Energy Efficiency with Nanotechnology

NordForskTop-level Research Initiative

NordForskTop-level Research Initiative

Top-level Research Initiative

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The Top-level Research Initiative- A major Nordic venture for climate, energy and the environment

More information: www.toplevelresearch.org

Anne-Christine Ritschkoff, VTTChair of the Programme Committeeanne-christine.ritschkoff@vtt.fi, phone: +358 20 722 5546 Natalia GletteSecretary of the Programme Committeen.glette@nordicinnovation.org, phone +47 410 45 211

The Top-level Research Initiative (TRI) is a joint effort on the part of the Nordic countries to find solutions to global climate challenges - the largest-ever Nordic venture of its kind.

The Nordic countries have created a platform for coopera-tion with central players from research, innovation, busi-ness and industry.

The TRI is one of the Globalisation initiatives declared by the Nordic Prime Ministers in 2008, intended to increase competitiveness and promote the Nordic region as a pioneer in tackling globali sation. With a programme budget of 53 million Euro, the initiative currently funds 31 Nordic projects amounting to a collective value of some 94 million Euro.

Joint governance across sectorsThree Nordic institutions - NordForsk, Nordic Innovation and Nordic Energy Research – act as secretariat for the initiative, contributing with their combined competencies in the fields of research, innovation and technology. The three organisations are all under the auspices of the Nordic Council of Ministers.

TRI is governed by a Management Board consisting of 15 members representing public financing bodies for research and innovation, as well as the private sector.

The various funded activities involve participants from the whole Nordic region and a range of sectors. Expertise within research, education and innovation is brought together and coordinated in collaboration projects with hundreds of par-ticipants from all the Nordic and Arctic countries.

The Top-level Research Initiative addresses six primary thematic areas:• Climate (ADAPT) = Effect Studies and Adaptation to Climate Change

• Cryo = Interaction between Climate Change and the Cryosphere

• Nano = Energy Efficiency with Nanotechnology

• Wind = Integration of Large-scale Wind Power

• Bio = Sustainable Bio-fuels

• CCS = CO2 Capture and Storage

Within the framework of these areas, the initiative also includes:

– Advanced climate modelling

– Social sciences and humanities

– Focus on the Arctic

Overall objectives• To promote the Nordic region as a pioneer within climate, energy and the environment

• To ensure research and innovation of excellent quality by joining the strongest Nordic environments

• To promote Nordic business

• To promote professional environments across sectors and enhance mobility of competence

• To create platforms for international cooperation and to strengthen the Nordic region within EU programmes

Content and resultsThe TRI has established six Nordic Centres of Excellence (NCoE), one Nordic competence centre, 11 integrated research and innovation projects and 13 thematic net-works within climate and energy issues. The projects contribute to enhancing society’s knowledge about cli-mate change and to better prepare us for them, such as through technology development and sustainable energy solutions.

Participation from industryOne-third of all the TFI projects have active business par-ticipation. This participation gives an opportunity to real-ise long-term investments and to build strategic networks.

International perspectives and dialogue with the EUThrough various projects and networks, the TRI links re-search, innovation and industry together, by acting as a platform for further international collaboration. Examples of such collaboration are a project dealing with the con-tinuation of the International Polar Year (IPY) and Arctic issues and involvement in the Joint Programming Initiative (JPI Climate) Connecting Climate Knowledge for Europe.

Result-orientedThe Top-level Research Initiative aims to obtain results through effective plans, organisation and processes, and evaluations are carried out in order to document its results.

Outreach and communicationCommunication and dissemination of results through vari-ous channels is a priority. The initiative participates on various arenas in Europe, and organises a large annual conference gathering many categories of professionals and receiving international attention.

See www.toplevelresearch.org for more information about the initiative.

Energy efficiency in the Nordic countriesEnergy efficiency has been defined as important element in order to reach EUs and global goals on energy consumption and CO2 emission for year 2050. Today, there exists a lot of technology and know-how on how to improve energy efficiency and the bottle neck is to implement these. Implementation does require new forms of cooperation between the private and public sector that can facilitate demonstration. Implementation will also require new and innovative business models.

The Nordic countries have been engaged in energy efficiency through several initiatives supporting development and pro-motion of technology aiming at energy efficiency. In the Nordic the focus has been particular on energy efficiency related to sectors like the building sector, transport sector, energy conversion, transportation and use. Multidisciplinary approach has been encouraged where these sectors do cooperate with f.ex. the ICT and nano-, and micro technology sectors.

Commercialization of nanotechnology Nanotechnology is on the top of research agenda in all Nordic countries. The main issue is how to develop the best materials by using unique Nordic know-how. The barriers to commercialization of nanotech are considerable in this early fluid stage of development where standards, capabilities and trust in the new technological field are lacking. It is essential to support the research and development in the nanotechnological field so that companies in the Nordic countries can benefit as much as possible from the new opportunities offered by nanotechnology and compete on the worldwide market. Nordic business sector will benefit substantially from efficient collaboration between research institutes, small to medium size technology enterprises and large companies with access to international markets.

Sub-program “Energy Efficiency with Nanotechnology”New capabilities for the processing and control of nano- and micro-sized particles and structures make it possible to develop new or improved sustainable, energy-efficient technologies.

The overall scope of the sub-program is to improve the efficiency of future sustainable energy systems by applying nanotechnology to the transport sector, energy conversion and energy use. Significant value added is expected from this Nordic cooperation by:

• Facilitating user-driven development of sustainable energy solutions enabled by nanotechnology approaches for commercialisation;

• Enhancing Nordic cooperation and augmenting society-industry-academia interaction and international involvement.

Four projects received a total of NOK 48 million in funding from the sub-program. Total budget of the projects is NOK 110 million. The projects will run for three years from 2010 until 2013.

The objective of the project is to carry out the research and development necessary to form the foundation for future commercialisation of a new type of paper-based, environment-friendly supercapacitors and battery.

The Salt and Paper Battery is a supercapacitor with electrodes consisting of cellulose from the green Cladophora algae and the conducting polymer polypyrrole operating in a water electrolyte.

This project encompasses research on a new type of cellulose-based nanomaterials for novel, efficient and environment-friendly energy storage devices. The innovative design of the proposed energy storage systems is based on the technology of coating individual cellulose fibres by 50-nanometre-thick layers of conductive polymer to obtain a lightweight, flexible, mechanically robust electrode material of large surface area with good charge capacity and very high charging rates. Since the proposed energy storage devices involve water-based electrolytes and most likely can be manufactured entirely of non-metal components, these devices represent a largely unexploited resource for production of easily-disposable environment-friendly energy storage systems.

Participating institutions• Technical Research Centre of Finland VTT• FMC Bio Polymer AS • ETC Battery and FuelCells Sweden AB• FOV Fabrics AB (SE).

Project leader: Mateo Santurio, Uppsala University Project AB, Sweden.

NANORDSUN is a consortium that aims to find the most energy efficient semiconductor nanowire solar cells with an optimum design solution for low cost.

Today Si is the dominating solar material with a market share of about 90% and typical efficiencies of 20%. However, the cost per kWh is still higher than other competing energy sources, which hinders its use as a major source of clean renewable energy.

In view that silicon nanowire solar cells have been shown to exhibit efficient light trapping that consequently enables silicon nanowire solar cells to use only about 1 per cent of the material used in equivalent thin-film silicon solar cells, NANORDUN’s aim is to focus on the research and development of low-cost and hihgly-efficient III-V semiconductor core-shell radial p-n junction nanowire solar cells.

Participating institutions• NTNU-Trondheim• Lund University• Aalto University• KTH Royal Institute of Technology• Sol Voltaics AB• Obducat AB

Project leader: Helge Weman, Norwegian University of Science and Technology NTNU, Norway.

The solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) suffers from an operational lifetime that is far short of commercial requirements. The problem is being tackled in this project. SOFC is important in relation to sustainable development. When compared to other fuel cell technologies, SOFC’s offer unmatched fuel flexibility with the ability to run on everything from pure hydrogen to biodiesel and biogas.

This flexibility is made possible by operating in a higher temperature range, between 650 and 800C. Higher temperatures also however mean quicker material degradation, which is where the challenge lies in this project. The goal is to increase the lifespan of the fuel cell. An important component is the so called interconnect that connects individual cells to each other. The sheets are composed of a specially developed stainless steel, on which a nanocoating is then applied.

The nanocoatings that the project participants hope to develop will hopefully allow fuel cells to have lifetimes that make them economically attractive.

Participating institutions• Oslo University• Sandvik Materials Technology• Topsoe Fuel Cells

Project leader: Jan Froitzheim, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.

TopNANO aims to develop sustainable and efficient methods based on nanotechnology to reduce problems and costs with ice build-up.

Ice causes major problems on airplanes, wind turbines and in heat exchangers. Today’s methods using heating and chemical treatments are expensive, can be inefficient and non sustainable. Nanotechnology can create surfaces where the ice does not stick. The aim is to develop sustainable and efficient methods based on nanotechnology to reduce problems and costs with ice build-up.

Nanostructured surfaces against ice have never been tested in such a large scale before. It will be a big challenge to make the surfaces dirt repellent and wear resistant in severe environment. The nanotechnology also opens up for new solutions within other industrial sectors/applications where ice buildup creates problems.

Participating institutions• Saab AB• Advanced Marine Coatings AS• Vattenfall Research and Development AB• AB Electrolux • KTH Royal Institute of Technology• Akzo Nobel Surface Chemistry AB• Thermia Värme AB• Technical Research Centre of Finland VTT• Aarhus University• MW Innovation AB• Nibe AB• Re-Turn AS• Sapa Heat Transfer AB• Fläkt Woods AB• n-TEC AS

Project leader: Agne Swerin, YKI Institute for Surface Chemistry, Sweden.

Top-level Research Initiative

Energy Efficiency with Nanotechnology

Research towards Nordic industriali-zation of The-Salt-and-Paper Battery

Nano Coatings for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

TopNANO Semiconductior nanowire based solar cells NANORDSUN

Funded projects

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