Industry | Research and Innovation

European shipyards seek to cut costs and pollution with new digital tools. © FOTOGRIN, Shutterstock.com

Europe’s shipyards navigate from sunset industry to green revival

European shipyards are under pressure to cut costs and clean up. A new EU-funded initiative aims to help them do both, with digital tools and better ...

European and Japanese researchers are working together to tackle some of the biggest challenges in high-performance computing. © IR Stone, Shutterstock.com

Frontier research | ICT | Industry | Science in society

Europe and Japan push supercomputing boundaries

From predicting climate change to developing new medicines, supercomputers underpin modern science. Europe and Japan are now working together to make ...

Formic acid, first discovered in ants, could soon be produced from captured CO2, opening the door to more sustainable consumer products. © frank60, Shutterstock.com

Environment | Industry | Science in society

Turning CO2 from urban waste into useful consumer products

EU-funded researchers are turning carbon emissions from urban waste into everyday household products – from cleaning liquids to leather.

Finnish is available via eTranslation, the European Commission's machine translation service.

Translate to Finnish | Important information about machine translation

An electronic circuit board. © Shutterstock/ Chungking

Public–Private Partnerships | ICT | Industry | Innovation Union

Securing the technology that underpins innovation

Electronic systems are at the heart of new technology, and a partnership between the EU and industry aims to secure Europe's supply.

Open rotor jet engines could reduce fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions by 25 % to 30 % compared to standard jet engines. © Safran

Public–Private Partnerships | Energy | Industry | Innovation Union

Cleaner and quieter future for Europe’s skies

Europe’s skies will be cleaner and quieter thanks to a proposed partnership between the EU and industry. During the partnership, technologies will be developed to help cut noise and carbon dioxide emissions from planes by up to 30 %.

More and more modern airplanes, like the Airbus A380, are made of carbon fibre materials. Soon, graphene will further improve the use of carbon based materials in the transport industry, boosting performances of planes while reducing their weight and thus their fuel consumption.

Industry | Frontier research | Innovation Union

Electrified planes and quadruple-glazed windows

From quadruple-glazed windows to planes whose fuselage can be electrically heated, graphene is changing the world.

Professor Jari Kinaret (Chalmers University, SE) is coordinating the EU Graphene Flagship. Supercapacitors are one reason why the EU has set up the Graphene Flagship. The European Union has plans for investing hundreds of millions of euros over the next ten years in research on graphene, due to its high potential impact in many industrial sectors, and is working with other funders to join forces. © Graphene-flagship.eu

Industry | Frontier research | Innovation Union

High-power capacitors to replace batteries

They charge in seconds and could run your laptop for a month – supercapacitors are coming, and it’s thanks to graphene, one atom-thick sheets of carbon that are revolutionising industry.

Biofuel can be produced from algae. At the Farnborough Airshow 2010, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space company (EADS) showcased flights of an aircraft powered by pure biofuel made from this resource. © EADS

Environment | Industry | Bioeconomy

Shifting gear on biofuels

Car fuel made from agricultural waste could help cut down carbon usage without taking up land that is used to grow food. It is one innovation that could help the biofuels industry shift up a gear.

Biomaterials in granular form are today used to make items such as mulching film or disposable tableware as well as different kinds of packaging. © Novamont

Environment | Industry | Bioeconomy

From plastic litter to high-quality compost

Early shoots for the bioeconomy have sprung up through innovative ideas in completely different businesses. And, at the same time, they raise some legislative initiatives.

Test of the quality of a laser beam produced by the Amplitude start-up company in France. The technology proposed by this company has been co-patented by the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique, France. © CNRS Phototèque – Kaksonenl

Industry | Policy

EU patents predict green recovery

If the type of patents being filed by Europe’s companies is anything to go by, the economy that will emerge from the financial crisis in Europe may be decidedly green.

Bioeconomy | Environment | Industry | Agriculture

Bioeconomy: the new revolution

The industrial revolution made the world wealthy through a simple idea: to replace the physical labour of humans and animals with energy from fossil fuels. Two-and-a-half centuries after the revolution started, however, it is in trouble. The oil that powers much of the world’s economy is running out, and the greenhouse gases given off by the fuels are harming the planet.

In the French region of Champagne, local farmers and industrial partners have developed a fully integrated industrial biorefinery. It takes advantage of the biomass, based on traditional agro-industries, for new applications of agro-resources to be used in the local area. © Getty

Energy | Bioeconomy | Agriculture | Industry

Biorefinery sorts the chaff from the wheat

Among the vineyards and wheat fields of north-eastern France, a revolution in chemical manufacturing is quietly gathering momentum. Here, biomass is turned into valuable components and energy.