The Interreg Aurora funded project HE4T aims to find energy harvesting solutions for industry needs in sensing without the need for battery power. Energy harvesting solutions generate energy from various physical phenomena to reduce battery waste and make wireless sensing solutions more reliable and maintenance-free.
During the project various energy harvesting based solutions will be developed and demonstrated through industrial use cases from the Interreg Aurora regions. These solutions will rely on developed energy harvesting technology for each use case's specific needs and available physical energy sources as well as suitable data transmission and processing needs. The project also aims to find new, novel approaches to utilizing energy harvesting solutions.
The project brings together experts from Finland, Norway and Sweden.
The consortium consists of four partners Lapland University of Applied Sciences (FI), Luleå Technical University (SE)
, UiT The Arctic University in Norway (NO) and Vaasa University (FI)
PRIORITY
Smart and sustainable growth
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE
Smart specialization, research and innovation
PROJECT DURATION
2023-01-01 – 2025-12-31
TOTAL PROJECT BUDGET
1 839 724 Euro
EU-FUNDING, INTERREG AURORA
917 909 Euro
NORWEGIAN IR-FUNDING
213 765 Euro
Lead Partner EU
Lapland University of Applied Sciences
Lead Partner Norway
Universitet i Tromsø – Norges arktiske universitet
Project partners
Vasa University
Luleå University of Technology
Energy harvesting means gathering and converting energy from some physical or chemical phenomenon into electricity to power electronic devices.
Energy
can be harvested from various phenomena such as vibration, motion,
temperature difference, seawater, electromagnetic radiation and light to
name but a few.
The harvesting of energy requires special electronics and components that converts the physical or chemical energy into electricity to be consumed by the attached electronics.
In short, energy harvesting allows for battery-less solutions, which enables electronic devices that last longer and do not require consumable or rechargeable batteries that run out or degrade over time.
Current energy harvesting solutions do still rely on some sort of energy storage for accumulating enough energy to operate the electronics attached to it. Future advancements in energy harvesting can lead to completely energy storage free solutions.
One activity within HE4T been to assist in power extraction from Microbial Fuel Cells (MFC) which is one research area within Biochemical Process Engineering at LTU. The fuel cells generate electricity by the oxidation of sulfide using bacteria. The long term goal with the use of multiple MFCs is to use the output power to energize...
The HE4T project's WP1.1 aimed to map industrial needs for energy harvesting (EH) across various regions. Three key insights emerged from the interviews conducted in different Nordic locations.