The ceramics industry is responsible for emitting a substantial amount of greenhouse gases. To help reduce the industry's sizeable carbon footprint, a team of EU-funded researchers and developers used technology, simulations, and testing to create a more efficient kiln. The result: a state-of-the-art kiln defined by optimised energy consumption, reduced emissions, and lower operating costs.
More predictable than the wind and sun, tides have a massive potential when it comes to generating clean electricity. With tidal turbines already generating electricity within our seas, the challenge facing the industry now is to reduce costs. A consortium of EU-funded organisations has been using this knowledge to create a novel turbine able to make tidal energy more competitive.
Industrial applications often call for surfaces designed to attract or repel water. EU-funded researchers are devising new methods to characterise and manufacture such surfaces and will make their findings public in a new Open Innovation Environment.
EU-funded researchers have developed innovative particle accelerator technology capable of removing harmful sulphur and nitrogen oxide emissions from ship exhaust in a breakthrough that will support the transition to a greener, less-polluting and more sustainable global shipping industry.
New solutions are needed to make our economies more sustainable, and they are needed quickly. Research and innovation to support the transition can be funded more effectively, if the relevant programme owners develop synergies and learn from each other, say EU-funded researchers championing a coordinated approach.
EU-funded researchers are aiming to develop a new class of drugs to treat and even cure multiple sclerosis, building on groundbreaking research into previously unexploited mechanisms of an ancestral metabolic molecule the helps regulate the immune system of all humans and mammals.
For years, researchers have struggled to understand how bees navigate so effectively with such small brains. Now, an EU-funded project has developed new technology to enhance our understanding and to potentially advance efforts in bee conservation. This new knowledge could also be transferred to other sectors, such as engineering.
The maintenance of pipelines is constrained by their inaccessibility. An EU-funded project developed swarms of small autonomous remote-sensing agents that learn through experience to explore and map such networks. The technology could be adapted to a wide range of hard-to-access artificial and natural environments.
A single test strip - the first platform to couple a methanol fuel cell with a biosensor - could act as a self-powered, easy-to-use, disposable, and low-cost test for diseases such as cancer, say EU-funded researchers.
EU-funded researchers have mapped out possible pathways to achieve the drastic technological, economic and societal transformations needed for the EU to become carbon neutral by 2050, meet its commitments under the Paris Agreement and lead global efforts to tackle climate change.
