Aegle Technology

Our mission is to advance the development of innovative advanced material solutions

Advanced Materials

Increasing EU BioGas production – creating energy independence with affordable, renewable solutions

by

Energy independence

In light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the ‘REPowerEU’ plan, released on Tuesday (8 March), focuses on ways to make Europe independent from Russian fossil fuels before 2030, starting with gas.

The European Commission has doubled its objective for home-grown biomethane production to 35 billion cubic metres per year by 2030 as part of efforts to bolster the bloc against a looming energy crisis, according to a new communication (source).

To increase the resilience of the EU’s energy system, the Commission proposes a two-pronged attack, of which it lists higher levels of biomethane, or biogas, as part of one of the key pillars. 

energy independence for Europe

The ambition to produce 35 billion cubic metres (bcm) of biomethane per year by 2030 is double that of a previous objective set out by the EU executive in its Fit for 55 communication, which set the figure at 17 bcm. This would see production increase tenfold across the bloc by 2030.

According to the strategy, member states’ Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) strategic plans (see below for more detail) should be instrumentalised to “channel funding to biomethane produced from sustainable biomass sources”.

This includes in particular agricultural wastes and residues, the communication specifies. 

“The biomethane target represents over 20% of the current EU gas imports from Russia. By 2050, this potential can triple, growing well over 100 bcm and covering 30-50% of the future EU gas demand,” he said.

He added that some countries are already active in the development of biomethane production in Europe, while many others are starting to unlock this potential.

Reducing Energy costs

Besides biogas, the new communication also plans to increase support possibilities for farmers in the ongoing review of the state aid rules.

Together with its communication, the Commission is launching consultations with member states on a new temporary crisis framework for state aid to allow businesses to mitigate the increase in energy costs related to the Russian invasion.

Biogas production has been earmarked as a key way to help fortify the EU’s struggling farm sector against burgeoning energy costs, according to a draft of the European Commission’s communication on energy prices due to be published next month. (source)

The draft communication paints a grim picture of high and unstable energy prices continuing in the coming years. This will have serious consequences for a range of sectors, not least of which agriculture. 

Fertiliser prices have increased by 142% over the last year, the draft document notes, pointing out that energy and fertilisers account for 20% of farmers’ production costs. 

And this situation could deteriorate further if higher energy prices continue to push fertiliser prices up, with a risk of lower plantings, lower yields, and thus even greater pressures on farmers’ incomes and food prices, it adds.  

This will put the farming sector at a “competitive disadvantage compared to competitors from third countries”.

In a bid to bolster the sector against rising energy prices, the European Commission places an emphasis on the creation and storage of biogas.

Biogas is a renewable fuel produced by the breakdown of organic matter, such as food scraps and animal waste.

“With squeezed incomes for farmers, the use of biogas can provide an opportunity for additional and diversified revenue streams for farmers, in line with the European Green Deal,” the communication reads, stating that biogas is a “clean, renewable, and reliable source of energy” as well as a new source of income for farmers. 

The use of stored biogas reduces methane emissions, it can be used as a source of peak power and reduce the dependence on fossil fuels, while also helping the green transition of the agricultural sector.

The EU executive will therefore propose to set an EU-level ambition to produce 35 billion cubic metres of biogas by 2030, according to the communication.

Meanwhile, member states should adopt renewable gas strategies, fully aligned with this target. 

EU developed BioGas+ improves biogas production

In response to this escalating crisis, AEGLE TECHNOLOGY plans to scale up production of BioGas+, a European developed, patented and registered advanced-materials-based innovation that obtains the highest ever-reported improvement of biogas production.

BioGas+

BioGas+ triples (200% increase of production) the biogas yield with cellulose as feedstock in laboratory conditions and has already been shown to obtain at least a 30% methane ratio increase in real industrial settings in initial trials.

Start your trial of BioGas+ today

Purchase a 200ml trial pack from our online shop or contact us at sales@aegle-technology.es for more information.

Buy Now

ADVANCED MATERIALS 2030 MANIFESTO FOR EUROPE

by

“Advanced materials” are materials designed with a purpose to have novel or enhanced properties and improve performance over conventional materials, products and processes.

Many of the challenges facing society today, including sustainability in agriculture, further development of electronics, improved transportation solutions and requirements for renewable energy sources all benefit from contunuing advances in materials technology.

Whilst strong in many fields, Europe is currently seen to be lagging behind in some key industries including industrial biotech and nanotechnology.

The accompanying graph provides a ranking of performance in key technologies in technology generation, start-up creation and skills comparing EU with US, China and Japan7 (source: EC SWD (2021) 352). This graph highlights key industries in which Europe is lagging behind, e.g., Security, Industrial Biotech, Nanotech, Robotics, AI, Micro-and Nanoelectronics, and Big Data.

Advanced Materials
Source: MATERIALS 2030 MANIFESTO
Systemic Approach of Advanced Materials for Prosperity – A 2030 Perspective

With Advanced Materials playing a pivotal role in all of these areas, Europe must build on its strength by creating suitable ecosystems that allow it to overcome this weakness. Defending and further building on our strategic position in “Advanced Materials” will be a core asset when combined with our leadership in manufacturing industry capacity and competency (automobile, aeronautics, …).

Advanced Materials 2030 Manifesto

The MATERIALS 2030 MANIFESTO (Systemic Approach of Advanced Materials for Prosperity – A 2030 Perspective) which was published on 7 February 2022 calls for “a systemic approach to develop the next generation solution-oriented advanced materials which will offer faster, scalable and efficient responses to the challenges and thus turn them into opportunities for Europe’s society, economy and environment today and in the future. “

The Manifesto outlines key areas in which Europe must support the evolution of materials research underway, specifically in the following:

  • Uniting Digital and Material capacities and competences – high performance computing, big data and AI revolutionise the digital modelling, simulation and screening of materials properties, materials development and production processes.
  • Combining technology push and market pull – discovery-led research should be connected with developments along the value chain and scaling up processes led by start-ups and industry.

The document also outlines four fundamental pillars that generate the basis for the development of advanced materials:

  • Safeguarding Europe’s technology leadership;
  • Reducing the environmental footprint by using advanced materials;
  • Securing strategic autonomy; and,
  • Targeting advanced materials innovation markets.

Reaching the Vision with Advanced Materials

Advanced materials are key to providing solutions for many applications that address the challenges mentioned above.

The following diagram helps to demonstrate that there is a significant share of similarity in the materials’ challenges across different markets, creating substantial potential for collaboration.

Two significant crosscutting enablers are coming to the fore: new technologies and innovations (green band) and new polices (blue band). In order to unlock the full potential of advanced materials, digital innovations must be applied within materials development, as well as creating a harmonised understanding on how to measure, quantify and benchmark the sustainability performance of new materials.

Advanced Materials

For more information on the MATERIALS 2030 MANIFESTO please follow the link ( https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/research_and_innovation/research_by_area/documents/advanced-materials-2030-manifesto.pdf).

AEGLE TECHNOLOGY has been founded with this goal in mind. We aim to be a strong active partner in a novel European strategy for a sustainable society through the next generation of advanced materials.

Our approach is to combine academic research and knowledge with experience in all aspects of product research, development and commercialisation. Our team includes world-class expertise in the design and manufacture of advanced materials, experience in large scale IT system development and implementation, implementation of regulatory frameworks, business development and supply chain management.

For more information, please got to our website at https://aegle-technology.es or contact us at sales@aegle-technology.es to discuss your requirements.

Aegle Technology – Nanoparticles for Printed Electronics

by

Authors: Martí Busquets-Fité, Christopher W. Young

The field of printed electronics is advancing rapidly, changing the current paradigm of electronic devices and circuit boards from hard structures and rigid sheets to flexible thin layers, which will lead to the emergence of a plethora of new devices and technological possibilities such as disposable electronics, smart labels, and a further step in the ongoing process of miniaturization of devices. 

printed electronics

One of the main driving forces to achieve this is the development of nanoparticle-based “functional” inks.

Functional inks are used to create printed and flexible circuits and offer a cost-effective alternative to conventional methods such as etched copper flex circuits and printed circuit boards (PCBs). Functional inks make it possible for manufacturers to print on flexible substrates for mass-scale circuit manufacturing. Functional inks can be applied to a broad range of rigid and flexible surfaces using different printing processes:

  • screen printing (sheet-fed and roll-fed), 
  • aerosol jet printing, 
  • and gravure printing.

The choice of the printing technique depends on the ink type and ultimate product use. Functional inks are generally more environmentally friendly than traditional methods because etching copper on PCBs requires the use of acid baths, while the process of employing functional inks generates no waste and uses no harmful chemicals. 

Inks which conduct electricity have a wide range of uses, including:

  • capacitive and membrane switches, 
  • RFID tags, 
  • touch screens, 
  • biological and electrochemical sensors, 
  • Positive Temperature Coefficient (PTC) heaters, 
  • electromagnetic interference/radio frequency interference (EMI/RFI) shielding, 
  • wearable electronics (stretchy conductive inks).

The use of specific metal nanoparticles produced to tightly controlled specifications in the production of high-performance functional inks, such as required for printed electronics, helps to achieve the desired properties.

Nanoparticles (NPs) are usually defined as particles of matter that are between 1 and 100 nanometres (nm) in diameter. Because of their extremely small size (they cannot be seen even using an ordinary optical microscope) they exhibit very different physical and chemical properties, including the way they behave in a solution as well as optical effects and electric properties.

A wide variety of metals, including silver (Au), gold (Ag), platinum (Pt) and palladium (Pd), are used in nanoparticle form. 

Of all the metal nanoparticles, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) possess the highest electrical and thermal conductivity which, along with other properties and factors (e.g., lower cost, resistance to oxidation, interesting plasmonic and antibacterial properties), has put silver nanoparticle (AgNP) based inks as the most widespread nanoparticles-based ink product with the better-established technology and the highest production and sales volumes. 

However, most of the currently available AgNP inks contain a remarkably broad distribution of sizes with specifications describing cut-off sizes rather than detailing mean sizes and size distribution. In practice, this reduces the effectiveness of these inks for many applications. 

Nanoparticles-based inks for printed electronics

Printed electronics requires inks with certain levels of viscosity and surface tension to be operable (achievable with the use of organic solvents, dispersing agents and humectants to avoid inks drying too quickly on the nozzles). Such general requirements depend on several factors: printing technique, requirements of the printing equipment and the desired functional properties of the ink as a final product. 

Of all the inks requirements, probably the most relevant and restrictive is their viscosity. For instance, aerosol jet printers can only operate with viscosities below 15 cP, piezoelectric printheads require viscosities between 5 and 20 cP and thermal printheads inks must have even lower viscosities (1-5 cP). 

Particle size is another restrictive requirement. For aerosol jet printers, particle size must be below 100nm to avoid clogging of the nozzles. That is why well-defined NPs below 100nm are clearly preferred for this technique and all printing techniques requiring an aerosolization step. 

Historically, noble metals (specially Au, Ag) and copper have monopolised the field of printed electronics, as are their nano-sized equivalents. Other materials such as nickel, brass, chromium, iron and iron oxides and even intrinsically conductive polymers and carbon-based materials have proved to yield to conductive nanotechnology-based inks and are worth mentioning, although attracting a significant lower deal of attention. 

In all the aforementioned cases, the nanoscale counterparts offer remarkable advantages in contrast to the bulk materials due to their scale: stable colloidal suspensions easy to manipulated and use in microfluidics and printing; high surface/volume ratio; collective electron resonances, the so-called plasma waves enabling surface plasmon resonance (SPR), and interactions with the electromagnetic field; a huge enhancement of diffusivity of the surface atoms; and above all, strikingly low sintering (melting) temperatures. 

Amongst all of them Ag possesses the highest electrical and thermal conductivity, which along with other properties and factors (e.g. lower cost than Au, Pt and Pd, resistance to oxidation, interesting plasmonic and antibacterial properties, etc.), has put the silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) based inks as the indisputable most widespread nanoparticles-based ink product with the better established technology and the highest production and sales volumes. 

3D Printing 

Apart from using nanotechnology-based conductive inks for printed electronics, other applications for inks based on NPs of different compositions are emerging. 

nanoparticle 3D printing

As already mentioned, AgNP inks (as well as AuNP and CuNP) used for printed electronics can be used for sensing, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and photonics, taking advantage of their unique electrical and optical properties. Nanoparticles-based inks are also being used in the thriving field of 3D printing.

Many promising materials have been developed, especially focused on metal oxides NPs with exceptional properties such as:

  • magnetic -including paramagnetic- inks (Fe3O4NPs); 
  • inks for printing intricate prosthesis and implants or other functional materials with antibacterial (with AgNPs), antifungal (with Cu2O, CuO and even Cu(0) NPs) and anti-inflammatory or pro-inflammatory (with the very promising CeO2NPs) properties; 
  • or the more complex hydrogels-based bioactive scaffolds that promote tissue growth around them (using “bio-inks” based on hydrogels including nano silicates).

Aegle Technology 

Aegle technology designs and manufactures a wide range of nanoparticles, including metal nanoparticle solutions (colloids) with highly uniform particle sizes (highly monodisperse) at distinctively high concentrations. Our AgNP colloids have a level of sphericity and mono-dispersity unmatched in the market, potentially providing superior and more robust electrical and physicochemical properties to inks (check our catalogue at https://aegle-technology.es/shop).

Specifically, our AgNP (and AuNP) colloids provide: 

  1. high morphological control and narrow size distribution 
  2. high colloidal stability (essential to avoid aggregation and clogging of the nozzles) 
  3. A range in sizes: 5, 20 and 50nm are our standard mean sizes but we can adapt to our clients preferred sizes – 60, 70, 80 , 90 or 100nm as mean size with <10% SD

We are experts in the design and production of NPs colloids for a broad range of applications, including for the formulation of functional inks. Our knowledge in this field comes from our direct experience interacting with clients in the conductive inks sector. 

Our experience includes different degrees of involvement in the preparation of the ink formulation:

  1. Supplying AgNP and AuNP colloids dispersed in aqueous media (2-5mM sodium citrate for concentrations up to 2mg Au/mL and + PVP of certain MWs and concentrations for concentrations as high as 50mg/mL) and our clients use them as core ingredients of their ink formulations. 
  2. Preparing highly concentrated inks following our client’s formulations using mixtures of water, ethanol and ethylene glycol, coupled with the use of dispersing and stabilizing agents such as PVP, methylcellulose, ethanolamine and other more specific dispersing agents. 

For more information, please see https://aegle-technology.es or contact us at sales@aegle-technology.es to discuss your requirements.