Our Projects
Explore our projects within our vibrant community. Whether as a project leader or partner, our community is actively engaged in driving forward these initiatives.
Renewable energy valleys: reformers Project
REFORMERS is a Horizon Europe project focusing on the development, realization and roll-out of the so called Renewable Energy Valleys (REV).
The REVs aim to increase energy security while accelerating the green transition in Europe while they contribute to the REPowerEU goals of 1) ramping up the green energy production, 2) diversifying our energy supplies and 3) reducing the dependence on fossil fuels. Alongside five functional blocks, called Renewable Energy Valley Tracks (REVTs), the Flagship Valley will:
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Demonstrate renewable energy technologies to increase the RES.
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Convert, store, and distribute renewable energy carriers (such as biomethane, electricity, hydrogen, and heat) (REVT#2).
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Replace fossil fuel usage for end users (REVT#3).
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Monitor, optimize and control the energy flows (REVT#4).
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Incorporate financial, legal, and social dimensions (REVT#5).
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contribute to Alkmaar’s overall mission of 100% sustainable energy target by 2050.
The developments within the Flagship Valley will be meticulously followed by six satellite valleys spread around Europe. These valleys will use the lessons learned from the flagship and replicate its successful strategies to create their own Renewable Energy Valley. Finally, REFORMERS will develop, test and exploit a toolbox and digital twin to identify the best solutions and constantly improve towards self-sustaining Energy Valleys.
Link to website: https://www.reformers-energyvalleys.eu/
Be-Hyfe: fundamental expertise on Hydrogen
BE-HyFE is a Belgian academic collaboration project, funded by the federal Energy Transition Fund, bringing together all Belgian knowledge institutes to join forces in fundamental research on the topic of hydrogen.
Hydrogen is currently experiencing a 'momentum', both politically and in the industry. Belgium has a lot of assets in the field of hydrogen: the largest hydrogen pipeline network in the world crosses our country, Belgium has a strategic position in Europe and many companies in Belgium have hydrogen technology in-house.
Additional academic fundamental research is crucial for providing solutions to the many technological and non-technological challenges posed by the role of hydrogen in our energy transition. At the different Belgian universities and knowledge institutions the expertise is highly specialized and outstanding. However, the research is fragmented and collaboration between the institutions (in the domain of hydrogen) is at this time rather limited, which is a missed opportunity.
With BE-HyFE we want to strengthen the cooperation between the Belgian hydrogen research groups and, by additional fundamental research in hydrogen, stimulate an interdisciplinary approach to create an academic hydrogen backbone for the Belgian industry.
Link to website: https://www.behyfe.be/
Plasma-assisted combustion of e-fuels
The intricate nature of detailed kinetic mechanisms for plasmaassisted combustion motivates the development of high-fidelity surrogates to simplify their use in extensive numerical simulations. This paper presents a machine-learning approach based on the coupling of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) with Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) to produce a reliable reduced-order representation of the detailed plasmacombustion physics. The entire state-space is expressed in function of a selected number of principal components using a non-linear Gaussian regression model. This machine-learning framework allows for a superior dimensionality compression compared to conventional data-driven reduction strategies based solely on principal component analysis. The performance of the present technique is assessed for the simulation of ethylene-air ignition by nanosecond repetitive pulsed discharges at conditions relevant to supersonic combustion and flame holding in scramjet cavities: temperatures from 600 K to 1000 K, and a pressure of 0.5 atm.
Link to website: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360128514000781
Current Direct: Swappable Container Waterborne Transport Battery.
Current Direct was a Horizon2020 project funded by the European Commission (01/2021-12/2023).
The overarching aim of the Current Direct project is to develop and demonstrate an innovative interchangeable waterborne transport battery system and EaaS Platform in an operational environment at the Port of Rotterdam at TRL7 that facilitates fast charging of vessels, fleet optimization and novel business models.
Promotor: Prof. Dr. Ir. H.Rahier
Link to website: https://researchportal.vub.be/en/projects/h2020current-direct-swappable-container-waterborne-transport-batt
LiBatt
LiBatt is an SBO project funded by FWO and VLAIO; start date 01/2022 and will end in 12/2025.
The scientific objective of this project is the development of a validated modeling platform for composite cathode (CK) materials showing long-term performance and predict aging in a dynamic charge/discharge cycle and allow faster design of new systems become possible.
Promotor: Prof. Dr. Ir. A.Hubin
Link to website: https://researchportal.vub.be/en/projects/sbo-project-lifesbat
Beton naar hoogwaardig beton (B2B)
B2B is an Interreg project (European funding), started 03/2018, ended 02/2022.
Worldwide, it is estimated that more than 25 billion tons of concrete are used annually. The environmental impact of concrete production is high, as cement is required to make concrete in addition to aggregate (sand and bricks). This is not only energy-intensive, but also causes high emissions of CO₂. In addition, a large amount of construction and demolition waste is released every year. The concrete circle is not closed because the hydrated cement is not separated from the aggregate, resulting in a lower-quality porous material. Better separation of concrete into its constituent components is therefore needed. In this project, two innovative technologies are being researched and developed that enable pure separation of the different fractions: microwave treatment of concrete and the Smart Crusher (Slimbreker) technology. High-quality recycling ensures that sand and aggregate are then reused and the cement can be reused as a binder. This innovation provides a solution for the growing number of customers looking for high-quality (concrete) products with the lowest possible environmental impact. In addition, research is being conducted into alternative and high-quality concrete applications. Among other things, fabrics will be used instead of steel to reinforce concrete. The use of textile reinforcement allows thinner elements to be produced, which results in lower material consumption, but also solves the problem of concrete rot. For example, when the 'Vandermeeren student quarters' at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel are renovated, the outer panels will be installed with textile reinforced concrete.
Promotor: Prof. Dr. Ir. H.Rahier
VUB Research groups involved in this project: FYSC, MeMC
Link to website: https://researchportal.vub.be/nl/projects/b2bconcrete-to-high-quality-concrete
Reconstruct
RECONSTRUCT is a HORIZON 2022 project, funded by the European Commission. Start date: 03/2023, end date 02/2027
Globally, the Construction industry is responsible for over 30% of the extraction of natural resources, 25% of solid waste generated and 40% of GHG emissions. Around a third of these emissions come from embodied carbon in construction. Cement and Steel are responsible for most of the embodied GHGs, representing >80% of the total. With recycling of cement and steel having a limited potential for further improving material efficiency, the focus is on replacing them with low-carbon alternatives and/or embedding them in reusable construction components. RECONSTRUCT will (i) develop low-carbon alternatives to OPC, to be used in both renovations and new buildings, and incorporate CDW and other waste as much as possible, (ii) manufacture construction components that use such materials and are designed for modularity and dismantling so they can either be reused or easily disassembled and recycled, (iii) embed deconstruction in building design and construct circular low-carbon buildings that produce near-zero CDW across their lifecycle. The RECONSTRUCT concept will be demonstrated by setting up to Territorial Circular Clusters, in Brussels and Barcelona, and using RECONSTRUCT ́s materials, components and innovative tools to design and construct two real-scale demonstrator buildings. By doing so, RECONSTRUCT aims to demonstrate its high impact potential and its economic feasibility.
Promotor: Prof. Dr. Ir. H.Rahier
VUB Research groups involved in this project: FYSC, MeMC, ARCH
Link to website: https://reconstruct-project.eu/
INTOWALL
The INTOWALL project aims to develop an innovative radar technology that can digitally measure information related to the composition of the walls of a building: for example wall thickness, humidity, the position of pipes, possible defects and possibly even the properties of the materials used.
The climate problem is more serious than ever and the path to carbon neutrality by 2050 is becoming more difficult and expensive every year. In this context, the renovation of the building stock to make it carbon neutral is a priority. Our building stock is old. It is estimated that 75% of existing buildings will still need to be renovated by 2050. To achieve this goal, a thorough knowledge of the buildings is required to assess the exact renovation needs. In many cases, information about the composition of the walls is limited or even non-existent. This is even more the case when it comes to information collected in situ via measurement techniques, as current detection techniques are often still inadequate.
This radar technology exists in the form of a laboratory installation. To carry out measurement campaigns in the field, current hardware components must be integrated into a compact, mobile unit and the detection technology must be made more robust. The data extraction is currently still done manually. The aim of the project is to automate these to facilitate generalized use. The project also aims to investigate the movement problems of moving from a single point measurement to the scan of a full wall and the problems of merging radar data with data obtained from 3D laser surveys or photogrammetry to enable a complete digital representation of a building.
InterConnect
InterConnect gathers 50 European entities to develop and demonstrate advanced solutions for connecting and converging digital homes and buildings with the electricity sector.
The project places the foundation for the future of smart energy management solutions by seven connected large-scale test-sites in Portugal, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Greece and France.
EXPECTED RESULTS
The solutions developed within the scope of InterConnect will allow a digitalisation of homes, buildings and electric grids based on an Internet of Things (IoT) architecture.
By including digital technologies (Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Cloud and Big Data) based on open standards, such as SAREF, it will guarantee the interoperability between equipment, systems and privacy/cybersecurity of user data.
Link to website: https://interconnectproject.eu/resources/?active=media-gallery
Renaissance
Renaissance will deliver a community-driven scalable and replicable approach, to implement new business models and technologies supporting clean production and shared distribution of energy in local communities.
Renaissance project is an Innovation Action (IA) which aim is to deliver a community-driven scalable and replicable approach, to implement new business models and technologies supporting clean production and shared distribution of energy in local communities.
In the first phase the Consortium collected data to identify stable and equitable business cases in four Local Energy Communities (LEC) across Europe, thank to MAMCA analysis.
The resulting scenarios supported the co-design of the ReEnergise tool, which helped identifying the optimal configuration for an integrated and decarbonised Local Energy Systems (LES). The tool has been tested in each Pilot Site and followed by a financial viability assessment.
An innovative platform for integrated management and value delivery across all actors will be implemented and interoperability realised.
As a consequence, the energy communities of prosumers at demonstrator sites will be fully connected and the use of RES will likely increase beyond 27% .
In this last phase, the RENAISSANCE approach has been simulated under market conditions connecting 10 sites across the globe, to demonstrate its scalability and replicability.
Link to website: https://www.renaissance-h2020.eu/about/
BAT4EVER
The BAT4EVER project aims to tailor the materials of LIBs by modifying their well-established state-of-art ancestors and inducing self-healing functionalities (mechanical, structural and chemical) and thus to achieve innovative, higher performant, capable of extended lifetime, safe and reliable Li-ion batteries.
NEXT-GENERATION LITHIUM-ION BATTERIES THAT CAN HEAL THEMSELVES
Next generation of Li-ion batteries (LIBs) spans a number of diverse application areas extending from devices of industry and private households. These applications require safe systems (e.g. no danger of explosion, leakage or electrolyte crystallization/evaporation), capacitance stability during charge/discharge cycles, longer cycle and calendar lives. Electrochemical reactions in batteries taking place during charge and discharge cycles cause structural changes in materials and components of LIBs leading to drastic reduction in battery performance.
The innovative electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries are expected to degrade on interaction with greater amounts of lithium and thus undergo more drastic structural changes. The EU-funded BAT4EVER project focuses on self-healing mechanisms of the micro-damage and loss of material generated during repetitive cycles of charge and discharge. The self-healing material developments of the project are supported with advanced material characterization methods and extensive atomistic modelling of material and component behavior and simulation of battery cells. Further research involves the implementation of those into the prototype stage, compiling sophisticated cell-processes for validation of the self-healing lithium-ion battery components in cell phones through intensive testing.
Link to website: https://bat4ever.de/WordPress/
CAPTIN : Intensification of CO2 capture processes
The CAPTIN project seek to overcome technological limitations in CCU technologies by intensifying CO2 capture processes. Three routes will be investigated, focusing on adsorption and absorption, allowing industries to successfully reduce CO2 emissions at point sources.
What to do with CO2?
Although industries are increasingly using sustainable alternatives to fossil-based feedstocks and introducing the electrification of their processes, this transition takes time. In the near future, a certain amount of CO2 will still be emitted by the industry. Innovative solutions to deal with these emissions are, however, within reach.
CCU
In the shorter term, one of these solutions is capturing CO2 at point sources and converting the captured CO2 into valuable chemicals. Yet, Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU) is no silver bullet either. Current CCU technologies have a high cost as well as a multitude of technological limitations, restricting their use by the industry.
Therefore, new and intensified CCU technologies should be developed that decrease these costs and overcome these technological limitations. Only then will CCU technologies become truly viable and cost-effective on an industrial scale.
A multi-angled approach
Obviously, one single technology will not solve the diverse CCU challenge. That’s why CAPTIN proposes a multi-angled approach, focusing on adsorption and absorption, that explores various routes to intensify CO2 capture processes. The project will investigate:
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the use of a vortex reactor and a photochemical aerosol reactor to intensify mass and heat transfer processes in CO2 capture
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the use of inductive heating to electrify CO2 capture processes and develop faster and more efficient separation cycles
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the integration of CO2 capture and conversion by using alkali-mediated capture combined with electrochemical conversion of CO2 into chemicals
The project will develop experimental test devices to gauge these new concepts and to deliver proof of principles. Models will also be built to assess the new technologies in terms of efficiency.
CAPTIN-2
After a year of research, CAPTIN identified a series of challenges that require further investigation.
In a follow-up project, CAPTIN-2, these challenges will be tackled using the experimental test devices and models developed in the initial project. Moreover, CAPTIN-2 will also carry out a roadmap analysis to identify technical, economic, environmental and market-related hurdles regarding the routes described above.
Impact
Through innovations in CCU technologies, CAPTIN enables industries to capture more CO2 at point sources, convert this CO2 into valuable chemical building blocks, and successfully reduce their emissions in a cost-effective way.
Link to website: https://moonshotflanders.be/mot3-captin/