15 Febrary 2023
On 8th February 2023 the kick-off meeting of the Horizon Europe project KNOESKITE-X “Knowledge-driven fine-tuning of perovskite-based electrode materials for reversible Chemicals-to-Power devices” was held, coordinated by Dr. Elise Berrier , officially took off in Lille, France.
With 10 partners from 7 European countries and € 5.168.000 in funding, KNOWSKITE-X is pioneering innovative, sustainable technologies for energy conversion and storage.
Energy storage devices such as batteries and capacitors are essential components of the future European power grid, which will be fed with a largely increased share of inherently intermittent renewable energies. Electrolysers offer another strategy, converting excess power into H2, a decarbonized fuel that can be used by the transportation sector. Fuel cells (FC) provide electrical power with the highest energy density, making them an ideal choice for stationary power generation in buildings and industry.
Despite their established commercial use, efforts are required to minimize the critical content of these devices, increase their efficiency, and improve their cost-effectiveness. The KNOWSKITE-X project targets a science-driven method to develop fine-tunable active materials relevant to energy conversion and storage. The project organizes a close collaboration between scientific and industrial stakeholders and targets the implementation of an interoperable rational design strategy.
The project will demonstrate a science-based approach to the development of electrode materials forming key parts of reversible chemical-to-power cells. Such devices operate in two modes: in fuel cell (FC) mode, it converts hydrogen into electricity whereas when operating as electrolyser cell (EC), it uses excess electricity to form hydrogen from water electrolysis. This versatility enables the integration of intermittent renewable energy sources with the electrical grid by storing the excess energy as carbon-free chemical fuel. In particular, the project targets mixed oxides with perovskite structure with minimised critical content while keeping highest possible performances and targeting fair economic viability.
The main objective of the KNOWSKITE-X project is to boost the development of materials for energy applications by combining state-of-art approaches together with the empowerment of knowledge discovery allowed by artificial intelligence (AI). In particular, the project integrates a smart combination of advanced technologies, involving tailor-made materials preparation, harmonised and ground-breaking characterisation methods, multi-scale modelling and AI-enabled tools. This corpus of open-minded, innovative, reliable, and use-relevant methodologies targets the discovery of the scientific knowledge required to sustain the rational design of optimized candidate electrode materials.
