New renewable energy research centre opens in Denmark

A new renewable energy research centre, called VILLUM Center for the Science of Sustainable Fuels and Chemicals, has opened in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The new centre at Technical University of Denmark (DTU) will be headed by Professor Ib Chorkendorff who will bring together a team of researchers from Stanford University, the University of Copenhagen, and the University of Southern Denmark, among others.

In the next eight years, the group will concentrate its efforts on developing the much-coveted technology that can ensure a fossil-free energy and fuel as well as chemical production.

DTU and the University of Copenhagen have recently developed a new class of catalysts for fuel cells. According to Chorkendorff, this is a major discovery. The invention could pave the way for hydrogen vehicles, the DTU said in a statement.

Catalysts can convert different forms of sustainable energy into chemical energy that can be stored.

Catalysts are materials that have a surface structure that makes chemical processes to take place quickly without being used, for example in industrial processes in fuel cells in hydrogen cars and the production of medicines, food, detergents, and in 90% of all chemical production .