A new Pathfinder project works on green supply of electrical power on demand

LESGO successfully presented its proposal for FET Proactive: emerging paradigms and communities call, and became one of the projects supported under the Horizon 2020 Framework, in a subtopic “Breakthrough zero-emissions energy generation for full decarbonisation”.

LESGO wants to promote an affordable and eco-friendly means of supplying electrical power on demand where required. To allow this, the researchers analyse the characteristics of chemically binding hydrogen onto the carbon atoms of a graphene oxide lattice. The LESGO team explains this further in the project proposal:

“Per molecule hydrogen can store one of the largest amounts of chemical energy. This energy can be transformed into electricity in an environmentally clean procedure using a fuel cell. However, the challenge of storing such hydrogen in a small volume, as well as the lack of a hydrogen distribution infrastructure represent major drawbacks for a deployment of a hydrogen-based economy. In LESGO we aim at demonstrating an effective path to store hydrogen in a graphene oxide lattice and subsequently release that hydrogen to obtain electricity.”

As an outcome, LESGO will provide integral and highly innovative solutions for the high-density storage, transportation and delivery of energy. This innovation could find a broad spectrum of application areas, particularly in the transport sector.

Prof. Jordi Martorell, the project coordinator, highlights:

“In the current climate emergency, we need to ponder on the use of Earth’s natural resources and how this may affect the environment in a short, mid and long run. In LESGO, we are searching to use innovative 2D materials to store energy using resources that are abundant on Earth, like water and graphite, whose usage will be circular and will have no negative impact on the environment.”

The project brought together wide range of research, academic and SME entities from Spain, Germany, Finland, Italy, Israel and Denmark. The LESGO team adds:   

“LESGO’s consortium has been structured to bring together a highly interdisciplinary community that will enable the emergence of an ecosystem around a circular economy relying on the use of: widely available raw materials, storing energy in chemical bonds, using it in applications that require electrical power, and finally recovering the materials for a second or multiple lives.”

LESGO has started in November 2020 and will run for 36 months, until October 2023. The project is coordinated by ICFO - The Institute of Photonic Sciences, based in Barcelona, Spain.

Background information

FET-Open and FET Proactive are now part of the Enhanced European Innovation Council (EIC) Pilot (specifically the Pathfinder), the new home for deep-tech research and innovation in Horizon 2020, the EU funding programme for research and innovation.