More than 120 students from Vocational Training. Secondary and Baccalaureate students took part in IMDEA Energía’s activities on the occasion of Science and Innovation Week 2022.

Over four days (15, 16, 17 and 18 November), students and teachers visited the centre’s facilities to learn more about the research work being carried out and to take part in the workshops organised by researchers and investigators.

Thus, on 15 and 16 September, a biofuels workshop was held in which the participants were able to produce their own biodiesel on a laboratory scale from vegetable oil using the transesterification process and to quantify the formation of the synthesised biofuel using an analytical technique, infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).

They also enjoyed an interactive board game to analyse the advantages and disadvantages and opportunities and disadvantages of the integration of electric car batteries into the electricity grid and got to know the pilot plants for pyrolysis, photosynthetic microorganisms and electrochemical devices through several guided visits.

On the 17th and 18th the pupils made their own solar cell using porous titania and some ingredients easily found in everyday life, such as dyes and fruits. In this way they were able to understand the function of each material and the basic mechanism of the cell, as well as using these concepts in the understanding of artificial photosynthesis and the importance of using porous materials to accelerate the process and its implication in the applicability of these technologies.

They also tested their knowledge of the energy crisis in a participatory quiz in which they jointly analysed why they are important tools in the current energy crisis.

Finally, they took part in a CSP workshop with various explanations and demonstrations about CSP conversion.

The debates of the Round Table “New energy models and optimization of key operations: Trends, Opportunities and Innovation” that will be held in the Technology Auditorium of the “Smart Energy Congress & Expo (SEC) 2022″ on Thursday, November 17, from 13:00 to 2:00 p.m., will be moderated by Félix Marín, Head of Development and Technology Transfer at IMDEA Energy. Representatives of companies working on hydrogen energy systems, energetically flexible buildings or the digitization of large renewable installations will participate at the table.

The IMDEA Energy Institute is a collaborating entity of the ‘Smart Energy & Expo (SEC) 2022’ to be held at the North Convention Center of IFEMA. Madrid, on November 16th and 17th, organized by the enerTIC Platform.

Free registration: https://enertic.org/congreso2022/

Stanford University has published the World’s Top 2% Scientists 2022, a global ranking of the world’s most cited scientists in various disciplines. This ranking, considered one of the most prestigious in the world, is based on bibliometric information from the Scopus database (published by Elsevier). To draw up the final lists, the records of more than 8 million active scientists worldwide are evaluated, taking into account information on the number of citations per publication (h-index) and the relevance of the researcher in the published work (hm-index).

In its latest update, the ranking includes a total of ten IMDEA Energía researchers out of more than 200,000 top scientists, representing most of the Institute’s disciplines, such as thermochemical processes, photoactivated processes, electrical systems, biotechnology, advanced materials, concentrating solar power and systems analysis.

The recognition reinforces IMDEA Energía’s international prestige and the value of the contributions of its scientific staff.

The complete list can be found here

Dr Freddy Oropeza, Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellow and senior assistant researcher at the photoactivated process unit, has been awarded the highly prestigious Ramón y Cajal (RyC) fellowship by the Spanish Government. The Ramón y Cajal grants program of the Ministry of Science and Innovation promotes the incorporation of researchers with an outstanding track record in R&D centres across Spain. The RyC fellowship involves a five-year employment grant and additional funding for research expenses.

Oropeza will complete his fellowship at IMDEA Energy working on the development of advanced electrocatalysts for renewable energy conversion and diversification.

The 4th SFERA-III Training Course for Industry will be organised by ENEA from 7 to 11 November 2022 at ENEA Casaccia Research Center in Italy. This course is designed for engineers, researchers and representatives from European CSP industry and companies who want to be trained on real CSP hardware.

The course focuses on the design and management methodologies for molten salt CSP systems that use linear solar collectors.
The training consists of both theoretical and practical modules . It will include visits, procedures, standards and best practices theoretical and experimental ‘hands-on’ experiences, Knowledge-Transfer and Networking.

It will cover the following topics:

• Molten salts as heat transfer fluids and heat storage media
• CSP plants with molten salts as HTF heat transfer fluid & HSM
• Heat storage medium
• Molten salt processes
• Technologies for CSP molten salt plants
• Practical test cases

• You can download the full announcement & the draft agenda below.

The registration deadline is OCTOBER 31st, 2022.

To apply, please fill out the application form available here and send it to: anja.kruschinski@dlr.de

Class size is limited to 15 participants. Eligible candidates will be informed until OCTOBER 31st, 2022. Standard health and safety measures defined by ENEA for visitors and meetings will apply (details to be given prior to the meeting depending on latest development of the covid-19 pandemic). These will include national ID card or passport, social distance, facemask during the lesson is strongly recommended as disinfection of hands.

No course fee is applicable. Accommodation and travel costs shall be covered by the participant. Lunch is offered by ENEA.

Contact:  Walter Gaggioli (ENEA), Tel.: +39 0630486212, E-mail: walter.gaggioli@enea.it and Luca Turchetti (ENEA), Email: luca.turchetti@enea.it

IMDEA Energy is developing new materials for a sustainable future. This is the case of Nanostructured Conjugated Porous Polymers, nanoCPP, protected by two patents, one of which is pending in Europe. Due to the remarkable properties of Conjugated Porous Polymers such as high micro- and mesoporosity, light harvesting, high conductivity, and great thermal, chemical and photostability and the processing attributes that provides nanostructuring, that are not available in bulk synthesized materials, the nanoCPP, can be used for a wide range of applications in markets with big growth expectations:

• Thin films and coatings, especially for electrodes, electrochemical devices, photovoltaic applications and dye sensitized solar cells.
• Catalysts and chemical reactions: oxidation, charge carriers, photocatalysts,… They can be applied in new processes for environmental improvement and the production of sustainable fuels.
• Polymeric membranes.
• Gas storage.

The developed technology combines:

• The process to synthetize different nanoCPP with properties that combine high micro- and mesoporosity, and great thermal, chemical and photostability, as well as other properties that may be tailored for the different applications such as light harvesting, conductivity, etc.
• The development of new synthetic methodologies that improve and facilitate the scale up for their industrial production as well as the processability of nanostructured materials by reducing the particle size to a nanometer range and achieving, at the same time, control of particle size to obtain a smaller dispersion.
• The different materials nanoCPP, including hybrid materials and inorganic semiconductors, with particular applications according to their chemical composition, structure and properties. In addition, nanoCPP can be processed in liquid phase in order to be applied in thin layers or using plastic technologies such as extrusion, injection, etc.

The innovative materials developed at IMDEA Energy will be presented by the senior researcher Marta Liras in the “Sustainable Future” panel focused on materials for sustainability to be held on November 15th 2022 at 14:40 in Barcelona organized by Puzzle X, the leading global platform for frontier tech for sustainable future, together with the Smart City Expo World Congress.

On the closing day of the SolarPACES 2022 Conference, SolarPACES Chairman Gilles Flamant presented the award to Dr. Christoph Falter, now at Synhelion, on behalf of Bauhaus-Luftfahrt, Dr. Johannes Grobbel, on behalf of DLR, Dr. Alon Lidor, on behalf of ETH Zurich, and Dr. Charles-Alexis Asselineau, on behalf of IMDEA Energia, for the Sun-to-Liquid project. Alon Lidor, on behalf of ETH Zurich, and Dr. Charles-Alexis Asselineau, on behalf of IMDEA Energia, for the Sun-to-Liquid project; the development of a solar-powered jet fuel technology for the aviation industry.

Read more.

This is a new award for this project, which last year was recognised with the ‘Energy Globe World Award 2021’, one of the world’s most renowned environmental awards organised by the independent Austrian Energy Globe Foundation, and with the ‘National Energy Globe Award Spain 2021’, in recognition of the most outstanding environmental project in Spain.

Together with IMDEA Energía, the SUN-to-LIQUID consortium includes other research centres and companies involved in the thermochemical production of solar fuels, such as Bauhaus Luftfahrt e.V., ETH Zurich, DLR, Abengoa, ARTTIC and HyGear.