STEEL S4 EV reaches midterm

The European Project STEEL S4 EV, funded by the Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) has successfully completed the first half of research and development activities. This item has coincided in the time with the presentation of the design of the second vehicle of the project: the threewheeler. The design presents several parallelism with the four wheels vehicle defined in the first stages of the project. The objectives behind this similarity are multiple, on one hand to simplify and make cheaper the manufacturing process, making possible to assembly both vehicles in the same assembly line, on the other hand to warranty the same level of integral safety as in the four wheels vehicle.

The solution adopted for the threewheeler is a two in line seats vehicle, with one wheel in the front, the electric motor in the rear axle, under the rear seat, and the battery pack under the front seat. The structure of the vehicle is made of different grades of Advanced High Strength Steel, where the geometry of the tubes and their thickness have been optimized to maximize the energy absorption in the frontal part of the vehicle and to warranty the undeformability of the safety cell, where the occupants are allocated.

In order to get this target, in parallel to the optimization of the crashworthiness through the finite elements methodology, advanced research is been done about the optimization of the welded joints of the advanced high strength steels. In every welding joint, not only the weld seam, but also the heat affected zone, suffers an important loss of mechanical properties due to the melting and uncontrolled cooling of the material. In the case of the Advanced High Strength Steels, this loss of properties is still more critical due to the special characteristics of the material. One of the objectives of STEEL S4 EV Project is to optimize the welding parameters, to improve the heat treatment of the joints in order to improve the static, dynamic and fatigue behavior of the welding joints of the complete structure of both vehicles, the three wheeler and also the four wheels vehicle.

In April, it has been held the Midterm Review Meeting of STEEL S4 EV Project, between the Project Coordinator, the Project Officer and some technical experts from the TGA 4. After a successful meeting, the activities of the project go on with the focus on the prototype manufacturing and the preparation of the different tests.

 

CIDAUT attends the Circular Economy Conference in Valladolid

On March 2, another of the sessions on the Circular Economy Conference in Castilla y León was held in the Prae in Valladolid. The conference was opened by the Minister of Development and Environment of the Junta de Castilla y León, D. Juan Carlos Suárez-Quiñones and CIDAUT had the opportunity to attend.

The objectives of the Circular Economy Conference in Castilla y León were to present public promotion policies in Castilla y León and in Spain in this area, present the latest technologies, trends and share business success stories in Circular Economy.

Juan Alfaro, General Secretary of the Club for Excellence in Sustainability, talked about the Integration of the Circular Economy in the business strategy and the director of Programs of the Natural Heritage Foundation of Castilla y León, Jesús Díez, presented the Regional Strategy for the Circular Economy of Castilla y León.

The day had a section on Good Business Practices moderated by the vicepresident of CECALE, Angela de Miguel. The director of the Environment of Mahou San Miguel, the director of Circular Economy of Saint-Gobain Placo, the head of Circular Economy of Red Eléctrica de España, the responsible of Waste Treatment in Castilla y León at FCC Medio Ambiente and the head of the Industrial Performance Valladolid Department, Renault Spain participated in this section.

Finally, the Circular Economy Conference in Castilla y León had a round table where representatives from León and Valladolid presented the Circular Economy Strategies in these two Cities. The Councilor for Finance of the León City Council, Carmelo Alonso Sutil and the Councilor for Innovation, Economic Development, Employment and Commerce, Valladolid City Council, Rosario Chávez were in charge of energizing this last part.

CIDAUT participates in the General Assembly ECOGATE project

On February 26th, the General Assembly of ECO-GATE Project was held in Naturgy facilities (Madrid), where all the consortium partners show the progress in the implementation of Natural Gas solutions in transport sector. 12 gas-refueling stations are already working and other 8 will be implemented in the following months. These are aimed to supply vehicular natural gas in the Atlantic and Mediterranean corridors of the road network of Spain, France, Germany and Portugal.

16 Innovative solutions in supply logistic services, cleaner fuel composition, refueling infrastructure, vehicle and components manufacturers and operational process have been successfully tested or implemented. CIDAUT innovation is focused on the storage of natural gas on-board at lower pressure than Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), specifically in the adsorbed natural gas storage (ANG). This system store more energy per unit volume at the same pressure as the storage of compressed natural gas (CNG). ANG allows the use of tanks that work at lower pressure (60 bar), with the advantages that this entails: greater flexibility in the design of the tank, greater formability, lower refueling costs, the possibility of home refueling and greater security.

Laboratory tests have been carried out and the innovation has been implemented in a dual-fuel diesel-natural gas van, as a pilot test within ECO-GATE project. Several tests in the real-scale pilot have been already done with satisfactory results.

“The sole responsibility of this publication lies with the author. The European Union is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.”

More info about ECOGATE project: https://eco-gate.eu/

Cidaut supports biofuels in Spain and attends the conference organized at CIEMAT

The CIEMAT Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts Unit together with the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism (MINCOTUR) organized a conference on Biofuels in Spain on February 26 within the framework of the European project BIOFIT (Bioenergetic Retrofitting of the European Industry). CIDAUT had the opportunity to attend the conference and share experiences with the attendees.

The purpose of this conference was also to create a forum for discussion between the different actors linked to this sector, public and private, and to promote the implementation and development of biofuels to achieve the objectives established in the PNIEC, among others.

It was attended by A. Cros, representative of MINCOTUR who spoke about the Financial Support Instruments for the biofuel industry, F.J Dominguez of IDAE who presented the regulatory framework for the production and use of biofuels and J. Ferrero, representative of MITECO, who exposed the role of biofuels in the PNIEC.

Within the framework of the conference there were other very interesting presentations on the importance of sustainable biofuels in aviation by AESA and biofuels in 2030 and the Green Deal by BIOPLAT. The present and the future of biofuels in Spain were discussed by APPA and an ePURE representative offered his vision of the bioethanol situation in Europe. The president of the BIO-E association spoke about the economic and environmental benefits of the use of bioethanol and, on the part of CCAE, he presented about bioeconomics and agricultural development linked to biofuels.

SNPAA (France) discussed aid plans in the biofuels sector in that country and AOP and ANFAC discussed about the opportunities for the oil industry and biofuels for the automotive industry respectively. Finally, Novozymes company spoke about the biorefineries associated with biofuels and their possibilities.

The day was a success since the capacity was completed with an attendance of more than 170 people. The welcome of the initiative by the sector that had not had a meeting point for a long time was highlighted and BIOE was summoned to turn the event into an annual periodic appointment.

 

NEOHIRE Project closure

Last January 2020, coinciding with the end of NEOHIRE Project, several events took place at CEIT’s premises in San Sebastián (Spain).

On the 28th, the External Expert Advisory Board (EEAB) meeting was held. In addition to the project partners, Giuseppe Volpe (Motor Design Ltd.) and Mohan Pasupathy (Wall Colmonoy Ltd.) attended the meeting as representatives of the EEAB. Main technical achievements and results were shared and discussed.

On the 29th, the Final Review Meeting took place. Mr. Martti Paju attended the meeting as Technical Monitor. The overall progress of NEOHIRE project was thoroughly reviewed: milestones and deliverables status, main results per Task/Work Package and dissemination activities, including know-how generated during the project (publications and patents).

Finally, on the 30th CEIT organized a NEOHIRE showcase as project Final Event. The event, which counted on the presence of the regional deputy of economy as chairman, allowed the partners to share key project results through about 11 specific dissertations with more than 50 relevant researchers in the field. Some of the topics covered were: sustainable alternative to rare earths, key minerals for mobility avoiding the dependence on China and magnets technologies for the future.

VULKANO successfully come to the end

VULKANO team during Valji visit in the Final Event

The Final Event of VULKANO project took place in Celje (Slovenia) on 23rd-24th January 2020 in presence of the Project officer and Technical Advisor of the European Commission. The meeting gathered more than 30 members of 11 companies located in 6 different countries, in order to review the final status of the project after the forty two months of execution.

This Final Event comprised several parts. Firstly, during the morning on 23rd it was held the last General Assembly where it was reviewed internally the results of the project, mainly the implementation solutions in the demo sites.

The same day during the afternoon and with the presence of the members of the EC, a visit was made to Valji facilities where it was possible to verify in situ the implementation of the replica furnace along with the rest of the solutions: co-firing system, PCMs (phase change material), new refractory materials and monitoring and control system.  This visit offered a better understanding of the results obtained in the project which were exposed to the Project officer and the Technical advisor during the Review meeting held the next day on 24th. The review meeting included all work packages, not only technical, but also the results of exploitation and dissemination were exposed. Of relevant interest were the results related to the implementations of the pilot demos.

VULKANO SOLUTIONS SCHEME

The Final event concluded on the 24th with a presentation of the results to interested companies and stakeholders in order to show the viability of VULKANO solutions in an individual and integrated way, so the holistic predictive tool. The event was attended by a large number of stakeholders and companies from Slovenia.

As a conclusion, VULKANO project has satisfactorily achieved its objectives throughout this time, obtaining useful results. Two demo furnaces which integrate 5 innovative solutions: improved refractory materials, PCM-based energy recovery, co-firing system with renewable gases, monitoring and control system and finally holistic predictive tool. Three energy intensive sectors have been involved: ceramic and steel as demo sites and aluminium as case study in theoretical demo.

It has been a pleasure for CIDAUT to be part of this project and work on the VULKANO project with the great team that all the members of the consortium comprise. Thank you!

More info: http://www.vulkano-h2020.eu/

 

CIDAUT attends two important hydrogen events in Europe in the first months of 2020

The European Commission presented the European Green Deal on Wednesday (11 December 2019), outlining the main policy initiatives for reaching net-zero global warming emissions by 2050 and  Hydrogen will be a key instrument for meeting the Green Deal objectives.

In this sense, several events are taking place in Europe to promote and develop hydrogen-based technologies and CIDAUT has attended two of them.

Following the launch of the 2020 Call for proposals, the FCH JU held its annual Info Day in Brussels on 27 January 2020.

The Programme Officers introduced the various call topics on transport pillar, energy pillar and cross-cutting area. Rules for participation, call conditions and evaluation were presented.  In addition, it was given advice for a good approach according to the evaluators’ vision, as well as a review on communication and dissemination of results. It was finally made an introduction to Hydrogen Europe Industry and Research and some National Contact Points.

The event gathered almost 400 participants from across Europe, both on site and online. The deadline for submitting the proposals is 21 April 2020.

Following on hydrogen in Europe, CIDAUT has participated in the HyVolution event that took place on February 4-5 2020 at the Parc Floral de Paris. The two-day show provided an opportunity for meetings, discussions and business appointments, where all the players involved in the field of hydrogen were able to present their range of offers to the sector’s developers and decision-makers: products, services and applications for production, storage, distribution, gas-related technologies, etc. Some 120 exhibitors and brands were present at the show. The aim was to accelerate the deployment of hydrogen solutions by bringing together players from every potential market.

This year HyVolution 2020 hosted the third plenary session of the Hydrogen Valleys Partnership, attended by regional and European delegations. CIDAUT, as co-coordinator of the Working Group of Production, Transport and Storage participated in the plenary meeting and presented several pitches of project ideas, one of them developed by CIDAUT.

The plenary session was attended by FCHJU director Bart Biebuyck and Christian Weinberger of DG GROW who offered their vision on the future of innovation and financing in Hydrogen in Europe.

CIDAUT returns to the session of the AeH2 in GENERA 2020 one more year

On February 5th, AeH2 organized the Technical Conference “Hydrogen: a key to ensure climate neutrality” held within the framework of the Renewable Energy and Environment Fair, GENERA in Madrid. The full capacity of this conference shows the growing interest in these technologies that will be key in the path towards climate neutrality.

Both at national level, with the Law on Climate Change and the Integrated National Plan for Energy and Climate 2021-2030 (PNIEC), and at international level, with the Green Deal, objectives of renewable energy penetration and decarbonization of the economy are setting very ambitious to reach climate neutrality by 2050.

And that focused on the first part of the Conference: “Climate Neutrality in 2050: the European Green Deal and the Spanish PNIEC” with the participation of D. Alexandru Floristean, legal & project manager in Hydrogen Europe, D. Santiago González, of the department of Regulatory Framework and Corporate Strategy of IDAE and Mr. Javier Brey, president of AeH2. It was moderated by Mr. Antonio González, vice president of AeH2.

In the second part of the conference, moderated by Mr. Miguel A. Peña, secretary of the AeH2, partners of the AeH2 presented hydrogen-based solutions to achieve climate neutrality. It was at this time when CIDAUT, represented by José Ignacio Domínguez, presented its capabilities and work proposals in the production of hydrogen from renewable sources. The rest of the presentations also demonstrated that hydrogen has a great potential in Spain and the drive of projects based on these technologies represents a clear commitment to sustainability and an increasingly green future.

Final event of the MOVBIO Project

As a perfect ending of the Interreg-Poctep MOVBIO project, two closing events were held, one on each side of the border Spain-Portugal during the past month of December 2019.

On the Portuguese side, the closing event of the MOVBIO project took place in Guimarães on December 12, in which the main results and conclusions of the work developed during the project were presented.

Portuguese partners (CVR and AEdoAVE) showed the results of the work carried out during the last two and a half years. These results referred to the study of energy needs in the area of cooperation, the role of pruning of biomass as an energy resource and the analysis of current pruning biomass management models compared to more environmentally and financially sustainable ones. On behalf of CIDAUT, the pruning biomass observatory available on the project website (www.movbio.eu) was presented.

In Spain, it was on December 17 when the final dissemination of results of the MOVBIO project took place in the auditorium of the D.O. Rueda, in Rueda (Valladolid).

During the workshop, CIDAUT, as project coordinator, presented the main conclusions obtained from the project and Itacyl explained the study of pruning biomass potential carried out, as well as the conclusions of good practices obtained from the project. In addition, it was possible to see first-hand the initiatives that Somacyl is carrying out in the use of vine pruning as fuel for its thermal and electrical generation plants.

Finally, during both events, the manual of good practices for the viable collection of pruning biomass was distributed among the attendees.

CIDAUT will test autonomous vehicles and innovative safety applications in the frame of SAFE STRIP, H2020 Project.

Along March and April CIDAUT will be in charge of the user trials of the European Project SAFE STRIP. The trials will involve 20 drivers and 10 riders that will test different safety applications installed in autonomous vehicles and also in standard vehicles C-ITS equipped. SAFE STRIPS aims to introduce a disruptive technology that has achieved to embed C-ITS applications in existing road infrastructure, including novel I2V and V2I, as well as VMS/VSL functions into low-cost, integrated strip markers on the road; to make roads self-explanatory (with personalized in-vehicle messages) and forgiving (due to advanced cooperative functions) for all road users (trucks, cars and vulnerable road users, such as PTWs riders) and all vehicle generation (non-equipped, C-ITS equipped, autonomous), with reduced maintenance cost, full recyclability and added value services, as well as supporting real-time predictive road maintenance functions.

SAFE STRIP consortium is formed by 18 partners that have collaborated for three years in the development of innovative solutions to improve safety, mobility, efficiency, emissions and society. Some of the partners, Valeo, Continental and Certh are using their autonomous vehicles to test the applications developed. The scenarios to be tested are: vulnerable road users protection, wrong way driving detection, road wear level and predictive road maintenance, work zone detection, railway crossing detection, urban intersection support, motorway exit, virtual variable message signals, dynamic trajectory estimation, definition of lane-level virtual corridors, virtual toll and parking support.

Along the tests CIDAUT will make pre and post questionnaires to the users that together with the data registered in the trials and the traffic flow simulations made by the University of Trento will provide all the information needed to make an impact assessment about the influence of the solutions adopted in safety, mobility, efficiency and exhaust emissions. In parallel, a cost benefit analysis will be performed to determine the economic availability of the different solutions implemented.