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The SustainComp project aims at the development of a series of completely new wood-based sustainable composite materials for use in a wide array of market sectors, ranging from the medical, transportation and packaging to the construction sector. A primary goal is to substitute fossil-based materials used in these sectors. The performance of today's biocomposite materials is not sufficient for a range of applications. The approach is to better utilize the inherent properties of cellulosic fibres and nanocellulose fibrils in such materials. The project encompasses the whole chain from production of modified fibres and nanocellulose through compounding and moulding to the final ecodesigned product for a number of product families. These new materials will integrate today s large enterprises on the raw material and end-use sides (e.g. pulp mills and packaging manufacturers) and small and medium sized enterprises on the composite processing side (e.g. compounders and composite manufacturers). It is envisioned that this will help the transformation of the traditional Forest Products Industry to more highly value added materials through the adaption of a set of advanced technologies such as the production of nanocellulose in larger scale, tailoring of fibres and nanocellulose, wet commingling, nanostructuring, layer by layer deposition and fibre spinning using nanocellulose fibrils. More specifically the objective is to demonstrate new products within the following product families: - Nano-reinforced foams (to replace styrofoams in the packaging and construction sector) - Moulded type of compounds, to introduce cellulose reinforced renewable biocomposites in the transportation and construction sectors - High throughput nanostructured membranes with designed selectivity for small-scale liquid applications in the medical field to large scale municipal applications This project conforms to the envisioned composite program in the Forest Technology Platform. Prime Contractor: Innventia AG; Stockholm; Schweden/Sverige.
SUNBIOPATH - towards a better sunlight to biomass conversion efficiency in microalgae - is an integrated program of research aimed at improving biomass yields and valorisation of biomass for two Chlorophycean photosynthetic microalgae, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and Dunaliella salina. Biomass yields will be improved at the level of primary processes that occur in the chloroplasts (photochemistry and sunlight capture by the light harvesting complexes) and in the cell (biochemical pathways and signalling mechanisms that influence ATP synthesis). Optimal growth of the engineered microalgae will be determined in photobioreactors, and biomass yields will be tested using a scale up approach in photobioreactors of different sizes (up to 250 L), some of which being designed and built during SUNBIOPATH. Biomethane production will be evaluated. Compared to other biofuels, biomethane is attractive because the yield of biomass to fuel conversion is higher. Valorisation of biomass will also be achieved through the production of biologicals. Significant progress has been made in the development of chloroplast genetic engineering in microalgae such as Chlamydomonas, however the commercial exploitation of this technology still requires additional research. SUNBIOPATH will address the problem of maximising transgenic expression in the chloroplast and will develop a robust system for chloroplast metabolic engineering by developing methodologies such as inducible expression and trans-operon expression. A techno economic analysis will be made to evaluate the feasibility of using these algae for the purposes proposed (biologicals production in the chloroplast and/or biomethane production) taking into account their role in CO2 mitigation.
The goal of the proposed research project is to reconstruct a human cornea in vitro, for use both in corneal grafting and as an alternative to animal models for cosmeto-pharmacotoxicity testing. The project responds to the urgent need to develop new forms of corneal replacements as alternatives to the use of donor corneas, in view of the worldwide shortage of donors, the increasing risk of transmissible diseases, the widespread use of corrective surgery, which renders corneas unsuitable for grafting, and the severe limitations of currently available synthetic polymer-based artificial corneas (keratoprostheses). The originality of the proposal lies in the use of recombinant human extra cellular matrix proteins to build a engineered-engineered scaffold to support growth of the different cell types found in the cornea, cells to be derived from human adult stem cell pools. The development of a reconstructed human cornea will represent a real breakthrough, allowing diseased or damaged corneas to be replaced by tissue-engineered human corneal equivalents that resemble in all respects their natural counterparts. The proposal also responds to impending ED legislation banning the marketing of cosmetic products that have been tested on animals, using procedures such as the Raise rabbit eye irritation test. The development of tissue-engineered corneas will provide a non-animal alternative, which will therefore alleviate animal suffering. The project will lead to a transformation of industry to meet societal needs using innovative, knowledge-based approaches integrating Nan technology and biotechnology. The project brings together 14 participants with complementary expertise from 9 different countries, including basic scientists, ophthalmologists and industrialists (three Sees). Ethical and standardisation aspects will also be included. Prime Contractor: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut de Biologie et Chimie des Proteines - UMR5086; Paris; France.
General Information: It is proposed to investigate and model the properties of highly anisotropic short fibre composites (glass fibre reinforced LCP's and 'long fibre' reinforced thermoplastic materials). These advanced composites are compared to standard short fibre composites. 'Push-Pull' injection moulding is used to process these materials and to come to a quasi-multilayered laminate structure in the parts. The properties of these composites are highly determined by processing parameters, design of part and gating and especially by the local fibre and matrix orientation and fibre length distribution. The proposal is intended as fundamental research to provide novel tool for designing, processing and quality control of highly anisotropic materials. These tools are morphology-based and pay attention to the high gradients in fibre and matrix orientation. These objectives are achieved by three principal tasks: 1. Modelling of the 'Push-Pull' injection moulding process will provide tools to predict fibre and matrix orientation in the layers, that are formed while the melt flows several times through the mould. Crystallisation and viscous heating effects in the solidifying boundary are important for the process-related morphology. 2. Modelling of local material properties (tensors of stiffness and thermal expansion) based on measured local matrix and fibre orientation tensors, local fibre volume fraction, matrix crystallinity and local fibre length distribution. 3. Developing and application of new 2D and 3D image analysis methods to measure morphological parameters of the fibre reinforcement. Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy using optical and physical sectioning combined with pattern matching will provide fibre orientation and length data in a one-step 3D analysis. Successful completion should strengthen the European position in the market of these advanced composites by a reduction of the development time for new parts of more than 30 per cent. This will result in a corresponding reduction of product costs. Material properties of advanced composites are improved significantly (e.g. weldline strength by more than 50 per cent) by the new 'Push-Pull' process. Achievements: A new Push-Pull mould was developed to produce different plate geometries with different grades of nylon-6.6 and LCP. Fibre orientation measurements proved that Push-Pull processing can be used to produce highly oriented glass fibre reinforced samples. The influence of non-constant thickness, diverging and converging flow respectively was investigated by fibre orientation measurements and tensile tests in these parts. A range of fibre reinforced samples has been characterized by 2D image analysis, 3D confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and ultrasonic, time of flight measurements. Significant sample regions have been scanned by these techniques.
One of the major problems that civil aeronautics will have to face over the next twenty or thirty years is to accommodate the predicted growth in demand of air transport without creating unacceptable adverse environmental effects. It is to be expected that new scientific results, increasing public concerns over the environment and future restrictive regulations with respect to aircraft emissions will force airline companies to take ecological considerations much more into account than it does at present. Consequently, for European aircraft manufacturers it is of high importance to react early and to guide their research and development resources into the most important and efficient direction. The aim of the AERONET project is to support coordination ' a postiori' of existing European and national projects or programmes dealing with the contribution of air traffic emissions to anthropogenic climate and atmospheric changes. For this purpose AERONET seeks to : - bring together experts from engine technology, atmospheric research and operations as well as programme responsible to exchange knowledge and opinions and to discuss necessary future actions on the basis of jointly defined goals and time scales, - produce competitive advantage for Europe through enhanced information echoing in the field of atmospheric effects of air traffic emissions, - strengthen a common European position in global technical and political discussions - support the Commission in identifying topics for the 5th Framework Programme, - identify gaps and help prepare a coordinated submission of proposals. European Dimension and Partnership: Europe is, beside the US, one of the two biggest aircraft manufacturers. One supposition for the economic success of European aircraft industry is not only to fulfill the existing regulations but, due to the long development times of 5-10 years and the long lifetimes of aircraft of more than 20 years, also to take the trend of future regulations development into account at a very early stage. This needs continuous and fast information exchange and discussions between atmospheric scientists, aircraft engineers and regulatory organisations. To be successful with an effort of this dimension, optimal coordination of national and European programmes in all three fields is required. Thus the network brings together representatives of all programmes and institutions concerned, helps to integrate activities through better information exchange, tries to identify the most urgent themes for R&D activities and intends to give recommendations for the Fifth Framework Programme. Potential Applications: Understanding the atmospheric impacts, the technical consequences and development perspectives, and the operational impacts as a whole is absolutely necessary to strengthen the European position in global regulatory committees on the on side and to gain competitive advantages for the European aircraft and airline industries on the other side. usw
The baking industry includes companies that make value added products including bread, buns, rolls, doughs, desserts, crusts, pastas, cookies, biscuits, crackers etc. that are either baked or frozen. The use of refrigeration technology has made a bakery's location independent of its customers, thereby broadening the geographic market potential and contributing to the growth of this sector. However, this development does have a cost. Bakeries are energy intensive, using large amounts of electricity and natural gas to operate the refrigeration system, compressed air system and ovens. These energy costs are rising and becoming a significant portion of the ingredient costs of baked goods. About 10Prozent of the total electrical and thermal energy consumption of all craft enterprises originates from the bakery sector. Accordingly there are many possibilities for energy reduction and therefore to permanently reduce the costs for the enterprises and thus to make a sustainable contribution to climate protection. Making changes in the energy use patterns of bakeries would be the fastest way to affect the energy profile of bread, because bakery is responsible for 70 and 80Prozent of the total energy consumption in conventional and organic bread production, respectively. Overall aim of the NanoBAK-Collaborative Project is the efficient energy management in the baking industry. Specific aim of this project is the development and demonstration of a novel marketable climatic chamber with an innovative, energy-saving nano-aerosol humidification system. Lab tests have shown that the energy consumption using ultrasonic humidification is significantly lower than for conventional humidification. The innovative ultrasonic humidification of the NanoBAK Project saves up to 50Prozent of energy compared to conventional humidifiers. Furthermore the quality of the bakery goods is of high value, so that the ultrasonic humidifier is profitable both energetically and qualitative.
Since the publication of the ACARE goals, the commercial and political pressure to reduce CO2 has increased considerably. DREAM is the response of the aero-engine community to this pressure. The first major DREAM objective is to design, integrate and validate new engine concepts based on open rotor contra-rotating architectures to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions 7Prozent beyond the ACARE 2020 objectives. Open rotors are noisier than equivalent high bypass ratio turbofan engines, therefore it is necessary to provide solutions that will meet noise ICAO certification standards. The second major DREAM objective is a 3dB noise emission reduction per operation point for the engine alone compared to the Year 2000 engine reference. These breakthroughs will be achieved by designing and rig testing: Innovative engine concepts a geared and a direct drive contra-rotating open rotor (unducted propulsion system) Enabling architectures with novel active and passive engine systems to reduce vibrations These technologies will support the development of future open rotor engines but also more traditional ducted turbofan engines. DREAM will also develop specifications for alternative fuels for aero-engines and then characterise, assess and test several potential fuels. This will be followed by a demonstration that the selected fuels can be used in aero-engines. The DREAM technologies will then be integrated and the engine concepts together with alternative fuels usage assessed through an enhanced version of the TERA tool developed in VITAL and NEWAC. DREAM is led by Rolls-Royce and is made of 47 partners from 13 countries, providing the best expertise and capability from the EU aeronautics industry and Russia. DREAM will mature technologies that offer the potential to go beyond the ACARE objectives for SFC, achieving a TRL of 4-5. These technologies are candidates to be brought to a higher TRL level within the scope of the CLEAN SKY JTI. Prime Contractor: Rolls Royce PLC; London; United Kingdom.
The overall objective of the current project is to make a significant contribution to the dissemination of PV in order to improve the sustainability of the European energy supply, to reduce environmental hazards such as global warming and to strengthen the economical situation of the European PV industry. The main project objective is the demonstration of PV modules using solar cells which are substantially thinner than today s common practice. We will reduce the current solar cell thickness from typically 200-250 mym down to 100 mym. Assuming a projected kerf loss of 120 mym for 2010, this will enable more than 50Prozent additional wafers to be cut from each silicon ingot. Additionally, by using advanced solar cell device structures and module interconnection technology, we target to increase the average efficiency for these thin cells up to 19Prozent for mono-crystalline and 17.2Prozent for multi-crystalline silicon and to reach a module-to-cell efficiency ratio above 90Prozent. The processing and handling of wafers and cells will be adapted in order to maintain standard processing yields. Including scaling aspects, this corresponds to a module cost reduction of approximately 30Prozent until 2011 and 1.0 /Wp extrapolated until 2016. Furthermore Si demand can be reduced from 10 to 6 g/Wp providing a significant effect on the eco-impact of PV power generation. The partners of this project form an outstanding consortium to reach the project goals, including two leading European R&D institutes as well as five companies with recorded and published expertise in the field of thin solar cells. The project is structured in 5 work packages covering the process chain from wafer to module as well as integral eco-assessment and management tasks. The expected impact of the project is a PV energy cost reduction of approximately 30Prozent, a significant reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and an improved competitiveness of the European solar cell, module and equipment manufacturers.
Objective: The present proposal aims at the development of innovative multidisciplinary sets of tests and indicators for toxicological profiling of nanoparticles (NPs) as well as unravelling the correlation between the physicochemical characteristics of NPs and their toxic potential on various organs of the human body. For a comprehensive understanding of the complex data to be obtained on toxicology of NPs, based on in-vitro and ex-vivo studies, we will employ conventional toxicology combined with the methodologies of toxicogenomics, metabonomics, Knowledge Discovery from Data (KDD) and Data Mining (DM). This research program is focused towards understanding the relation of size and surface chemistry on the deposition, uptake, translocation, and toxicity of a few s elected industrially important NPs as well as novel synthesized NPs, whose size and surface chemistry will be methodically modified. Since it was shown that the penetration of NPs into the human body proceeds principally through inhalation or orally, whereas penetration through healthy skin is restricted, we have chosen lung and intestine as the primary interacting tissues/organs with NPs, while liver, kidney and the immunological system have been selected to be the secondary major sites of interaction, following the penetration of NPs into the blood circulation. The interaction of the NPs with these different target organs will be studied by making use of alternative methods to animal experimentation by employing in-vitro cell systems as well as ex-vivo studies based on precision-cut slices of lung, liver and kidney. The present proposal addresses the needs of the European society for assessing the risk of occupational and general population exposure to industrially manufactured NPs. It will generate new knowledge on potential health risk or the absence of it, providing objective arguments for recommendations and regulations.
Objective: We combine state-of-the-art techniques, methodologies, skills and instrumentation from several scientific arenas to create discipline-independent platforms to address key questions in nanotoxicology. Thus, we identify the routes via which nanoparticles enter and accumulate in living organisms, and connect this to representative cell-nanoparticle systems. Then using the most advanced methods of chemical, physical, biological and toxicological sciences we connect nanoparticle properties (in physiological conditions) to the mechanisms via which they interact with, and disrupt, cellular processes. We establish means and protocols via which every step of the program will be controlled, eliminating the factors that currently cause irreproducibilities. We emphasize novel unbiased assessments of intra- and inter-cellular processes after exposure to nanoparticles, enabling us to explore known, and unknown, processes. Key companies, large and small from several end-user groups, that are currently facing the challenge of applying nanotechnology in their products are built into the program in a substantial manner, and other key stake-holders are also incorporated into the overall consortium via the Advisory Board. This will ensure maximum uptake of the knowledge generated by NanoInteract, and enable development of Standards for nanoparticle risk assessment.
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