celebratedin the facilities of the Cidaut Foundation. This Forum was inaugurated by the Councillor for Economy and Finance of the Region of Castilla y León (Spain), Mr. Carlos Javier Fernández Carriedo, and the president of Cidaut Foundation, Mr. José Oliveri Gandarillas, who highlighted the importance of the transition towards a productive model of circular economy in the plastic sector.

With the aim of incorporating the circular economy as a key element to promote the change towards a model of sustainable development and focused on plastic materials in particular, the Forum addressed this aspect from a double point of view: first, trends in R&D related to the recycling of plastics was analyzed, and on the other hand, the latest developments in the regulatory context were addressed. This Circular Economy Forum had the following talks:

– ‘Future trends and challenges to optimize the quality of plastic recycling and its circularity’ presented by researchers from CIB-CSIC and ICTP-CSIC.

– ‘Panel Discussion: R&D as a key in the transition to the circular economy’ moderated by CyLTV and composed of the four partners of the Osiris Network -GAIKER, AIMPLAS, AITEX and CIDAUT- and the University of Valladolid (CELLMAT laboratory).

– ‘The new regulations: Challenges and solutions for the Circular Economy’ presented by CICLOPLAST.

– ‘Panel Discussion: Challenges and Opportunities for the different sectors in the new scenario of the recycling and circularity’ moderated by ECOEMBES and composed by the representatives of the following companies: Viscofan, SABIC, SOSTENPLAS and Grupo Antolin.

– ‘Case of successes’ presented by Mr. Antón Fernández, CEO of PolyNext-Naeco.

– ‘Roadmap for the Circular Economy in Castilla y León’ presented by the Natural Heritage Foundation of Castilla y León.

Finally, the event was closed by the Director of Cidaut Foundation, Mr. Juan Carlos Merino Senovilla, and after that the attendees were able to visit the facilities of Cidaut Foundation.

Cidaut’s occupants monitoring solutions

It seems obvious that driving automation needs new capabilities from the vehicle, lots of sensors have to be integrated to understand what is happening around, short and long range communication systems have to be developed to understand what is happening a little bit further, but, what about the occupants and their safety?

In the frame of Integra project, Cidaut is taking care of the occupants and their safety by modifying the design of the vehicle interior in accordance to the new needs. The first step is to know what is happing inside, with a webcam the occupants are recorded and thanks to the artificial intelligence the information is immediately processed to get relevant information. The functionalities developed by now include, the recognition of the occupant, the counting of flickers and yawns along time, the inclination of the head, the direction of the glance and the position and distance of the body. By processing all this information it is possible to know the alertness level of the driver and the position of all the occupants.

The alertness level is relevant for both standard and automated driving. In the case of the standard driving, the system can detect drowsiness, distraction or illness and alert the driver and/or the rest of the users of the road of this circumstance. In the case of the automated driving, mainly at level 3, it will be possible to alternate the responsibility of the driving between the vehicle and the driver. When the vehicle needs to take over the driving responsibility to the human, it has to be sure that the driver is ready to assume the control of the vehicle, thanks to the application developed it is easy to make this transition in a safety way.

The position of the occupants is also critical for their safety. The high automated levels of driving, mainly 3, 4 and 5, will allow the occupants to take positions inside the vehicle different from standardized ones. In these positions the usual restrain systems are unable to protect the occupants in a proper way. Attending to this, it is necessary to develop new restrain systems  suitable for the driving scenarios linked to the automated position and it is also necessary to monitor the occupants position in order to activate the new restrains systems in the most suitable manner attending to the kind of collision, the biometric characteristics of the occupant, and the position.

The work driving to these results is been performed in INTEGRA project, funded by and CDTI through Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación in the frame of the funding for Excellence in Research Centers “Cervera”. CER – 2021 1031.

On 16 february 2022, CIDAUT, jointly with Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico e Industrial (CDTI) and Instituto para la Competitividad Empresarial de Castilla y León (ICE), have organized the event “Cluster 4: proposal preparation for Horizon Europe Programme”

The official opening of this event was carried out by Mr. Jesús Jiménez de Miguel (ICE’s Valladolid Territorial Director), who remarked the importance that the participation in this kind of Research Programmes has for the Region.

Next, Mr. Francisco Núñez (Project Manager in the Technology Transfer Office of CIDAUT) presented useful information that anyone interested in submitting a proposal to the Horizon Europe Programme should know and have in mind to do it.

Mr. Enrique Pelayo (National Contact Point for Cluster 4 regarding Digital Technologies in the CDTI) show all the attendants not only important information about the call which is currently open for the proposal submission, but he also spoke about the future opportunities inside this cluster and the latest news available about important initiatives like the European Chips Act, which will be surely reflected in the next future European calls.

Cluster 4 – Digital NCPs

This interesting presentation was followed by Mr. Carlos Toledo (National Contact Point for Cluster 4 regarding Industrial Technologies in the CDTI) that made a deep review of all the topics that the current call has opened, including practical aspects and issues that should be considered to prepare a competitive proposal.

Cluster 4 – Industry NCPs

The event continued with a very detailed presentation done by Mrs. Isabel Pelaez (European Programmes Unit of the Institute for Business Competitiveness of Castilla y León (ICE)) about the Different services to impulse the participation of Castilla and Leon companies in the Horizon Europe Programme and other European RTD Programmes.

Finally, Mr. Francisco Núñez closed the event explaining the training and support Program for R&D Business Centr@Tec3.

Centr@tec3´s aim is to transfer innovative solutions and relevant technologies in each thematic area to entities and organizations in Castilla y León, through demonstrative actions and training of their technicians and managers, with the ultimate aim of encouraging companies to incorporate innovations and new technologies that will make them more competitive.

 Centr@Tec3 includes different actions and activities for SMEs, self employed professionals and entrepreneurs, encircled mainly around the following 5 big thematic areas: Support of the Internationalization of RTD activities, Increase of the awareness, demonstration and training, Support of the Digital Transformation, Innovation in Processes and Design of new Products and Services and Technologic Entrepreneurs support.

Workshop STEM on 26 of january

Fundación CIDAUT has several years being part of the STEM Initiative (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) in Spain. This initiative tries to promote the female enrolment in STEM careers. To achieve this objective, huge amount of work is being done to impulse and disseminate information about the professional opportunities that the STEM careers can offer to young students. This dissemination process is performed having advantage of the experience of relevant female researchers, in important positions within the different institutions that collaborate with the initiative, the adequate school guidance through mentoring processes and, of course, counting with the adequate support of the students’ families.

In this framework, CIDAUT has organized on 26 of January a workshop titled “Passive vehicle safety, correct and incorrect use of seat belts”, that was imparted by Mrs. Susana Escalante, Industrial Engineer and Director of the CIDAUT Impact Testing Department. The workshop was focused to 16 young high school female students with the intention of raise the awareness about researching inside vehicle safety systems and Intelligent Transport technologies.

In this sense, thanks to the INTEGRA national project, in which the Center is currently taking part, they have been able to discover how autonomous vehicles, capable of imitating human behaviour regarding handling and control, perceiving the environment that surrounds them, are going to become real in a next future.