A handful of electric vehicle and automated driving events

Cidaut has participated in EV2017, CIBIM17, 21CMH and LEVS2017

The last quarter of the year has been very active for Cidaut’s participation in events related to electromobility and automated driving. Going in chronological order, on October 5th and 6th, Cidaut was present at EV2017, Electric Vehicles International Conference & Show in Bucarest Romania. This event, technically co-sponsored by the IEEE, is a hub for electric mobility professionals with the possibility of presenting technical advances and testing the last novelties in sustainable solutions. In this scenario, and under the title “Lightweighting and passive safety for urban electric vehicle”, Cidaut presented a summary of the advanced technical solutions applied to three different solutions of urban electric vehicles structures: one of them based on CFRP, another one on multi-material and the last one on high strength steel solutions.

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Between the 23rd and 26th of October, Cidaut participated in CIBIM17, the XIII Congreso Iberoamericano de Ingeniería Mecánica, in Lisbon, Portugal. This event is a meeting with participants from most of the American countries and also from Europe with the aim of sharing the best practices in the Mechanical Engineering field. In this occasion Cidaut made a presentation entitled “Design and manufacturing of an urban, light, affordable and safe electric vehicle”. The most relevant results of the Urban-EV project were presented. Urban-EV is a European Project funded by the EC in the 7th Frame Programme that aims to reduce the weight of an urban electric vehicle using innovative solutions in materials and processes and improving at the same time the crashworthiness of the vehicle.

On the same week, between the 25th and 27th of October, Cidaut presented in San Sebastian, Spain, its vision on the future steps on automated vehicles. In the frame of The Future of Advance Manufacturing Congress, and under the title “Implementation of connected vehicles and autonomous driving in the market. Evolution or revolution”, Cidaut exposed the equilibrium needed between the evolution of the connectivity the ADAS and the infrastructure in order to cover the necessary steps to reached the automated driving in a balanced way.

And finally, by the end of November, 22nd and 23rd, Cidaut participated in LEVS 2017, the Light Electric Vehicle Summit, presenting the paper “Passive safety in different structures of light electric vehicles”. In this occasion Cidaut showed the crass test results under simulation and testing of three different European Projects all of them from the 7th Frame Programme: elight, Plus-Moby and Urban-EV. The main message of this presentation is that it is possible to design and manufacture light urban electric vehicles with high safety standards. In this event Cidaut is also part of the Scientific Committee.

ReFreeDrive, developing new electric motor technologies

ReFreeDrive is our most recently approved H2020 project. With the title “Rare earth free e-Drives featuring low cost manufacturing”, ReFreeDrive is focused on developing rare earth‐free traction technologies beyond their current state-of‐art, with a strong focus on industrial feasibility for mass production, targeting lower costs with higher specific torque and power density. The project was kicked off last 17th and 18th of October.

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ReFreeDrive joins 13 partners, 9 of them industrial partners, from 6 different European Countries. Coordinated by CIDAUT, the Consortium includes an OEM (Jaguar Land Rover), an applied research center focused on materials research (CSM), a Tier1 system integrator (Privé), motor designers for both the electric machines and the power electronics (Motor Design Limited, Univesity of L’Aquila, IFP Energies Nouvelles), manufacturers (Breuckmann, Aurubis, Tecnomatic, Mavel Powertrain, R13 Technology) and an association (European Copper Institute).

The project will study and develop simultaneously two solutions for the power traction system of electrical vehicles. Both solutions are brushless AC electrical machines: induction machine with fabricated and copper die-cast rotor (IM) and synchronous reluctance (SynRel) machine. Through their configurations these machines not only are rare-earth magnet free, but also share common features that can be exploited during the design step, as well in the manufacturing process. These common features lead to a complex synergy between the two technologies, which justify the development of different topologies of electric machines in just one project.

The design of the ReFreeDrive motors will take as a premise the reduction of use of materials, as more than half of the final price is formed by raw materials cost. Also, a minimization of manufacturing costs will be ensured by an early involvement of manufacturers, from the design stage. ReFreeDrive motor topologies have good room for cost reduction by off-setting permanent magnet use.

Beyond the motor design, ReFreeDrive also consider an integrated design of the power train that allows the optimization of the electric connections, the cooling systems and the housing.

Power electronics development will be mainly focused on the introduction of innovative Wide Bandgap power switch to allow high frequency operation and reduce cost associated with passive components. That advance allow achieving a 50% increase in the power density of motor power electronics and a 50% reduction in losses

ReFreeDrive proposes a scalable design that will be tested for two power range applications (75kW and 200kW). In this case, the market that this project addresses covers all the possible option of fully electric vehicles and hybrids.

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Remaghic, two years running!

Last September in San Sebastian, the Remaghic Project partners held the 24 month meeting general assembly. During the last months many decisions have been taken on the best chain of processes to recycle rare earths and on the design of the currently manufactured facility to recycle Mg and produce the Remaghic magnesium alloy. Currently, casting tests with different alloying elements have been done, corrosion and mechanical testing campaigns are ongoing, and the project faces the last project year where the industrial validation and the LCA will highlight the results achieved.

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The meeting took place on the 20th and 21st of September. During the first day, the meeting was focused on the last activities done to recycle rare earths from different residue streams (WP1), on the update of the alloy development (WP3), and on the industrial facility that has been designed and manufactured to enable magnesium foundries recycle in house their own scraps and drosses (WP4). Currently, the Remaghic Cosnortium is looking for partners to test this facility, if you are interested, contact us at remaghic@cidaut.es. The last part of the first day was dedicated to the LCA analysis of the different ongoing processes in the project.

The second project day was fully dedicated to the Dissemination, Communication and Exploitation work package. Now that results are on the table, Remaghic partners are making an effort to contribute with their knowledge on recycling processes to Europe’s scientific and manufacturing community. To mention one example, Cidaut presented the results and next steps for the Remaghic project at the International Magnesium Association European Committee Meeting last 25th of October held at Brunel University (BCAST) London. In November Remaghic project parntes will be also taking part at the23rd SETAC Europe LCA Case Studies Symposium with two posters respectively dedicated to rare earth elements recycling and magnesium recycling methodologies. The Symposium, organized by the International Life Cycle Academy will take place in Barcelona, meet us there!

 

CIDAUT participates in the International Course on Energy Production organized by BEST

On September 7th, the CIDAUT Foundation held the session “Generation of Renewable Thermal Energy in the residential and tertiary sector” corresponding to the International Course “Feel the energy … Life is on” organized by the BEST Association of the University of Valladolid. The sesions was organised in CIDAUT´S facilities at the Boecillo Technology Park.

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The BEST organization (Board of European Students of Technology) is an international, apolitical and non-profit association formed by technological career students from all over Europe. It is present in 96 universities in 33 European countries.

The Autumn BEST Course 2017, held in Valladolid from September 3 to 12 and, was focused on knowledge about the present and future of the different energy production processes in Spain. It was attended by a total of 22 students from thirteen European nationalities such as Croatia, Macedonia, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Poland…

During the first part of the session, Henar Olmedo and Valentín Castaño, belonging to the Energy Area of CIDAUT, presented their knowledge about renewable thermal energy production systems. In particular, it was focused on those systmes that best adapt to residential and tertiary buildings and about the optimal conditions for its integration. In addition, it was showed the different European R & D projects in which CIDAUT participates in this field.

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The second part of the session was devoted to know in a practical way different testing facilities available in CIDAUT for the development of renewable energy systems. The students could see in a tangible way the different testing facilities of CIDAUTas well as some of the main systems developed in CIDAUT. It was shown in a more special and detailed way the CIDERPLUS boilers for the generation of thermal energy from biomass and the thermal solar panels production facilities of CIDERSOL. Finally, in this last facility the students could see in a real way the automated production process of assembly of the CIDERSOL panels, as well as the manufacturing and storage facilities.

More information about BEST Association: http://bestvalladolid.org/

Keywords: Energy, BEST, Autum course2017

CIDAUT participates very actively in the sessions organized in Expobiomasa 2017

Expobiomasa 2017, the show organised by AVEBIOM (the Spanish Association for the Energy Recycling of Biomass), was held in Valladolid from 26 to 29 September 2017. The exhibition was set to bring together over 600 companies and firms in the biomass sector from 30 countries. This is an increase of 30 percent over the previous edition. Expobiomasa 2017 brought together in four days all the professionals involved in the thriving business of biomass.

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The fair is not just an equipment exhibition and also includes different sessions and workshops where CIDAUT was present in an active way both as assistant and speaker.

11 International Conference Bioenergy:  “Bioenergy 4.0: challenges and opportunities”

The 11th International Congress of Bioenergy it was planned to connect digital 4.0 technologies with bioenergy companies, an essential sector for the decarbonisation of the economy. The digitalisation of this sector represents both a challenge and an opportunity and it is considered that those who are quick to incorporate digital economy systems into their processes and offer intelligent products and services will have an advantage over competitors.

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CIDAUT attended the congress that was set to present the tools available to implement industry 4.0 in SMEs, the development of fourth-generation district heating & cooling, the use of smart meters. Finally, it was show their integration into energy management and look at the available technological solutions and success stories.

MOVBIO project in the technical presentations

Within the scope of the technical presentations, CIDAUT had the opportunity to present its MOVBIO project granted by the INTERREG V A España-Portugal (POCTEP) 2014-2020 program. The 28th September, Jose Ignacio Dominguez, the project manager of MOVBIO, presented the project, as well as the main objectives and tasks to be developed both by CIDAUT and the rest of the partners. The session was followed by numerous attendees, as well as by the AEMVA, another partner of the project.

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MOVBIO will allow the valorisation of existing biomass that currently neither has a defined utilization circuit nor energy use due to its special characteristics. In particular, MOVBIO will facilitate the energy valorization of pruning biomass of agricultural and urban origin (pruning biomass of parks and gardens) by means of the evaluation of the technical and economic feasibility of adaptations on the processes of pretreatment and thermal utilization. It is also intends to help strengthen the business model making it more sustainable through the efficient use of residual biomass and the promotion of business innovation.

CIDERPLUS INNOVATIONS

The same day, Jose Ignacio Dominguez also presented the latest innovations and developments carried out within the CIDERPLUS project developed by CIDAUT. Among these innovations it is worth highlighting the energy generation system EnergyBox (containerized biomass boilers). This system also includes energy hybridization proposals to make them more interesting to certain facilities and the development of computer applications for the control of the biomass recovery chain (Ciderplus 4.0).

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Keywords: Expobiomasa2017, MOVBIO, CIDERPLUS