Descrizione del progetto
Nastri riscaldanti per aiutare a sciogliere la neve sulle strade
Nebbia, coltri di ghiaccio, pavimentazione gelata e tormente di neve: queste sono solo alcune delle condizioni invernali in grado di provocare ritardi nel traffico e incidenti stradali. Tra le attuali soluzioni figurano lo sgombero della neve e la salatura delle pavimentazioni, misure caratterizzate tuttavia da tempi di risposta bassi che danneggiano le superfici adibite al traffico, generano corrosione nei veicoli e risultano inoltre nocive per l’ambiente. Il progetto Snowless, finanziato dall’UE, propone una soluzione per lo scioglimento della neve. Essa si avvale di nastri riscaldanti in lega amorfa che vengono integrati nelle pavimentazioni e di un’unità di controllo interamente automatica dotata di funzionalità di risposta dinamica in tempo reale. Le zone di riscaldamento segmentate garantiscono una risposta in tempo reale (15 minuti dal rilevamento automatico della neve o del ghiaccio), costi operativi annui ridotti e una manutenzione pressoché nulla. La soluzione di Snowless è inoltre ecocompatibile, impedisce la formazione di crepe nell’asfalto, diminuisce l’ampiezza della temperatura e promuove l’autorigenerazione dell’asfalto stesso.
Obiettivo
Winter conditions on roads cause traffic delays that cost 1% of EU GDP and 1,000 causalities annually. Similarly, snow fall causes air traffic disturbance that can cost €57.3M per storm. For pedestrians it a major health issue as an increase of 25% increase in hospitalization and 33% rise in cases of hip fractures is observed during winter season. Current solutions suffer from many shortcomings. The most popular, plowing and salting, is manual, has low response times, damages traffic surfaces, vehicle corrosion and environment pollution. To answer this need we have developed SNOWLESS, a snow melting solution comprising of our proprietary amorphous alloy heating ribbons that are embedded in pavements and completely automatic control unit with real-time dynamic response. Our prioritization scheme for segmented heating zones ensures real-time response (15 minutes from automatic snow/ice detection), low annual operational costs of €1.2/m2 almost no maintenance, 30-60% reduction power consumption. Our solution is environmentally friendly, prevents asphalt cracking by reducing the temperature amplitude and promotes self-healing in the asphalt itself. Our commercialization targets Scandinavia, Central Europe and North America, a market worth €1.75B for shopping malls, roads, pedestrian walkways and airports driven by demand for sustainable snow removal alternative. SNOWLESS has already been implemented in parking lots, successfully reducing operational costs, with the installations generating €1.5M in sales over the last 3 years. We intend commercialize SNOWLESS 3 years after development, ideally by 2021 in 2 phases, with initial introduction to shopping mall parkings which have less stringent requirements and then progress to difficult applications such airports and road infrastructure. We anticipate a revenue and profit of €50M and €15M respectively coming from sales over 5 years, creating 21 employment opportunities in the process.
Campo scientifico
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringcontrol systems
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energy
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringcoating and films
- social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementemployment
- natural sciencesmathematicsapplied mathematicsmathematical model
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
IA - Innovation actionCoordinatore
Haifa
Israele
L’organizzazione si è definita una PMI (piccola e media impresa) al momento della firma dell’accordo di sovvenzione.