Project description
Europe's quest for sustainable cooling solutions
Europe needs to cut carbon emissions and ensure stable energy supply, particularly in cooling technologies that currently rely heavily on electricity. To tackle these challenges, the EIC-funded CharCool project uses natural energy and nature-based methods to create a sustainable cooling system. It stores excess renewable energy or waste heat for seasonal use, aiming to transform the cooling industry with a flexible, reliable, and eco-friendly alternative to traditional methods. This initiative aims to revolutionise the cooling industry by offering a flexible, reliable, and environmentally friendly alternative to conventional methods. Projected to cut current sorption system volumes and costs by 40 % and 50 %respectively, CharCool enhances cooling efficiency but also promises significant economic and social benefits.
Objective
In response to set targets for reducing our carbon footprint and securing our energy future in Europe, the CharCool project combines the use of natural energy and nature-based solutions to achieve clean and efficient cooling. CharCool is an innovative and sustainable heat-driven cooling system, where the excess of clean renewable energy or waste heat is stored in a modular thermochemical energy storage system that allows for seasonal storage. CharCool challenges the current vision of cooling industry by proposing a system that is highly flexible and reliable, thanks to its coupling with a high-energy density (200 kWh/m3) and inexpensive mid-/long-term thermochemical material. The CharCool chiller is supplied by a new interchangeable (thus rechargeable) modular thermopile made of biochar obtained from low-cost agricultural by-products, impregnated with environmentally-friendly and easily available inorganic salts. The chiller operates with water as the refrigerant, offering a completely natural and safe alternative to the current electricity-driven and environmentally-harmful cooling solutions. CharCool runs on waste heat (e.g. from data centres) or renewable energy sources (e.g. solar thermal or excess wind through power to heat) within a temperature range of 60-150 °C. This offers the advantage of decoupling the refrigeration system from the electricity grid, thus increasing the penetration of renewable energy. Moreover, mobile and modular thermopiles close the spatial and temporal gap between the heat source and the user cooling demand. CharCool clean and efficient cooling technology will reduce the volumes and cost of the current sorption systems by 40% and 50%, respectively. By investing in CharCool, Europe will assert its global research and innovation leadership while creating quantifiable social and economic impacts. This novel technology will partly address energy poverty and create value for the billion-euro-worth heating and cooling market.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-EIC - HORIZON EIC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-EIC-2023-PATHFINDERCHALLENGES-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
35122 Padova
Italy
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.