The project main goal is to develop new generation batteries for battery storage with a modular technology, suitable for different applications and fulfilling the increasing need of decentralised energy production and supply for private households and industrial robotised devices.. New materials and components will be developed and optimised to achieve longer lifetime (up to 10,000 cycles depending on the material selected), lower costs (down to 0.03 €/kWh/cycle), improved safety and more efficient recycling (>50%). The expected results will strengthen EU competitiveness in advanced materials and nanotechnologies and the related battery storage value chain, preparing European industry to be competitive in these new markets. This will be achieved by using high capacity anodes coupled with cobalt free cathode and with a very safe gel polymer electrolyte separator, leveraging partners’ knowledge in advanced materials. This new technology will be developed up to a TRL 6 (large prismatic cell ESP-Cell 30Ah) at the end of the project, producing these novel high voltage high capacity batteries close to practical applications. Further, the proposed solution will allow Europe to become more independent from raw material and the feasibility of a metal recovery process will be deeply investigated and recommendations for future application will be made. To achieve the ambitious targets, the CoFBAT project covers the entire value chain, bringing together industrial experts in material development and battery science together with engineering companies and institutes and battery producers and integrators.

PEM water electrolysers (PEMWE) and PEM fuel cell (PEMFC) technologies currently rely on perfluorinated sulfonic acid (PFSA)-based materials and components, which pose significant health and environmental risks due to the release of toxic fluorine groups during production and disposal. Moreover, the production of PFSA remains costly, compounding the challenges associated with their use. Therefore, the ECOPEM project aims at developing safe-by-design, non-fluorinated hydrocarbon-based membranes, reinforcements, and ionomers. This ambitious work will be facilitated by the development and implementation of life cycle thinking tools addressing environmental and economic dimensions to drive the research and innovation using quantifiable sustainability criteria. ECOPEM will deliver scientific breakthroughs in the design and processing of materials, components and membrane electrode assembles (MEAs) enabling replacement of PFSAs by hydrocarbon-based polymers in membranes and catalyst layers. The project will validate the significant benefits of these MEAs by demonstrating an increased current density, reaching a minimum of 3 A cm-2 at a cell voltage of 1.8 V and degradation rate 1.5 W/cm2 at 0.650 V and a degradation rate < 5 µV/h for PEMFC using harmonized JRC testing procedures. Achieving these ambitious targets would result in a new standard for hydrocarbon-based MEAs for PEMWE and PEMFC applications.

AlSiCal is an ambitious Research and Innovation effort to make the mineral and metal industry more sustainable and environmentally sound. The project will further research, develop and de-risk a groundbreaking concept; the patented Aranda-Mastin (AM) technology. This technology enables the co-production of three essential raw materials (alumina, silica and precipitated calcium carbonate), using new resources - e.g. anorthosite, abundantly available worldwide - whilst generating ZERO Bauxite Residue and ZERO CO2. Today´s production of these raw materials is a long way from being environmentally friendly: they are obtained through traditional processes that generate large CO2 emissions, and bauxite residue in the case of alumina production from bauxite by the Bayer process. AlSiCal will research and develop the innovative AM technology that allows: • Green co-production of 3 essential raw materials, in a single process and from one source, with synergetic environmental and economic benefits • Efficient use of anorthosite, a mineral abundant in Europe and worldwide • Integrated CO2 use and capture for ZERO CO2 emissions from production • ZERO Bauxite Residue generation from alumina production AlSiCal will de-risk and develop (from TRL 3-4 to TRL 4-5) the AM technology under sustainability and efficiency principles. It will assess and quantify the: techno-economic feasibility, potential value creation for Europe, Life Cycle Analysis, impact and risks of this technology upon the key sustainability pillars: economy, society and environment. AlSiCal will be performed by a balanced team of R&D and industrial partners representing the whole value chain. AlSiCal will set a roadmap for exploitation of the project results, to foster the later commercialization of the technology. Targeted dissemination and communication actions will contribute to increasing social and industrial engagement for developing innovative sustainable technologies for mineral processing.