Sharing Lesgo’s first advances
On July 22nd, Lesgo partners gathered in their first general assembly to share and discuss the advancements and results achieved during the project first six months.
Lesgo’s coordinator Jordi Martorell, a researcher at ICFO, welcomed the partners and summarized the latest developments regarding the project status. Marta Sans, the project manager, updated everyone on the ongoing amendment, the upcoming deliverables and the planned meetings.
Then, the meeting moved on to the work packages presentation. Each of the leading partners gave an overview of the task advancements, the actions taken and the foreseen steps.
The first one was Beatriz Alonso, a research scientist at Graphenea, who presented the second work package focused on the synthesis and scale-up of raw materials. Alonso explained and summarized the materials that the company has sent to IREC and ICFO over the past months, highlighting they saw the best performance in the less oxidized material. She also mentioned that their goal is to continue the work on the synthesis of graphene oxide, closely with IREC and ICFO, to better describe the materials. Carles Ros, a postdoctoral researcher at ICFO, continued the presentation showing the group’s work on polyhydrogenated graphene. He stated that they will explore a less oxygenated graphene oxide. Inna Khairani, from the University of Wuppertal, presented their latest development on the nanoparticles production method.
The third work package, on the electrode and catalytic configuration, was introduced by IREC researcher Nina Carretero. Carretero explained the latest cathode developments, the different roads they have been testing towards obtaining the reduced GO, and the promising results obtained. Jin Benjin from Aalto University also presented their first results about anode engineering, as they lead the corresponding task.
Then, Sorani Montenegro from Hysytech explained the fourth work package in prototypes and testing. Montenegro talked about the electrochemical prototype design and testing, which includes the modelling and simulation of the electrocatalytic process. She also pointed that future efforts will be directed towards the manufacturing, implementation and validation of the Lesgo prototype.
In work package five, partners delved into more technical aspects arising a technical discussion among the partners. CNR, IREC and ICFO agree to meet to further discuss the experiments and the theoretical results.
The work on the dehydrogenation of the reduced graphene oxide was firstly presented by Carles Ros, a postdoctoral researcher at ICFO, who talked about electrochemical oxidation and hydrogen desorption and the preliminary tests conducted in three different materials. Valentina Tozzini from CNR gave updates on the computational approach. Tozzini also stated their plans for systematically testing the reactions and make statistical analyses.
DBT and ICFO presented work package 7, which includes the exploitation, dissemination and communication activities. Eskil Weelan, from DBT, explained the things they’ve done during Lesgo’s first months, as the interviews with the work package leaders. He also explained the next steps towards building an innovative ecosystem. They want to celebrate two workshops: an online meeting with experts and stakeholders working in the energy and hydrogen landscape; and another directed to legal and political actors to help bring Lesgo technology to society.
Alastair Cunningham, KTT manager at ICFO, presented the exploitation and innovation part, highlighting the importance of accelerating the commercialization of Lesgo technology. ICFO’s Communication team explained and summarized the actions that have been taken so far during the first semester and the plans for continuing to boost the projects’ scope, reach and impact.
