22Nov
News
Addressing the challenges facing SMEs in climate action
Our hydrogen production system with advanced membrane reactors, finalist in the Innovation Awards 2018
The EARTO Innovation Awards 2018 is a competition open to all EARTO members, the association that brings together European research centres. The award recognises innovation with a significant social or economic impact.
Our hydrogen production system that uses advanced membrane reactors (AMR), developed in conjunction with Eindhoven Technical University, came second in this competition.
This innovative system is based on the philosophy of process intensification and integrates processes that were traditionally carried out in four stages in a single unit: it produces high purity hydrogen on a small and medium scale with great efficiency, which translates into significant cost savings.
Jon Zuñiga, representative of TECNALIA in this competition, has declared that “although we were not able to win on this occasion, the experience has been enriching. Second place is great recognition of our work".
The finalists also include CEA, TNO and FRAUNHOFER. They took part respectively with a digital nose for smell identification, a telescope for mapping atmospheric contamination and a multi-organic chip that simulates various processes in the human body.
VTT and Helmhotz were the winners of the competition. VTT competed with technology that transforms injection-moulded plastics into smart structures, encapsulating sophisticated electronic functionality; and Helmhotz participated with a technology that allows micro-organisms capable of producing building blocks from renewable materials to be identified.
