CEA Hydrogen and Storage
Overview
The objective of the hydrogen production and storage platform is to develop innovative hydrogen production, conversion, and storage processes so that hydrogen can be effectively used as a source of energy. The platform develops and tests demonstrators of significant size in partnership with manufacturing companies.
The platform’s hydrogen-production research focuses on high-energy yield, high-temperature (700°C to 800°C) water-vapor electrolysis. Other applications for this technology include power-to-gas conversion via water-vapor/carbon-dioxide electrolysis. Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are the main area of conversion research at the platform. SOFCs operate at high temperature and can use hydrogen or other gases (such as natural gas and biogas). Cogeneration is currently the priority application for SOFCs. The platform is also working on low-pressure solid-hydrogen storage processes for stationary and transportation applications. In a world first, the platform joined forces with France-based McPhy… 800 sq. m facility, plus a 120 sq. m outdoor testing area, €6 million euros invested, including electrolyzer and tank performance and durability testing capabilities.
. A team of 40 researchers and technicians work with industrial and academic partners on leading edge projects. Services include feasibility studies, prototype development, testing, security analysis, and benchmarking.
. Yes. service.
Sectors
Technology
CEA Fuel cells Infrastructure
Overview
With €6 million in equipment and a staff of 40 engineers and technicians, the fuel-cell platform takes a truly unique approach to designing and improving fuel cells. It is the only center in the world to cover materials, membrane-electrode assemblies, stacks, testing, modeling, and characterization. Around ten manufacturers from around the world—including Symbio FCell and Areva Energy Storage—conduct R&D at the platform. The mission is to speed the transfer of new fuel-cell technology to transportation and stationary applications and build a strong intellectual property portfolio, adding around 10–20 new patents per year. The platform builds demonstrators for testing in real-world conditions.
For example, the hydrogen-powered Zero CO2 vessel has been sailing since 2010, and the EPICEA and PROSPAC generators are producing 5 kW of useable electricity.
The fuel-cells produced by the platform are at the international state of the art in terms of performance, lifespan, and form factor, all benefits that… Around 20 test benches for fuel cells from 10 W to 50 kW. The platform also has specific equipment like a roll-to-roll electrode manufacturing machine for membrane-electrode assemblies and a stack-assembling machine. There is also access to new materials development, characterization and testing.
. - Scientific & technological
- Study / initial design / Simulation
- Proof of concept / Lab testing of basic experimental set-up/ Characterisation
- Component/ breadboard / process development & testing
- Prototyping (integrated system/ sub-system) development & testing
- Pilot line / demonstration line / preseries
- Product validation / certification
. Yes. service.
Sectors
Technology
CEA Electric mobility Infrastructure
Overview
Electric and hybrid-electric vehicles are about more than just batteries (or fuel cells). The battery or fuel cell must be integrated into the powertrain and tested in real-world conditions. The test results must then be analyzed so that further improvements can be made. The electric mobility platform does all of these things, developing solutions for automotive applications as well as for all other types of land, air, and sea vehicles and vessels.
Tests, carried out on the open road/water or at closed facilities, provide valuable feedback on cycling, ageing, and other factors while facilitating market penetration for SMEs and larger companies involved with battery, fuel-cell, and traditional and electric vehicle manufacturers.
The platform possesses a complete set of equipment that includes a motor bench, solar charging stations, and instrumentation capabilities. The platform can perform one-off testing (up to 60,000 km for an electric vehicle) and continuous monitoring of fleets of up to 30 vehicles. For the platform’s industrial partners, these testing capabilities provide valuable feedback so that they can improve product quality and reliability and even launch totally new products on a still-emerging market.
. - Scientific & technological
- Study / initial design / Simulation
- Proof of concept / Lab testing of basic experimental set-up/ Characterisation
- Component/ breadboard / process development & testing
- Prototyping (integrated system/ sub-system) development & testing
- Pilot line / demonstration line / preseries
- Product validation / certification
. Yes. service.
Sectors
Technology
CEA Cyber-security Infrastructure
Overview
The cybersecurity platform is staffed by more than 100 experts experienced in protecting integrated circuits, mobile electronic devices (such as smartphones) and embedded systems and their software from threats. The platform is used to identify product vulnerabilities and come up with innovative ways to protect both hardware and software from cyber-attacks.
The techniques employed to ensure hardware and software security are based on innovative technologies like secure communications platforms for sensor networks, secure hardware and software cryptography implementation, crypto calculation for direct application processing of encrypted data, and more.
The platform uses some of the most advanced tools available (source-code analysis software like Frama-C, hardware platform simulators, test benches capable of replicating physical attacks against electronic components, fault generators, and emission spectrum analyzers) to pinpoint vulnerabilities. It is home to one of France’s three official commercial hardware security evaluation centers.
. - Scientific & technological
- Study / initial design / Simulation
- Proof of concept / Lab testing of basic experimental set-up/ Characterisation
- Component/ breadboard / process development & testing
- Prototyping (integrated system/ sub-system) development & testing
- Pilot line / demonstration line / preseries
- Product validation / certification
. Yes. service.
Sectors
Technology
CEA Clinatec Infrastructure
Overview
The Clinatec biomedical research center is like no other facility in the world. R&D is conducted by the CEA and the Grenoble University Medical Center oversees clinical trials. Clinatec develops new treatments, diagnostics and research methods for applications in oncology, neurodegenerative disease and spinal-cord injury. A multidisciplinary team made up of clinical practitioners, biologists, mathematicians and engineers in microtechnology, nanotechnology and signal processing has been constituted at the platform to drive innovation in micro and nanosystems for healthcare. The platform’s unique approach—bringing together a broad range of know-how at a single location—fosters the emergence of novel solutions and speeds up proof-of-concept testing and transfer of new technologies to manufacturers. The ultimate goal is to offer new solutions to as many patients as possible.
An open project center provides access to Clinatec’s resources. Partners can assign their staff to or house their projects at Clinatec… Clinatec possesses a broad range of equipment and leverages the know-how and advances of the MINATEC campus. Notable equipment includes systems design and integration labs, a preclinical testing center, an operating room with intraoperative MRI, and various medical imaging resources (SPECT-CT, MEG).
. - Scientific & technological
- Study / initial design / Simulation
- Proof of concept / Lab testing of basic experimental set-up/ Characterisation
- Component/ breadboard / process development & testing
- Prototyping (integrated system/ sub-system) development & testing
- Pilot line / demonstration line / preseries
- Product validation / certification
. Yes. service.
Sectors
Technology
CEA Biomass Infrastructure
Overview
R and D at the platform focuses on analysis and modelling of physical phenomena; experimentation at the lab and demonstrator scales; process evaluation; and demonstrator development—with the goal of devising economically-viable solutions by 2020. The platform works with around fifteen industrial partners, including GDF Suez and Air Liquide.
The biomass platform is unique in France in terms of the sheer scope of its R&D activities, which cover biomass grinding, torrefaction, pyrolisis and gasification processes from an analytical scale up to 100 kg per hour—with results that can be extrapolated to industrial processes. The platform’s overriding purpose is to produce high-yield energy while eliminating waste and controlling emissions of substances like heavy metals and sulfur. The platform’s equipment includes several reactors, a grinding unit, and torrefaction and gasification furnaces. Beyond the traditional sources of biomass, like wood and farm and forest byproducts, researchers at the platform are… Equipment for biomass grinding, torrefaction (roasting), pyrolysis and gasification processes from an analytical scale up to 100 kg per hour
The platform’s equipment includes several reactors, a grinding unit, and torrefaction and gasification furnaces (an 11-meter-high, 3.5-meter diameter torrefaction furnace; a high-pressure, high-temperature gasification furnace) in an overall area of 800 sq m.
. - Scientific & technological
- Study / initial design / Simulation
- Proof of concept / Lab testing of basic experimental set-up/ Characterisation
- Component/ breadboard / process development & testing
- Prototyping (integrated system/ sub-system) development & testing
- Pilot line / demonstration line / preseries
- Product validation / certification
. Yes. service.
Sectors
Technology
CEA Battery Infrastructure
Overview
The CEA Battery Infrastructure R&D focuses on lithium-ion battery development and small-run production, from materials synthesis through to integration. The goal is to develop end-to-end production systems for applications ranging from hearing aids to electric-powered buses, with the broader objectives of cutting costs, increasing battery life, and improving reliability.
The battery platform boasts all of the know-how and heavy equipment required to develop and produce small runs of lithium-ion batteries.
R&D at the platform starts with identifying and synthesizing materials to optimize battery performance, and encompasses manufacturing the various components (such as battery electrodes and electrolytes),assembling the battery packs, and integrating them into complete systems. Battery safety is assessed via a range of tests that include total destruction of the battery.
The platform's size and scope make it unique in Europe. With a strong commitment to industrial R&D partnerships, the platform works… The platform has around 20 pieces of heavy equipment, including coating and filling machines and a pre-industrial assembly line. The platform’s work focuses on lithium-ion batteries of all sizes, from tiny hearing-aid batteries weighing in at just a few grams to 300-kg electric-bus batteries.
. Scientific & technological
Study / initial design / Simulation
Proof of concept / Lab testing of basic experimental set-up/ Characterisation
Component/ breadboard / process development & testing
Prototyping (integrated system/ sub-system) development & testing
Pilot line / demonstration line / pre-series
Product validation / certification
. Yes. service.
Sectors
Technology
CEA Advanced Manufacturing
Overview
Our goal is to help manufacturers improve their agility, reactivity, performance and quality.
List, a CEA Tech institute, masters the technologies that support industry to produce in a more effective and sustainable way.
Our institute relies on scientific expertise that is unique in France considering our close collaboration with most industrial sectors.
Our research is expanding onto smart manufacturing emerging topics: modelling and simulation, knowledge engineering, data processing, vision, information and communication systems etc.
Industrial R&D partners can access our technology platforms to achieve goals like building a demonstrator system or prototype or doing test production runs. The industrial-grade equipment at the platforms closes the gap between testing and industrial scale-up.
Facilities include
Augmented and virtual reality: product design and simulation software, production equipment, and workstations
Non-destructive testing (NDT): modelling, simulation, and instrumentation (US, EC, CT) and new inspection systems (SHM) for new production methods (additive manufacturing)
Robotics and cobotics: versatile robotic components, cobotic systems (operator assistance, task-sharing)
Digital factory and Internet of Things (IoT): secure protocols, vision systems, HMI; model-driven engineering, knowledge engineering, runtime support
. 220 research engineers dedicate their time to six main domains of activity
Collaborative robotics
Virtual reality
Augmented reality
Non destructive testing
Instrumentation
Radioactivity metrology
Services include feasibility studies, prototype development, testing, security analysis, and competitive benchmarking.
. Yes. service.
Sectors
Technology
Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC)
Overview
The Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) is a research centre whose purpose is to carry out interdisciplinary research at the highest international quality level which, by creating knowledge, helps to improve health and quality of life and generate wealth.
IBEC conducts excellent interdisciplinary research at the frontiers of engineering and life sciences in order to generate new knowledge by putting together fields like nanomedicine, biophysics, biotechnology, tissue engineering and the applications of health information technology.
The knowledge that exists in the IBEC research groups is structured in three broad avenues of knowledge: nanomedicine, cellular and tissue engineering and ICT for health. These are placed at the service of science and society to progress in three major application areas, namely:
Bioengineering for future medicine
Bioengineering for regenerative therapies
Bioengineering for active ageing
IBEC actively pursues the establishment of… IBEC structure consists of R&D core and a Nanotechnology Service Platform. IBEC’s Nanotechnology Platform is an accessible and versatile research facility featuring 150m2 of class 10,000 cleanroom space and laboratories offering state-of-the-art equipment for the fabrication and characterization of micro- and nanodevices and structures.IBEC R&D core: Establishing a partnership with IBEC gives companies access to top-class scientists and research know-how, in three breakthrough avenues of knowledge: nanomedicine, cellular and tissue engineering and ICT for health..
Scientific & technological
Study / initial design / Simulation
Proof of concept / Lab testing of basic experimental set-up/ Characterisation
Component/ breadboard / process development & testing
Prototyping (integrated system/ sub-system) development & testing
Pilot line / demonstration line / preseries
Product validation / certification
Bioprinting of 3D structures using biomaterials and cellladen hydrogels.
Microfluidic chips design and fabrication using photolithographic processes, including Cr photomasks fabrication.
Microelectrode fabrication using a thin layer deposition technique.
Chemical characterization of materials using ToF-SIMS: mass spectra of surfaces; chemical mapping of elements and molecular distribution and depth profile, implantation profiles and interface analysis.
SEM morphological and topographical characterization.
Wettability characterization of surfaces using a contact angle measurement technique.
. Yes. service.
Sectors
Technology
IMO-IMOMEC
Overview
IMO-IMOMEC is the Institute for Materials Research of Hasselt University. The core competence of IMO is the development and characterization of new material systems with potential use in microelectronics, bioelectronics and nanotechnology. In the core competence field, fundamental as well as applied research programs are carried out.
IMO-IMOMEC has a leading analytical & electrical testing laboratory that possesses a wide variety of testing capabilities. Also fully equipped chemical laboratories are available for custom organic and polymer synthesis.
Our scientists are highly qualified industrial analysts, who focus on generating the appropriate data needed to solve our client's needs. We provide our clients with high-quality problem solving services by utilizing the skills of our physicists & chemists in conjunction with state of the art scientific equipment. Standard turnaround time is typically three business days and all reports generated can be emailed or faxed.
All data collected and test results generated are considered strictly confidential.
Currently, there are around 70 techniques available at your disposal ranging from materials synthesis to electrical and physical/chemical characterization. . - Scientific & technological
- Study / initial design / Simulation
- Proof of concept / Lab testing of basic experimental set-up/ Characterisation
- Component/ breadboard / process development & testing
- Prototyping (integrated system/ sub-system) development & testing
. Yes. service.