Cnr at the forefront of environmental sustainability and energy efficiency research with two Horizon Europe Projects, Net4Air and ECHO
With the two Horizon Europe Projects NET4Air and ECHO, both started on January 1st, 2023, Cnr-Icmate is at the forefront of environmental sustainability and energy efficiency research, embracing goals 7 (affordable clean energy), 11 (sustainable cities and communities) and 13 (climate actions) of the 2030 UN Agenda
NET4Air is under the Twinning framework of the EU Widening participation and spreading excellence sub-programme: together with The National Institute for Research and Development in Microtechnologies (IMT) (Bucharest-Romania) and Tyndall Institute (Cork-Ireland), Icmate will improve its research capacity in the field of air quality monitoring. The goals of the Net4Air project are to significantly advance excellence capacity, resources, know-how and attractiveness in innovative nanotechnologies, materials, devices, smart systems, data analytics and best-practices for environment monitoring. These goals are in line with the European Green Deal principles for protecting the environment and contributing to citizens health and wellbeing.
As to NET4Air research activities, the exploratory project “Wearable and /or portable platform for air monitoring” will be carried out to develop a low-cost wearable/portable nanoelectronic based platform for air monitoring. Activities will focus on sensors and related electronics development, energy management, data acquisition, processing and communication, demonstrating the capability of NET4Air partners to answer European challenges such as Climate change while also aiding Romania in understanding and reducing air pollution.
At the end of the project, Europe will benefit from the existence of a Networking Centre for excellence in Nanoelectronics in Sensing Technologies and Data management for Environmental monitoring applications built on the project Consortium and facilitating Romania’s better integration into the European Research Area.
HORIZON Europe Innovation Action ECHO (Efficient Compact Modular Thermal Energy Storage System) involves Icmate among the Consortium partners from Italy, Spain, Romania, Belgium, Turkey, Serbia and UK in close collaboration with the project coordinator, the Construction Technologies Institute (Cnr-Itc) and the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (Cnr-Isac) of the Cnr-Research Area in Padua.
ECHO goal is to develop and demonstrate novel modular, compact, high-performance and Plug&Play thermal energy storage (TES) solutions for heating, cooling and hot tap water production. This new concept of TES will manage and smooth the electrical and thermal load demands thus. limiting the short-term peaks.
ECHO will develop technologies for final consumers use, generation, grids, large-scale and distributed storage systems. This will be accomplished by finely designing storage materials such as TCMs (Thermo-Chemical Materials), PCMs (Phase Change Materials), ice and related reactors that will be integrated in the building thermal system by a designed control unit.
Results will be validated in a first lab prototype and then in real-scale with three different demo sites located in Italy (Cnr research area of Padua), Serbia and Belgium.
As a flexible energy system addressed to manage the intrinsically intermittent nature of renewable energy, ECHO TES solutions will contribute to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) and pollutants emissions. Furthermore, ECHO outcomes will set another step towards the energy transition
Per informazioni:
CNR - Istituto di Chimica della Materia Condensata e di Tecnologie per l'Energia
Referente NET4Air: Maria Losurdo, Cnr-Icmate C.so Stati Uniti 4, 35127 Padova, mail: Questo indirizzo email è protetto dagli spambots. È necessario abilitare JavaScript per vederlo.
Referente ECHO: Simona Barison, Cnr-Icmate C.so Stati Uniti 4, 35127 Padova, mail: Questo indirizzo email è protetto dagli spambots. È necessario abilitare JavaScript per vederlo.
