The starting point of the project is DTU’s development of a phosphate solid hydrogen ion conducting membrane which is “ionic-protonic-superconducting” in the temperature range 230 – 350 °C where the electrochemical processes are more reversible due to the elevated temperature. One results of this is that it is possible in one operation to convert e.g. CO2 and H2O into "green" methane, and other "green" products such as methanol, by the use of the right catalyst that can combine the electrochemical and chemical reactions. This project focuses on demonstrating electrochemical produced methanol (from now on called e-methanol) with the lowest possible overpotential and hence price, and with a possibility to produce it in a scalable manner. Our electrolysis cell configuration with a special solid acid electrolyte differs significantly from the normally used electrochemical cells with aqueous electrolytes and at much lower temperatures. Due to the higher temperatures the processes are more reversible - giving higher yields and a lower energy consumption i.e. let the reactions run to equilibrium. The temperature is however not so high that the organic compounds formed (depending on the catalysts) will be destroyed, such as seen with solid oxide electrolysis. Other compounds such as higher hydrocarbons of interest as fuels will also be looked upon in the project.

Today’s automation by means of robots to a large extent relies on manual processes and case by case programming. Therefore, the establishment of automation solutions usually takes long time and requires high level engineering expertise that needs to be built up during extensive university educations as well as practical experience. This makes the process of deploying solutions slow and expensive. All together this severely limits how companies can adopt robotic solutions cost-efficiently. The aim of this project is to enable robot suppliers to develop products that can capture the knowledge embedded in already running automation solutions and make it available for fast engineering of new efficient automation solutions. The vision is that this can be enabled by products and methods that combine (1) a data infrastructure in which robot data of already established solutions is gathered, (2) a search system by which an operator can find relevant solution elements and (3) methods that allow the operator to connect the found elements into a new robot system. The project will achieve this in a close collaboration between robot suppliers, manufacturing companies, and universities. The project will enable (1) the suppliers to address new business opportunities, (2) the manufacturing companies to faster establish new as well as optimizing already running robot solutions and (3) the universities to create new knowledge in the intersection between digitalization and automation.