Overview of previous

EIRES Lunch lectures | 2023

EIRES Lunch lectures are organized every second week and are open for TU/e community interested in the latest developments in energy storage and conversion. Different keynote speakers from academia and industry will present their views, solutions and outlooks on the topic. The lectures leave plenty of room for discussion. We value your input. Looking forward meeting you

Any questions | remarks | interest to join: eires@tue.nl

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.