Waste heat is a ubiquitous source of low-quality energy that is yet to be harvested and transformed into high-quality energy in the form of electricity. Low-cost and highly scalable thermoelectric generators (TEG) based on organic materials and hybrid composites have the huge potential to achieve this. The actual market volume for ultra-low power TEG will soon pass 100M USD, and a small improvement in TEG performance or cost may open a billion-dollar market, especially in view of the booming number of autonomous, self-powered devices related to the Internet of Things. Triggered by actual market demand for printable TEG, HORATES aims to train 15 promising early stage researchers (ESRs) in the emerging interdisciplinary field of organic thermoelectrics. ESRs will be trained within a focused consortium including universities, research centers and companies that jointly cover the full chain from molecular design and synthesis via in-depth characterization and predictive multiscale modeling to large-area printed d

Digitalization has been identified as one of the key enablers for renewal and competitiveness of European manufacturing industries. However, grasping the digitalization and IoT-related opportunities can be limited by the harsh environmental conditions of the manufacturing processes and end use environments. The ECSEL-IA 2019 project initiative CHARM aims to contribute to solving this problem by developing ECS technologies that tolerate harsh industrial environments. The project concept centres around real industrial challenges from different types of end use industries. The synergies and impacts arise from similarities in technology solutions serving different applications and industry sectors. The CHARM Use Cases include six different industry sectors, majority of them presented by innovative cutting-edge large enterprises that belong to the world-wide market leaders of their own sectors – while most of them being new to the ECSEL ecosystem: mining (Sandvik Mining and Construction Oy, FI), paper mills (Valmet Technologies Oy, FI), machining (Tornos SA, CH), solar panel manufacturing lines (Applied Materials Italia SRL, IT), nuclear power plants maintenance and decommissioning (ÚJV Řež a.s., CZ), and professional digital printing (Océ-Technologies B.V, NL). The planned demonstrators engage these big players with European ECS value chains and showcase capabilities that serve manufacturing industries’ needs at large. The new technologies to be developed include novel multi-gas sensors, robust high temperature and pressure sensors, flexible sensors for paper machine rolls, wireless power transfer systems, connectivity solutions for rotating parts, advanced vision systems, and enablers for autonomous driving. The project consortium includes 12 SMEs, 14 LEs and 12 RTOs, and covers the industrial value chains from simulations, sensors and components to packaging, integration and reliability as well as connectivity, cloud and cyber security solutions.

The 21st century has been dominated by an ambient digitalization, a trend that is mirrored by the use of catchwords such as Smart Energy, Smart Homes & Smart Cities and the increasing use of electronics in everyday objects. Current IoT scenarios expect a number of around 75 billion connected devices by 2025, and the powering of these devices by batteries will result in a considerable amount of potentially hazardous waste. The spread of electronic systems in remote locations should thus be accompanied by a change in power generation, making use of dislocated and disordered energy sources. A cost-efficient and environmentally friendly realization of energy harvesting (EH), however, is still a challenge, as the required input of functional material and electronic components in comparison to the energy output is high and often involves lead-based materials, manufacturing methods that consume high amounts of energy and costly assembly steps. SYMPHONY aims for the development of new materials for low-cost and scalable printing and structuring processes to fabricate multimodal EH solutions based on the ferroelectric polymer P(VDF-TrFE) as well as printed energy storage devices and rectifiers not using rare elements and heavy metals. The hybrid integration of these devices on flexible films with low power harvesting ICs will result in a specific cost below 1€/mW (well below the value for piezoceramic and electrodynamic EH). The reduction of hazardous waste and energy consumption in SYMPHONY starts with material selection and manufacturing, but ultimately unfolds its full potential in the most CO2-relevant application areas: renewable energy generation, room heating/cooling and mobility. The innovative EH concept of SYMPHONY used to power distributed sensor nodes will reduce emissions by 50% increasing the efficiency of wind turbines (Smart Energy), making room heating/cooling 20% more efficient (Smart Home) and supporting the transformation of urban mobility (Smart City).