The main objective of H2PlasmaRed is to develop hydrogen plasma smelting reduction (HPSR) technology for the reduction of iron ores and steelmaking sidestreams to meet the targets of the European Green Deal for reducing CO2 emissions and supporting the circular economy in the steel industry across Europe. Our ambition is to introduce a near CO2-free reduction process to support the goal of the Paris Agreement - a 90% reduction in the carbon intensity of steel production by 2050. To achieve this, H2PlasmaRed will develop HPSR from TRL5 to TRL7 by demonstrating the HPSR in a pilot-HPSR reactor (hundred-kilogram-scale) that is an integrated part of a steel plant, and in a pilot-scale DC electric arc furnace (5-ton scale) by retrofitting the existing furnace. The project's end goal is to establish a way to upscale the process from pilot-scale into industrial practice. To support this goal, the novel sensors and models developed and implemented in the project are used for HPSR process optimization from a reduction, resource, and energy efficiency standpoint.

Key Enabling Technologies (KET´s) deployment will be the driving force for a significant part of the goods and services that will be available in the market in the next decade. Amongst KET´s, nano-enabled surfaces and membranes must be highlighted due to their huge potential to offer material solutions to address Sustainable Development Goals resulting in positive and sound impacts for the society and key industrial sectors NewSkin aims to create an Open Innovation Test Bed (OITB) to provide the Innovation Ecosystem with the necessary resources and services to uptake a set of game changing, efficient and cost-effective innovative processes to manufacture nano-enabled industrial and consumer products. During the Grant execution the Consortium partners will create an OITB, as well as its structure and procedures establishing a single-entry point, and will validate the OITB capacity to provide services to the I.E executing 165 showcases. After the Grant execution the OITB aims to generate €66.17 million revenues in 5 years creating a €6.7 billion KET market to be absorbed by an end user market of valued at €1 trillion. In 2029, end users markets will obtain economic benefits of about €52.6 billion savings per year mostly devoted to lower energy consumption, increased resources efficiency as well as a reduction of the carbon and volatiles footprint of 184CO2 MT per year and 0.57 MT of VOC’s per year.

Fatigue4Light project aims to investigate lightweight solutions adapted to the chassis part of EV to reach a 24-30% weight reduction. This will give a 12-15% weight saving from structural vehicle weight, and also increase EV safety due to reduced sprung mass. Solutions will be based on the introduction of especially developed material solutions with high fatigue performance (AHSS, stainless steel, Al alloys and hybrid metal-FRP materials), the development of new computer modelling with high fatigue prediction accuracy and new experimental methodologies that reduce the testing time. Sustainability of the proposed solutions will be continuously considered along project through an eco-design general approach. Environmental assessments through LCA, affordability based in LCC as well as social inclusion thanks to the recovery of CRMs from alternative waste streams will allow endowing Fatigue4Light into a novelty circular dimension. Attention will be given to manufacturing processes (cutting and welding) to improve the knowledge on their effect to the overall fatigue performance of chassis components. Six lab scale and industrial demonstrators will be defined to validate the proposed solutions. The fatigue model will be verified on demonstrators and then used in a virtual testing process to assess the weight reduction potential of the proposed materials, together with a redesign process oriented to lightweight the components while ensuring structural integrity. The project will reduce lead times to market due to the developed model and advanced fatigue testing methodologies and standardization will be followed. The final outcome is to give modelling and experimental tools for the lightweighting process on chassis parts subjected to fatigue. Clear and practical guidelines will be established with respect to different factors: eco design with proposed materials, advanced modelling approaches and the influence of forming processes on part performance.