Med-IST FP6 IST Start: 01.02.2007   Finish: 31.07.2009 Number of Partners: 10 Total Budget in kEuro: 950
Project site  Role of IT Consult: Partner  Training 
Mediterranean Information Society  Summary:
The overall objective of MED-IST is to bring the Mediterranean Partner Countries closer to the European Framework Programme in the field of ICT. This is done through an open consultation process where the national bodies responsible for formulating their research strategy have come together with the active research community to review current re-search policies and develop appropriate guidelines in view of both their own needs and the ICT priorities of FP7. This consultation process will not only result in recommendations for each MPC but also for the Framework priorities at the EC to take specific needs of the MPC into account. The final outcome will be recommendation guidelines for a strategic research agenda focusing on a closer co-operation between Europe and the MPC. Furthermore, MED-IST will target the research communities directly with active promotion events for the Framework Programme opportunities as well as by identifying suitable research organisations and IT companies in that region, training them on the procedural aspects and providing assistance in finding co-operation partners in Europe. In particular, focused mentoring workshops/tutorials are carried out in order to train the identified organisations on the procedures and opportunities for co-operation in the ICT programme. MED-IST is also building up a “Directory of MPC Organisations” that includes research institutes, universities, IT companies, technology developers as well as independent researchers. This Directory will be one of the key elements in building new networks between Europe and the MPC. 
   
BIOCELLUS FP6 Sustainable Development Start: 01.07.2004   Finish: 31.12.2007 Number of Partners: 16 Total Budget in kEuro: 2500
Project site  Role of IT Consult: Partner  Management 
BIOMASS FUEL CELL UTILITY SYSTEM  Summary:

Energy from Biomass needs highly efficient small-scale energy systems in order to achieve cost effective solutions for decentralized generation especially in Mediterranean and Southern areas, and for applications without adequate heat consumer. Thus fuel cells are an attractive option for decentralized generation from biomass and agricultural residues but they have to meet at least two outstanding challenges:

1. Fuel cell materials and the gas cleaning technologies have to treat high dust loads of the fuel gas and pollutants like tars, alkalines and heavy metals.

2. The system integration has to allow efficiencies of at least 40-50 percent even within a power range of few tens or hundreds of kW.

BIOCELLUS addresses in particular these two aims. Hence the first part of the project will focus on the investigation of the impact of these pollutants on degradation and performance characteristics of SOFC fuel cells in order to specify the requirements for appropriate gas cleaning system (WP 1-2).
These tests will be performed at six existing gasification sites, which represent the most common and applicable gasification technologies. WP 3 will finally test and demonstrate the selected gas cleaning technologies in order to verify the specifications obtained from the gasification tests.
The results will be used for the development, installation and testing of an innovative SOFC – Gasification concept, which will especially match the particular requirements of fuel cell systems for the conversion of biomass feedstock (WP 4 and 5). The innovative concept comprises to heat an allothermal gasifier with the exhaust heat of the fuel cell by means of liquid metal heat pipes. Internal cooling of the stack and the recirculation of waste heat increases the system efficiency significantly.
This so-called TopCycle concept promises electrical efficiencies of above 50 percent even for smallscale systems without any combined processes.