Two research projects focusing on metals of the future funded by Vinnova
Two research projects led by Caterina Zanella, professor in surface technology, and Ehsan Ghassemali, associate professor, at the School of Engineering (JTH) receives financial support from Vinnova's strategic innovation program Metallic Materials.
Recently, Vinnova's strategic innovation program Metallic Materials provided financial support for 15 research projects during the call "Springboard for the metallic materials of the future". Two of those projects are led by Ehsan Ghassemali, associate professor, and Caterina Zanella, professor in surface technology, at the School of Engineering (JTH), Jönköping University (JU).
The main purpose of the call was to develop new emerging technologies and materials for innovation and knowledge development for future new challenges in the metal industry. The innovation program Metallic Materials wants to support forward-looking, emerging and innovative high-risk ideas so that they are tested in collaboration with the industry. The call offers support for feasibility studies to operationalize ideas, build consortia and develop a complete plan to implement the idea.
Out of 51 applications, Vinnova chose to proceed with 15 research projects. Two of them are ALL4HYDRO and E-joints for which Ehsan Ghassemalis and Caterina Zanella are project managers, respectively.
Next generation metallic materials
ALL4HYDRO aims to develop next generation metallic materials for hydrogen-related applications. This is a further development of hydrogen-fuel transportation systems with no air pollution.
“Hydrogen has enormous potential to become the dominant green energy source and be the fuel with net-zero CO2 emissions. To enable the transition to a more sustainable energy system, we still have some technical challenges: Hydrogen production, use, transport and storage are not economically competitive with existing energy sources,” says Ehsan Ghassemali, the project leader for ALL4HYDRO.
With ALL4HYDRO he and Caterina Zanella have the ambition to develop metallic materials that contribute to the efficient and sustainable use of hydrogen as a green, emission-free fuel for future transport systems. They are honored to have four important industry partners involved in this project: Volvo Technology AB, Linde Inc., Thermo-Calc Software AB and Nilsson Energy AB.
New methods to join metals
The project idea E-joints focuses on developing new methods to join metals without affecting the tailored composition and microstructure.
“The performance of innovative metal is often sensitive to high temperatures that could change the microstructure and affect the corrosion or mechanical resistance, which is why we need alternatives to traditional joining techniques such as welding, says Caterina Zanella, the project leader for E-joints.
In E-joints JTH collaborates with experts from the metal company NITIU and Sandvik StripTech in developing new technologies that will allow making full use of the new high-performances alloys in many industrial applications with demanding requirements especially combining high resistance and low weight.
Read more about the call "Springboard for the metallic materials of the future" here
