EIRES Lunch | 12 May 2023
Topic & Program:
Recent advances in materials for sorption-based thermal batteries
Organized by:
EIRES | Focus Area - Systems for Sustainable Heat
Led by Principal Scientists:
Henk Huink - Silvia Gaastra-Nedea
Speakers
- Dr. Alenka Ristić - Laboratory for Adsorbents, Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Technology, National Institute of Chemistry, Ljubljana, Slovenia
- Nataša Zabukovec Logar - Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Technolog, National Institute of Chemistry, Ljubljana and University of Nova Gorica, Slovenia
Introduction:
Thermal batteries hold a great promise to reduce the dependence of space heating and cooling on fossil fuels. The minimization of the mismatch between the thermal energy production (e.g. solar, waste heat) and its consumption relies on only a trivial amount of heat loss in sorption-based thermal batteries over longer periods of time. The process is based on the reversible sorption of vapours in porous solids, which is associated with the endothermic (desorption) and exothermic (adsorption) phenomena. The efficiency of this kind of thermal energy storage technology is determined by the performance of the sorbent used, which should, in addition to high thermal stability and good cycling performance, enables high sorption capacity of working fluid at low relative humidity and low regeneration temperature, if renewable solar energy is to be exploited. More

EIRES Lunch | 14 April 2023
Topic & program:
Sustainable Chemicals Production in 2050: Where, what, when?
Organized by:
EIRES | Focus Area - Engineering for Sustainable Energy Systems
Led by Principal Scientists:
Niels Deen - John van der Schaaf
Speaker:
John van der Schaaf - TU/e | Chemical Engineering and Chemistry & EIRES
Introduction:The coming decades we face a huge transition from fossil to renewable based economies. In the presentation an energy based analysis is made to determine which chemical processes should be done where, which resources we should use, how we should perform these processes, and what the implications are for equipment, materials, and chemical process design.

EIRES Lunch | 17 February 2023
Topic & Program:
Prospects of non-toxic perovskite semiconductors for solar conversion applications
Organized by:
EIRES | Focus Area - Chemistry for Sustainable Energy Systems
Led by Principal Scientists:
Adriana Creatore - Marta Costa Figueiro
Speaker:
Eline Hutter | Utrecht University
Introduction:
Understanding how to convert sunlight into useful forms of energy, such as electricity and fuels, will be crucial for a sustainable, circular economy. Semiconductor materials play a key role in photoconversion processes, as these materials can generate conductive electrons on absorbing light. It is a major challenge to design semiconductor materials that are stable, non-toxic, and high performance. Double perovskite semiconductors such as Cs2AgBiBr6 have recently been proposed as less toxic and more stable alternative to lead halide perovskites, and were successfully implemented as photoactive layer in optoelectronic devices. However, sunlight conversion efficiencies of double perovskite-based devices remain much lower than their lead-based analogues. In order to understand the factors that limit performance, we have used several time-resolved spectroscopy techniques to study the dynamics of electron transport, localization and recombination in Cs2AgBiBr6 double perovskites. We also show that partially replacing Bi3+ with other metals such as Sb3+ and Fe3+ tunes the light absorption and electron transport properties of these materials. From dye degradation experiments, we find that some of these compounds are active photocatalysts, whereas others deplete toxic dyes through adsorption. Finally, I will show examples of how combining materials can serve as a strategy to manipulate optoelectronic properties and performance.
EIRES Lunch | 03 February 2023
Topic & Program:
Market & technologies for high-temperature industrial heat pumps
Organized by:
EIRES | Focus Area - Systems for Sustainable Heat
Led by Principal Scientists:
Henk Huink - Silvia Gaastra-Nedea
Speaker:
Simon Spoelstra - TNO Energy Materials Transition
Introduction:
The industrial sector is worldwide responsible for roughly one third of the global GHG emissions. The use of heat represents 70-80% of the energy use of the industrial sector. At the same time, industry emits large amounts of waste heat to the ambient atmosphere. Industrial heat pumps are a technology that recovers and upgrades this waste heat to useable process heat. This presentation will give an overview of the industrial heat pump market and the technologies available and under development to meet the requirements of industry.

EIRES Lunch | 20 January 2023
Topic & program:
Interactions of burning particles with a turbulent flow: problems and methodology
Organized by:
EIRES | Focus Area - Engineering for Sustainable Energy Systems
Led by Principal Scientists:
Niels Deen - John van der Schaaf
Speaker:
Benedicte Cuenot - CERFACS and TU/e | Thermo-Fluids Engineering (TFE)
Introduction:
The interaction of a cloud of particles with a turbulent flow is a complex subject which depends on many parameters of the particles such as their density, their statistical distribution of size, their inertia, or their shape. These parameters impact the particle trajectories which, combined with the higher or lower number density in the cloud, lead to different regimes of interaction with the flow and different structures of the concentration field of the particles. When these particles undergo exothermic chemical reactions, as in the case of burning iron particles, the interaction with the flow is further influenced by the temperature of the particles and of the carrier phase.
In this lecture, Benedicte Cuenot will outline the details of the physical mechanisms of burning particles in turbulent flow that result in the interactions mentioned above. She will then present the methodology for modelling and simulating these phenomena in the contexts of Direct Numerical Simulation and Large Eddy Simulation. Current challenges and research topics will finally be addressed.
