HORUS ENERGIE ALTERNATIVA. Sustainability at the service of development.

RECOMLABS - Project Overview

This work was supported by a grant of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation, CCCDI – UEFISCDI, project number ERANET-INCOMERA-RECOMLABS-3, within PNCDI III.
Acronym

RECOMLABS

Project Coordinator

Mazzone Domenico

RECOMLABS project brings together a team of six organizations, three from west Greece and three from Romania with more than fifteen years of active involvement in NMP research projects. Its main objective is to utilize the existing heritage gained primarily in property tailoring of the relevant composite materials and extend its application in the building/construction industry. The starting point will be the laboratory proven methods, in order to develop suitable components for building interiors walls and exterior thermal insulation with improved UV radiation repellent and self-cleaning capabilities. Overall, an end-user product innovation is proposed, which could possibly lead to market application. This is done by including testing activities under realistic conditions. The project aims at transferring from niche to wider market products, hence increasing its societal impact and industrial dimension. General objectives and estimated results The consortium is aiming to use its background knowledge originating from different technology sectors (aerospace, energy) in order to realize construction materials with tailored properties and multi-functionality.

The end products in the form of mortars and paints for the building exterior and smart panels for the building interior will represent a clear step beyond the State of the Art for the construction/building industry. The relevance of the intended developments with the market requirements is ensured by the strong interest of the end-users. It is expected that the project results will further strengthen the potential of the participants to innovate and will help the regional industry face its challenges more favorably. This proposal envisages the development of multifunctional sandwich panels made from fiber reinforced composites as building materials for application in construction sector.

These panels will be utilizable as partition wall elements, offering acceptable or even improved levels of sound and thermal insulation compared to conventional wall elements but also additional functions such as energy storage capabilities. Use of green composites (natural fibers, environment friendly resins, etc.) is foreseen for the outer (load carrying) layers of the structure. The targeted panels aim to address an increasing need in the construction industry for structures with low weight, good insulation properties and improved durability, and offer an innovative solution for energy storage that can facilitate emerging energy management technologies. One of the objectives of the proposal is to develop a multifunctional sandwich structure that can support mechanical loads, like any other honeycomb or foam cored sandwich panel, combining the capability to store electrical energy.
To accomplish that, appropriate energy storage layers (electrodes and solid electrolyte) will be embedded into the panel structure. More specifically, the structural panel will comprise:

• Two face sheets, consisting of natural fiber reinforced composites that will provide the required structural properties.
These composites may incorporate various modifications based on nanotechnology solutions (e.g. fire retardant, sound insulation additives, functional nanoparticles etc.)

• A multifunctional core: a layered structure comprising at least three layers of electrochemical energy storage materials (active materials like carbon fiber layers for anode, cathode and ion conducting separator) The design of such panels will aim to satisfy mass, sound and thermal insulation requirements and safety standards as well as energy storage performance.

Reduction of structural weight and volume and enhancement of flame retardant properties are crucial to designing efficient panels for space partitioning applications. The main drawbacks of natural fibers will be improved by proper chemical treatments. To enhance fire resistance of natural fiber composites, coatings and additives can be used, since they have been found to be very promising fire barrier treatments. One suggestion could be the addition of expandable graphite (EG) and ammonium polyphosphate (APP) as a source of flame retardancy (FR). For exterior building applications, the development of novel mortars pastes and paints is envisaged. In addition to the currently used photocatalytic agents that promote the self-cleaning capability, special formulations utilizing ceramic based nano-filters and nano-clays will be developed. These additives can control surface roughness and porosity and result in enduring high emissivity.

Consortium structure

CO – ADAMANT – Adamant Composites Ltd., with headquarters in Agias Lavras & Stadiou Str. Platani-Patras, 26504, Greece. Contact person: Dr. Antonios Vavouliotis, Tel. +302610931730, email address: vavouliotis@adamant-composites.gr. Funding program: RWG (Greece)

P2 – AML/UP – Applied Mechanics Laboratory, University of Patras, with headquarters in Panepistimioupoli Patron 265 04, Greece. Contact person: Prof. Vassileios Kostopoulos, Tel. +302610969443, email address: kostopoulos@mech.upatras.gr. Funding program: RWG (Greece)

P3 – UNISOL – UNISOL AE, with headquarters in Agia Lavra 6, Rio Patras, Greece. Contact person: Athanasios Douras, Tel. +302610995522, email address: douras@unisol.gr. Funding program: RWG (Greece)

P4 – HORUS – Horus Energie Alternativa srl. Contact person: Mazzone Domenico, Tel. +393663112636, email address: mazzone@kad3.com. Funding program: UEFISCDI (Romania)

P5 – RID – RID International Center srl, with headquarters in Târgu Mureș, str. Avram Iancu nr. 37, Romania. Contact person: Dr. Coman Adrian, Tel. +40745147811, email address: adrico59@yahoo.fr. Funding program: UEFISCDI (Romania)

P6 – TESAGON – TESAGON INTERNATIONAL srl, Contact person: Coman Ciprian-Mihai, email address: ciprian@tesagon.com. Funding program: UEFISCDI (Romania)

Contracting Authority

Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation – Unitatea Executivă pentru Finanțarea Învățământului Superior, a Cercetării, Dezvoltării și Inovării (UEFISCDI), headquarters in Bucharest, Str. D. I. Mendeleev nr. 21-25, sector 1, postal code: 010362.

Financing contract no. 08/01.05.2018