In many aspects batch processes are superior to continuous. Therefore it is worthwhile to take advantage of recent progress in sensor technologies, modelling and automation to develop a new paradigm for the design and conduction of batch processes: a) operation at maximum efficiency, b) dynamic, quality driven process trajectories rather than fixed schedules c) detailed analysis and tracking of all relevant process and product parameter. The main objective of the proposed project is the maximization of efficiency (reg. quality, energy, raw materials, and costs) of batch processes. Integrated process control is essential for an efficient operation of industrial batch processes: it tracks the evolution of product properties, detects deviations from the target values for product quality and derives corrective actions at a stage when an automatic compensation of deviations from an optimal trajectory is still possible. This contributes to optimal energy and raw material utilisation, shortens production time and enhanced the product quality. With the ambition to deliver solutions with relevance to all sectors of the process industries, the RECOBA consortium represents a selection of batch processes operating industries and partners across the value chain of batch process control, among them 3 global players from the polymer industry (BASF), the steel industry (TKSE), and the silicon metal industry (ELKEM). Within RECOBA there will be developed and validated: (1) new & innovative solutions for the measurement of different types of quality aspects, (2) new models to realise integrated process control of batch processes & suitable online parameter adaptation technologies to keep these models valid, (3) control modules to realise concepts for real-time, model based & closed loop process control, which are easily adaptable to existing batch processes in various industrial sectors, (4) business models to approach relevant industrial sectors for a future market entry.

Increasing energy demands, exhaustion of easily accessible oil resources and fears of climate change make renewable energy sources a necessity. Although it is evident that future power generation will result from a wide mix of technologies, photovoltaic cells have made astounding technical and commercial progress in recent years. Over the last decade renewable energy generation has been stimulated by tax concessions and feed-in tariffs. Large scale manufacturing of photovoltaics has benefited from this and progress along the learning curve necessary to achieve economies of scale in manufacture has been very rapid. However like all renewable energy sources today the cost per kWh of electricity from photovoltaics is greater than that generated by fossil fuels, although the gap has reduced quite dramatically in the last two years. The cost reductions in generation from photovoltaics have been achieved through innovative cell design, the use of lower cost materials, advances in power management electronics and lower profit margins. At the moment, >85% of new installations use wafered silicon cells of multi-crystalline or single crystal material. In these cases a key issue has been developing technologies which use thinner slices (using less silicon for a given area of solar panel) and moving to "solar grade" silicon. This type of silicon is less pure than the electronic grade used for integrated circuits and is cast into multi-crystalline ingots but it is very much cheaper. This is an important issues because before these developments as much as 50% of the cost of a cell could be attributed to the silicon material. An important cost reduction per kWh delivered has been achieved in this way despite solar grade silicon producing cells of lower conversion efficiency than electronic grade material. Further substantial reductions in cost could be achieved by using silicon produced by less energy hungry metallurgical processes, for example starting the manufacturing process by the reduction of quartz with carbon and applying low energy purification processes. This type of silicon, known as upgraded metallurgical silicon, is even less pure containing compensated dopants and metals which can act as important recombination centres so reducing the efficiency further. The aim of this proposal is to develop methodologies which are able to bring the efficiency of cells made from these cheap forms of silicon close to the efficiencies achieved from the higher cost electronic grade material. This could increase the efficiency of multi-crystalline solar grade silicon by around 5% absolute and even more in the case of upgraded metallurgical silicon. Current silicon cell structures work well because hydrogen (usually from the silicon nitride antireflection layer) passivates surfaces and bulk defects. In electronic grade single crystal this reduces recombination to insignificant levels. It doesn't work as well in solar grade multi-crystalline silicon or upgraded metallurgical silicon because there are regions, sometimes entire crystal grains, which are not passivated by the hydrogen. However other regions are of very high quality often as good as electronic grade silicon. We associate the resistance to passivation with specific types of defect observed in lifetime maps of slices. In this project we plan to identify the defects which show resistance to hydrogen passivation by using electronic and chemical techniques (carrier lifetime, Laplace deep level transient spectroscopy, SIMS, Raman spectroscopy and defect modeling). The key part of the proposal is to use our knowledge of defect reactions in silicon to develop alternative passivation chemistries which can be applied, during slice or cell production, to those defect species resistant to hydrogen passivation. In this way we would expect to make a very important improvement to the efficiency of the dominant solar PV technology.

The core technological approach of the HYDRA project consists of using hybrid electrode technology to overcome the fundamental limits of current Li-ion battery technology in terms of energy, power, safety and cost to enter the age of generation 3b of Li ion batteries. HYDRA, taking its name from the mythological beast, will use a multi-headed integrative approach: In addition to novel material development and scale-up of components and battery cells manufacturing, assisted by modelling, HYDRA will build a synergy with strong investments by the project’s industrial partners and foster reaching and keeping a significant market share for Europe. The necessary competitiveness will be obtained by hybridizing high energy with high power materials. These materials will be implemented at the cell/electrode level, via sustainable, eco-designed scaled-up manufacture and safe electrolyte systems, demonstrated in pilot scale to TRL6, and will be ready for commercialisation 3 years after the project end. To reach

Several materials are produced by carbothermic reduction, using fossil carbon as a raw material and with CO2 as an unavoidable by-product. Since the use of hydrogen does not generate CO2 emissions, hydrogen can be a solution for decarbonising these otherwise hard-to-abate industries. In-fact, hydrogen from renewable energy sources is expected to contribute to decarbonise a large part of the EU's metallurgical industry by 2050. However, since it is not as strong a reducing agent as carbon, there are several metals that cannot be produced directly with hydrogen. Some of these, such as silicon (Si) and manganese (Mn), are crucial for successfully building Europe’s clean technology value chains and meeting the EU’s 2050 climate neutrality goal. In fact, Si and Mn are both defined as Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) and Strategic Raw Materials (SRMs). The European Commission has proposed a regulation on that aims to strengthen the EU’s capacities and resilience along the CRM and SRM value chains. This cannot be done in a sustainable way unless production of CRMs and SRMs can be performed without CO2 emissions. The overall ambition of MECALO is to develop an innovative CO2-free production concept for CRMS where renewable hydrogen is used to eliminate the need for fossil carbon . Our goals are: - To target 95% reduction of CO2-emissions from Si and Mn production - To replace 9 million tonnes of annual coal imports by 15 billion Nm3 of H2 in 2050 - To save 33 million tonnes of annual CO2 emissions in 2050 Our concept will be applicable to all carbon reduction processes without any need for completely new, low TRL production technology. Therefore, MECALO will strengthen the EU’s capacities and resilience for a secured and sustainable supply of these CRMs. MECALO is gathering EU leading RTO and industries along the CRM value chain, including two major players in the field of Si and Mn production.