UTFacultiesTNWMSTMillions for large-scale energy storage research

Millions for large-scale energy storage research

Researcher Guido Mul, Professor at the University of Twente (TNW-PCS) and part of the interdisciplinary consortium RELEASE (Reversible Large-scale Energy Storage), received funding from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) totalling over € 10 million for research into large-scale energy storage. NWO is investing € 39 million in five large, interdisciplinary research consortia within the Crossover programme, with the aim of helping to meet various social and economic challenges.

REVERSIBLE LARGE-SCALE ENERGY STORAGE (RELEASE)

RELEASE will work on new technological opportunities in energy storage, whereby electrical energy is stored for later use. The project will focus on three technologies for the short (2030) and long (2050) term: hydrogen production, hydrocarbon production from CO2 and flow batteries. The consortium includes universities, institutes of technology, businesses, field laboratories and government agencies in an unprecedented alliance that covers everything from the lab environment to full-scale implementation. Over 40 researchers from 7 universities and 25 partners will, together with their teams, conduct interdisciplinary research that aims to bring social and scientific breakthroughs a step closer. This research also complements the work being carried out within the TU Delft e-Refinery research initiative.

Paulien Herder, Professor at Delft University, and the main applicant in this consortium: ‘The aim of our consortium is to work together on energy storage with scientists from a wide range of disciplines and public and private partnerships, and to accelerate the transition to sustainable energy. Active partnerships are essential in order to achieve scientific breakthroughs in these areas. Together, we hope to achieve technological solutions and policy measures for 2030 and 2050 that are essential if we are to improve the performance and reduce the cost of large-scale energy storage based on electrochemical conversion.’

Three PhD students will be appointed at the UT, Faculty Science and Technology, who will work on membranes and electrodes for redox flow batteries (Prof. Rob Lammertink and Prof. Guido Mul), as well as on the capture of atmospheric CO2 (Dr. Wim Brilman). 

NWO CROSSOVER PROGRAMME

The Crossover programme is new within NWO and is part of the NWO contribution to the Knowledge and Innovation Contract 2018–2019. Under this contract, government, industry and knowledge institutions subscribe to the research ambitions for the top sectors with the aim to strengthen the Dutch knowledge and innovation system. Compared to ‘regular’ public-private partnerships, the projects in the Crossover programme cover a broader range of top sectors and other research agendas. Read the NWO press release here (in Dutch).