http://www.ecn.nl/ News and press releases en TYPO3 - get.content.right http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Mon, 03 Dec 2012 10:36:00 +0100 http://www.ecn.nl/news/item/date/2012/06/04/breakthrough-in-thermoacoustic-energy-conversion/ Using industrial waste heat to create useful heat or cooling could be less than five years away. ECN along with its project partners achieved an important breakthrough in thermoacoustics, with the partial EU funded THATEA project. Mon, 04 Jun 2012 09:00:00 +0200 http://www.ecn.nl/news/item/date/2012/02/03/new-direction-of-ecn-with-and-for-the-market/ Today, Friday 3 February, the complete Board of Directors presented ECN’s new strategy plan 2012-2015 to Mark Dierikx, Director General for Energy, Telecom and Competition of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation (EL&I). Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:48:00 +0100 http://www.ecn.nl/news/item/date/2012/01/18/ecn-grants-ceramiques-techniques-industrielles-license-on-hybsiR-membrane-technology/ Ceramiques Techniques Industrielles (CTI), as one of the market leaders in inorganic membranes, has obtained a license for the commercialisation of the HybSi® membrane technology from ECN. The HybSi® nanosieve allows the purification of various industrial solvents at a reduced cost and at an enhanced efficiency. It further combines an outstanding performance with unprecedented long term stability. Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:47:00 +0100 http://www.ecn.nl/news/item/date/2011/07/27/european-carena-project-speeds-up-implementation-of-membrane-reactors/ The 1st of June marked the start of the CARENA project: Catalytic Reactors based on New Materials. A large EU-funded collaborative project to create technologies enabling efficient conversion of light alkanes and CO2 into higher value chemicals. To reduce the dependency of the European community on imported oil, the CARENA project will promote the implementation of catalytic membrane reactors in the European chemical industry. The Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) is the... Wed, 27 Jul 2011 13:31:00 +0200 http://www.ecn.nl/news/item/date/2011/05/25/ecn-starts-pilot-at-the-test-facility-plant-one/ Minister Verhagen has opened the test facility Plant One On Monday afternoon, 23 May, Maxime Verhagen, the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation (EL&I) opened Plant One, a new test facility for sustainable process technology in the Port of Rotterdam. This facility will be used to bridge the gap between the laboratory stage and full-scale production. Process improvements that look promising at laboratory scale can be demonstrated at pilot scale and further developed... Wed, 25 May 2011 13:17:00 +0200 http://www.ecn.nl/news/item/date/2011/04/12/tno-takes-over-ecn-activities/ TNO is taking over two activities from the Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN). This was settled in an agreement between the two knowledge institutes in early April. The activities are ‘Energy in the Built Environment’ and ‘Intelligent Electricity Grids’. Tue, 12 Apr 2011 14:09:00 +0200 http://www.ecn.nl/news/item/date/2010/11/16/large-cutbacks-at-ecn/ As of 1 January 2011, the Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) will be facing a cutback of 8M€ annually in the research subsidy received from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation. As a consequence, revenue from collaboration projects and assignments will be lost, resulting in an estimated loss in turnover in 2011 of about €13 million. Therefore, the ECN Management Board is announcing a shrinkage today. ECN will focus on a number of core activities and fields... Tue, 16 Nov 2010 15:08:00 +0100 http://www.ecn.nl/news/item/date/2010/09/28/efficient-hydrogen-production-step-closer-in-test-with-ecn-membrane-technology/ Successful testing of an experimental hydrogen plant at Tecnimont KT’s Chieti test site in Italy brings highly efficient hydrogen production a step closer. The novel hydrogen plant uses membrane technology to achieve substantial energy saving. Hydrogen separation membranes were provided by the Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN). Several months of testing in an integrated plant have shown both the feasibility of the innovative concept and excellent performance of ECN’s Hysep... Tue, 28 Sep 2010 10:34:00 +0200 http://www.ecn.nl/news/item/date/2010/09/16/renewable-action-plans-eu-members-published/ The National Renewable Energy Action Plans (NREAPs) are documents in which European Member States explain how they intend to reach their renewable energy targets for the year 2020 and the paths towards them. EU Member States are obliged to submit National Renewable Energy Action Plans (NREAPs) to the European Commission, outlining how they expect to meet their 2020 renewable energy target, including the technology mix they intend to use and the trajectory they will follow. At the date... Thu, 16 Sep 2010 16:44:00 +0200 http://www.ecn.nl/news/item/date/2010/09/09/paul-korting-successor-to-ton-hoff-at-ecn/ Petten, 9th september 2010 Paul Korting (56), currently General Director Industry and Technology at TNO, has been appointed as Managing Director of ECN by the Supervisory Board of ECN as of 1 December 2010. Paul Korting is joining ECN after a lengthy career at TNO. With a background in aeronautical engineering, he has been responsible for organisation development, commercial cooperation and growth at director level for the Prins Maurits Laboratory and the core areas Defence, Security and... Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:09:00 +0200 http://www.ecn.nl/news/item/date/2010/06/23/ecn-grants-pervatech-licence-on-hybsiR-membrane-technology/ Pervatech, an innovative Dutch specialist in pervaporation membrane technology, is the first industrial partner to obtain a licence for the commercialisation of the HybSi® membrane technology. The HybSi® membrane technology was originally developed by the Energy research Centre of the Netherlands in collaboration with the Universities of Twente and Amsterdam. The HybSi® nanosieve allows the purification of various industrial solvents. Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:07:00 +0200 http://www.ecn.nl/news/item/date/2010/06/03/pedro-sayers-appointed-deputy-director-finance-and-operations/ As of 1 June 2010 Pedro Sayers has been appointed deputy director Finance and Operations at ECN. He was appointed after an internal selection procedure with senior management staff and after the Supervisory Board and the Works Council approved the continuation of the three-person Management Board structure. Pedro is the successor of Gerald Santing, who filled this position for 18 months on an interim basis. Pedro is not new in the organisation: in the last 20 years he worked for ECN and NRG.... Thu, 03 Jun 2010 13:18:00 +0200 http://www.ecn.nl/news/item/date/2010/05/17/european-inorganic-membrane-research-alliance-eimra-targets-separation-technologies-for-sustainabl/ A significant part of European membrane research is focused on the separation technologies required for clean and sustainable energy systems. To speed up current developments, five leading energy research centres have decided to consolidate and strengthen their collaboration in the field of membrane technology by signing a Memorandum of Understanding. The “European Inorganic Membrane Research Alliance” (EIMRA) aims to facilitate the transition from basic research to applications. In this way,... Mon, 17 May 2010 15:13:00 +0200 http://www.ecn.nl/news/item/date/2010/04/13/improved-and-new-policies-needed-to-attain-a-zero-carbon-european-power-system-in-2050/ Today, April 13th, the European Climate Foundation launches the Roadmap 2050 in a meeting with the Commissioners for Energy and for Climate in Brussels. The Roadmap 2050 offers low/zero-carbon pathways, using 40%, 60%, 80% or 100% renewable energy sources. The outcome of this part of the project, carried out by McKinsey, is that the future cost of electricity in low/zero-carbon pathways is comparable to the future cost of electricity in the current carbon-intensive infrastructure. However, the... Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:21:00 +0200 http://www.ecn.nl/news/item/date/2010/03/23/ecn-membrane-separates-hydrogen-from-syngas-from-coal/ Palladium based membranes supplied by the Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) have been used to convert coal into clean energy through hydrogen. CRL Energy from New Zealand carried out a unique experiment to demonstrate the full chain from coal to electricity. The institute used an ECN Hysep® membrane module as a final step in converting coal gas to hydrogen with the purity required by the fuel cell. Tue, 23 Mar 2010 07:35:00 +0100 http://www.ecn.nl/news/item/date/2010/03/12/powermatching-city-the-first-european-city-test-for-a-smart-power-grid/ In the future the electricity flow in the electricity grid will become bidirectional. Solar panels and micro-CHP installations will turn consumers into producers of electricity. This is good for the climate, but it will require a smarter electricity grid; a so-called Smart Grid. ECN has developed the digital control concept PowerMatcher for this smart grid, which will be tested for one year in the Dutch city of Hoogkerk: PowerMatching City. In Hoogkerk, 25 dwellings have been virtually... Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:47:00 +0100 http://www.ecn.nl/news/item/date/2009/10/09/prestigious-prize-for-hybsiR-membranes/ Dr. Rob Kreiter, working at the Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN), has received the 2009 Donald R. Ulrich award for “an outstanding contribution to the field of Sol-Gel science and technology”. The prize, for product or product oriented R&D, was awarded for the breakthrough work on the HybSi® membranes. The co-recipient, in the category of fundamentals of Sol-Gel, was Dr. Paolo Falcaro of CSIRO, Australia. The award was handed over by Prof. Nakanishi on behalf of the International... Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:09:00 +0200 http://www.ecn.nl/news/item/date/2009/02/06/powermatcher-technology-moves-smart-electricity-grids-forward/ Researchers of the Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) designed the PowerMatcher technology, a new coordination system which can match the demand and supply of electricity more efficiently. This is an important building block for the smart electricity network of the future. For further research developments, ECN will be collaborating with the Flemish research organization, VITO. The cooperation agreement has been signed by the directors of both companies. Fri, 06 Feb 2009 16:18:00 +0100 http://www.ecn.nl/news/item/date/2009/01/15/record-efficiency-in-conversion-of-heat-to-sound/ Petten - Researchers from the Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) have achieved a record efficiency in the conversion of heat to sound. In a so-called thermo-acoustic engine they have improved on the existing record of 41% to reach 48% of the maximum possible efficiency. Thu, 15 Jan 2009 09:59:00 +0100 http://www.ecn.nl/news/item/date/2008/04/16/energy-saving-at-data-hotels/ In the upcoming years Amsterdam and the ICT sector will work together to drastically reduce the energy consumption of data hotels. This decision was stimulated by the research report ‘Energy saving at data hotels’ published by the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN). ECN’s deputy director Kees van der Klein presented the report to Amsterdam's alderman Vos during the launch of the Green IT project on Wednesday April 16th. Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:00:00 +0200