Consortium

Institute of Solar Research

The project coordinator German Aerospace Center (DLR) is the national aeronautics and space research centre of the Federal Republic of Germany. Its extensive research and development work in aeronautics, space, energy, transport, digitalisation and security is integrated into national and international cooperative ventures. In addition to its own research, as Germany’s space agency, DLR has been given responsibility by the federal government for the planning and implementation of the German space programme. DLR is also the umbrella organisation for the nation’s largest project management agency.

The DLR Institute of Solar Research facilities are located at the DLR headquarters in Cologne, DLR sites in Stuttgart and Juelich as well as at Europe’s largest test facility for concentrating solar technology Plataforma Solar de Almería run by DLR’s Spanish research partners CIEMAT. Research and development in the field of concentrating solar systems are the core topics of the institute providing state-of-the-art laboratories as well as industrial-scale testing facilities.

Aerosol and Particle Technology Laboratory, Chemical Process and Energy Resources Institute, Centre for Research and Technology Hellas

The Aerosol & Particle Laboratory (APTL) was established in 1996 as a business unit of CPERI & currently employs 32 people. APTL’s objectives are to conduct basic & applied research & to develop new technological products responding to well-acknowledged market needs in the areas of clean transport & clean energy. APTL’s total budget of contracts since 1996 exceeds €25M, their large majority being related with Technologies for Environmental & Energy Applications. APTL’s main advantage relates to the systematic exploitation of its considerable expertise, know-how & experimental infrastructure created & maintained in a sustainable way through the undertaking of competitive research & innovation projects & offering of technological services to the industry.

Engler-Bunte-Institute

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is a higher education and research organisation with about 9500 employees, 25000 students, and a total annual budget of about 800 million Euros. KIT was established on 01/10/2009 as merger of Universität Karlsruhe (founded in 1825), one of Germany’s leading research universities, and Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (founded in 1956), one of the largest research centres in the Helmholtz Association.

The Engler-Bunte-Institute (EBI) with its Division of Combustion Technology (EBI-VBT) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology is one of the major institutes within the department of Chemical Engineering at the KIT. Research is conducted at EBI-VBT by 2 professors, 4 senior engineers, ca. 20 research engineers and several master students with the support of ca. 15 technical and administrative staff members. The main research areas are aimed at phenomenological, theoretical and applied studies concerning combustion devices or more generally reacting flows and thermoprocessing equipment for high temperatures at industrially relevant scales. EBI is very well equipped with all relevant advanced experimental diagnostics, pilot plants, test rigs, in-house developed CFD packages, the necessary computing cluster and has access to several national high performance computing centers.

Baltic Ceramics S.A. is manufacturer of ceramic proppants. This is the only such plant in the European Union. It began operations in 2010 and during the first period of its activity focused mainly on technology development whereas later an entire production plant was constructed. Baltic Ceramics S.A. is part of Ceramic Industrial Group IndygoTech Minerals S.A. and implements the latest, up-to-date industrial ceramics technology. The company created the production technology as well as the composition of ceramic proppants, based on own research, conducted in its R&D center located in Lubsko (Poland). The technology of production and the composition of ceramic proppants are subjected to patent protection.

Processi Innovativi S.r.l. is a company owned by KT Kinetics Technology SpA, an international process engineering contractor with over 35 years' experience in designing and implementing plants for the chemical, petrochemical and refining industries. The company also operates as provider of proprietary technologies and as an EPC contractor for medium sized gas processing & refinery plants. The development and continual updating of in-house technologies, and a nucleus of process specialists with consolidated international experience acquired in over 500 projects, make Kinetics Technology S.p.A. a technological world leader. KT is part of the Maire Tecnimont Group, a leading world player in Engineering & Construction, Technology & Licensing and Energy & Ventures, focused on plants for the Oil & Gas, Petrochemicals and Fertilizers processing industries with competences in Power Generation and Infrastructure. The Group is present in over 30 countries, controls over 50 operating companies and has about 5,000 employees, half of whom are located abroad.

PI is dedicated to the development of innovative process concepts and process design in new sectors with respect to traditional fields. The company's core activities include not only feasibility studies and complete process design of new units, but also improvement or revamping of existing processes and plants. PI’s main technologies include (i) hydrogen and syngas production, as well as other refinery processes, (ii) environmental engineering including waste pyrolysis and gasification, (iii) high temperature technologies (process furnaces, chemical reactors and incinerators), (iv) carbon dioxide removal, (vi) solar energy application especially for what concern CSP and other technologies. R&D is also one of the main issues of PI from conceptual development phase to pilot plant testing and scale-up procedures definition. PI is logistically integrated in KT and may benefit of the facilities and knowledge of the latter, if necessary, with direct assignment to the Project of specific resources as necessary for the optimum results of the job.

BrightSource Energy Israel is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BrightSource Energy, Inc. (BSE), a US corporation registered in the state of Delaware and headquartered in California. BrightSource Energy Israel, corporation registered and headquartered in Jerusalem, Israel, acts as the technology arm of the BSE group, performing design, engineering, R&D, project management and product supply functions. In addition to BrightSource Energy Israel, BSE has business development and project development subsidiaries in China, South Africa and the UK (from where worldwide business development activities are managed).