The global objective of the Spartacus project is to develop an affordable sensor solution to detect degradation and failure mechanisms, intentionally before a loss of performance. The project will focus on mechanical and acoustic sensors completed by electrochemical impedance measurement and temperature sensors. The sensoric data will be correlated to battery performance and to corresponding models. The state of different parameters (SoX) will be monitored continuously which enables the management system to cycle the battery on an age-dependent optimum level. An advanced Battery Management System (BMS) will be developed. BMS will work in proximity to the cells terminals (i.e. a cell management system, CMS) to efficiently exploit all the sensoric data without extra-wiring harness. At the end of the project, an 24V smart battery module will be assembled and the CMS enhanced by the senoric data will be validated in different ageing conditions or for misused or abused batteries at lab-scale (TRL4). Quantitatively, a reduction of 20% charging time without any negative effect on life time by exploitation of sensoric data is targeted. By usage of sensoric data, cell monitoring will be also improved and will increase the safety of batteries and avoid overheating (thermal runaway), fire or explosion. Spartacus project is based on 6 specific objectives: - OBJ1: Development of new sensors design for smart batteries - OBJ2: Integration of the sensors according to industrial constraints incl. Packaging / Assembly technology - OBJ3: Data acquisition and data pre-processing for BMS integration - OBJ4: Modelling of failure mechanisms and correlation with SoX - OBJ5: Development of an advanced BMS and standardization procedures - OBJ6: Economic and environmental assessment Spartacus consortium is a strong partnership of 5 European research centres and 1 leading industrial having extensive track-records in materials, battery, sensors, modelling, BMS and associated domains.

Nowadays, existing trailer transportation solutions use tubes with a working pressure between 200 and 300 bar. This is not efficient in terms of quantities or cost to address large refuelling stations knowing the upcoming ramp-up of fuel cell-based vehicles. The overall objective of the ROAD TRHYP project is to develop and validate a trailer integrating new thermoplastic composite tubes (Type V) to reach Clean Hydrogen Partnership objectives by maximising the quantity of H2 transported while satisfying end-user requirements (safety, ability to be decontaminated) and enforced regulations with a low TCO. By the end of the project, the consortium will design a trailer capable of handling a payload of 1.5 tonne of H2 with 700 bar tubes and a capex lower than 400 €/kg. This enables the decrease of the number of transport rotations between the site of production and the delivery site, consequently the reduction of the environmental footprint of transporting compressed hydrogen, but also a downsizing of the compressor at the HRS. In the meantime, the project will heavily investigate new fire testing methodologies and safety barriers for type V adoption, results which will be disseminated to key policy makers and regulatory committees. ROAD TRHYP’s overall ambition is to develop Europe’s value chain of type V technologies. More specifically, the project intends to address all manufacturers across Europe who could benefit from the project’s innovative process and materials. Beyond the targeted commercial type V trailers applications, the knowledge developed on composite materials could benefit main actors in the mobility sectors or the hydrogen storage for inter-seasonal energy storage. As a consequence, the project would help achieve the European Green Deal making hydrogen a widespread energy carrier, by 2030.

The Automotive HMI (Human Machine Interface) will soon undergo dramatic changes, with large plastic dashboards moving from the ‘push-buttons’ era to the ‘tactile’ era. User demand for aesthetically pleasing and seamless interfaces is ever increasing, with touch sensitive interfaces now commonplace. However, these touch interfaces come at the cost of haptic feedback, which raises concerns regarding the safety of eyeless interact ion during driving. The HAPPINESS project intends to address these concerns through technological solutions, introducing new capabilities for haptic feedback on these interfaces. The main goal of the HAPPINESS project is to develop a smart conformable surface able to offer different tactile sensations via the development of a Haptic Thin and Organic Large Area Electronic technology (TOLAE), integrating sensing and feedback capabilities, focusing on user requirements and ergonomic designs. To this aim, by gathering all the value chain actors (materials, technology manufacturing, OEM integrator) for application within the automotive market, the HAPPINESS project will offer a new haptic Human-Machine Interface technology, integrating touch sensing and disruptive feedback capabilities directly into an automotive dashboard. Based on the consortium skills, the HAPPINESS project will demonstrate the integration of Electro-Active Polymers (EAP) in a matrix of mechanical actuators on plastic foils. The objectives are to fabricate these actuators with large area and cost effective printing technologies and to integrate them through plastic molding injection into a small-scale dashboard prototype. We will design, implement and evaluate new approaches to Human-Computer Interaction on a fully functional prototype that combines in packaging both sensors and actuator foils, driven by custom electronics, and accessible to end-users via software libraries, allowing for the reproduction of common and accepted sensations such as Roughness, Vibration and Relief.

The European chemical industry faces some very serious challenges if it is to retain its competitive position in the global economy. The new industries setting up in Asia and the Near East are based on novel process-intensification concepts, leaving Europe desperately searching for a competitive edge. The transition from batch to continuous micro- and milliflow processing is essential to ensure a future for the European fine-chemicals and pharmaceuticals industries. However, despite the huge interest shown by both academia and industrial R&D, many challenges remain, such as the problems of reaction activation, channel clogging due to solids formation and the scaling up of these technologies to match the required throughput. COSMIC, the European Training Network for Continuous Sonication and Microwave Reactors, takes on these challenges by developing material- and energy-efficient continuous chemical processes for the synthesis of organic molecules and nanoparticles. The intersectoral and interdisciplinary COSMIC training network consists of leading universities and industry participants and trains 15 ESRs in the areas of flow technology, millifluidics and external energy fields (ultrasound and microwaves). These energy fields can be applied in structured, continuous milli-reactors for producing high-value-added chemicals with excellent yield efficiencies – in terms of throughput, waste minimization and product quality – that simply cannot be achieved with traditional batch-type chemical reactors. The chemical processes that are at the heart of COSMIC’s game-changing research are catalytic reactions and solids-forming reactions. COSMIC’s success, which is based on integrating chemistry, physics and process technology, will re-establish European leadership in this crucial field and provide it with highly trained young experts ready for dynamic careers in the European chemical industry.

The main objective of the BIOCOMEM is to develop and validate gas separation membranes at TRL 5 using bio- based polyether-block-amide copolymers (PEBAs) specially designed to give: higher processability into monolithic hollow fiber membrane; higher gas separation performance, higher resistance to chemical attack (aging), higher bio- based content. The project started with a bio-based PEBA copolymer (A, Reference bio-PEBA) that is already avaible from Arkema at TRL8 and shows (at TRL3 - dense flat sheet membrane) better gas permeation properties than the fossil fuel counterparts (PEBAX® MV 1074 and PEBAX® MH1657). Several synthesis pathways were followed to further improve the properties and gain the necessary added value for market competitiveness. The modification of the chemical structure was done systematically with the purpose to fully understand the relation between the chemical structure, morphology and properties. In one research line (B, New bio-PEBAs Pathway 1) the polyether block was be kept constant, the same as for the reference bio-PEBA, and only the polyamide block was modified using bio- based monomers with aromatic/cycloaliphatic structure. The main objective of the first research line was to induce spinnability by making polymers with better solubility keeping at least similar mechanical properties compared to the reference polymer. In a parallel research line (C, New bio-PEBAs Pathway 2), the polyamide part was kept constant as for the reference bio-PEBA (i.e. poly(11-undecanoic acid)), and the chemical structure of the polyether block was modified using monomers derived from lignin as a starting point to connect hydrophilic chains. The objective of the second research line is to produce a polyamide-polyether block copolymer with bio-based components in both blocks and the processability into monolithic hollow fiber membranes was evaluated. At M18 it was demonstrated lignin-polyether-block-PA11 PEBAs could not be prepared successfully. Therefore, a modified prototype C was developed by copolymerization of a biobased polyamide synthesized from diethyl sebacate, diethyl galactarate (GalX) and 1,10-diaminodecane with a commercial, biobased poly(1,3 propanediol) polyether derived from starch (Velvetol®).