Detection and rectification of the main accident precursors (broken rails and track buckles) are one of the major issues for all players in railway systems that operate 24/7, at increasing speed, and with a growing number of users. Current inspection tools used for railway monitoring such as laboratory vehicles, self-powered auscultation trains and manually pushed carts require disruption of the railway traffic and are expensive. Additionally, comfort is an essential factor besides maintenance in the competition between railway and other means of transportation. Ride comfort is a complex notion that represents an important criterion when examining the dynamics of railway vehicles and needs to be considered for their modelling and behaviour evaluation. vmRail is the first reliable and cost affordable technology able to combine sensor networks, computer simulation and signal processing to evaluate the state of railways and rolling stocks by comparing track geometry irregularities data and wear & fatigue evolution in real time. Therefore, vmRail simultaneously improves vehicle and track maintenance operations, ride safety, and passenger comfort. With fleets and infrastructures being operated for 30 to 50 years and maintenance accounting for ~50 % of overall cost, the main goal of railway and underground operators is to cost-efficiently increase fleet availability and reliability. Railway and underground operators will benefit of using vmRail by avoiding unnecessary replacements and results in less network disruption due to unplanned/planned maintenance. Moreover, our technology is up to 90% less expensive than current laboratory trains since is based on computing vision, accelerometers and simulations.

The project Accurate Roms for Industrial Applications aims at developing an array of mathematical methods for constructing predictive reduced-order models (ROMs) with guaranteed accuracy, robustness, reliability and efficiency for applications involving complex physical phenomena. New approaches to this challenge are proposed here with a focus on the Euler and Navier–Stokes equations of fluid flow, two of the most challenging continuum models with an extraordinary rich range of industrial applications. The mathematical modeling and solution of the Euler and Navier-Stokes equations is sometimes cited as the greatest challenge in continuum modeling of physical phenomena. This topic is selected as our principal focus because of its intrinsic importance, but also because the mathematical methods developed in addressing this very challenging task may well have an impact on other fields of knowledge. We plan to tackle these challenging objectives in this staff exchange program by combining the unique expertise of our extended research team whose members have made significant progress in ROM research during the past decade. This academic expertise is cross-fertilized by the exchange with knowledge intensive SMEs ans start up and well established industrial partners that will benefit from the scientific and technological results of the team and will challenge the solutions found with applications in real world problems.

Lime (CaO) has been long proposed as an energy intensive material for the storage of energy in a chemical form by means of carbonation/calcination cycles. This Calcium-looping process (CaL) is the basis of a proven pilot-scale technology for CO2 capture, which is accomplished by carbonation of CaO and its regeneration in a calciner reactor operated under high CO2 partial pressure and high temperature. The wide availability of limestone (45%) are achieved under new CaL conditions implying carbonation under high temperature (>850ºC) at high CO2 partial pressure compatible with high efficiency power blocks. Moreover, fast calcination is carried out at temperatures < 700ºC by the Flash Calcination technology, which allows using mature and inexpensive solar receiver technology. Circulating Fluidized Bed reactors of proven efficiency. The new CSP-CaL integration yields high storage energy density (3.2 GJ/m3) with possible long time gaps between load and discharge. SOCRATCES is aimed at demonstrating the feasibility of this integration by erecting a pilot-scale plant that uses cheap, abundant and non-toxic materials as well as mature solar and fluidized bed reactor technologies. SOCRATCES will confer the EU a leading role on the development of efficient and non-toxic CSP with low cost storage (<12€/kWh) and LCOE <7c€/kWh. The consortium involves the full value chain, in a well balanced distribution between R&D groups and companies

The successful implementation of CO2 capture and valorization technologies is a key step within the European Green Deal, and requires the joint development of innovative processes and materials (possibly non-CRMs) to comply with the EU decarbonization timeline (55% less net greenhouse gas emissions by 2030). Nowadays, this goal can only be achieved by a collaborative effort of researchers belonging to different disciplines and bringing together different expertise. Aim of the C-NET proposal is to build a network of experts working in complementary scientific areas in order to promote advancements in the wide “net zero carbon” field. C-NET is conceived as a nurturing environment where researchers can take advantage of facilities and know-how of the partner units, involving both thermochemical and electrochemical CO2 conversion processes. The synergistic collaboration will triangulate people, materials and knowledge between UniUD (green, solvent-free mechanochemical synthesis of non-CRM catalysts and electrocatalysts), Surrey (combined capture and catalytic conversion processes), Sevilla (structured catalytic reactors development for process intensification), Treibacher (materials design, development and scale-up) and China (electro-conversion of CO2). The joint research efforts will be supported and fostered by process modeling (VirtualMech) and advanced material characterization carried out by operando synchrotron light-based techniques (NTNU-ESRF) and in-situ DRIFT experiments (Sabana, Bogota, COL). C-NET, exploiting the planned secondments and the organization of workshops and conferences to promote knowledge-sharing and new skills acquisition, will provide an exhaustive toolkit aimed at overcoming the current state-of-the-art in the field of CO2 valorization processes.

This training project (TOPCSP) will offer 10 promising doctoral candidates a unique international, intersectoral and interdisciplinary research and innovation framework that will boost their excellence in the development of innovative technologies capable of solving the challenges currently faced by the solar thermal power industry in the EU and worldwide. Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) with Thermal Energy Storage (TES) is a key technology to support the transition to a competitive and sustainable energy system. However, an effort is needed to make this technology competitive by increasing its efficiency, reducing its costs and improving its reliability and environmental profile. TOPCSP project will include research activities aimed at reducing the cost of current CSP plant, increasing the temperature of the heat transfer media of the next generation of CSP plants, developing more efficient power blocks and optimizing the plant design. CSP research requires high-level human resources covering a wide range of competences. TOPCSP will be able to train researchers with the technical knowledge and transferable skills needed to contribute to this aim from either the academic or the industrial sector. The consortium of this proposal will provide balanced scientific and applied skills together with the global vision of the CSP industry that will maximize the employability of the trained researchers. The consortium comprises 8 academic beneficiaries with a long record of research on CSP and two industrial beneficiaries, which are leading companies in the sector. The associated partners of the network include the largest R&D & test centre focused on CSP in Europe, high-tech companies specialized in the different subsystems of the CSP plant, an agency for new technologies, energy and sustainable development, and a training company specialized in R&I project development and management.