Linné Innovation has successfully managed a collaboration with six other organizations and companies to start working on EnviroHouse project. This team - which is called Innovation Group - will run the project within the EIP (European Innovation Partnership) and Swedish Board of Agriculture (Jordbruksverket) funding and support program.
After individual meetings, independent researches and group discussions, we are proud to announce our collaboration with the following organizations in order to develop a functioning prototype of EnviroHouse. This team which is called "Innovation Group" will run the further stages of EnviroHouse project which includes detailed design, calculations, feasibility study, prototyping, commissioning and operation.
Linnaeus University (LNU) – a creative and international knowledge environment promoting curiosity, creativity, companionship and utility. Krushna Mahapatra is a professor representing LNU in Innovation Group who says:
The presented idea is indeed innovative in the sense that it is a recombination of existing technologies. The farming technologies and renewable energy technologies are in practice in different parts of the globe and technologically they are feasible to be used in combination. But the challenge is that even the currently existing solutions including combined systems are not optimized, especially in farming industry where the energy demand could vary geographically, temporarily, and with type of agricultural produce.
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) – a world-class international university with research, education and environmental assessment within the sciences for sustainable life. Its principal sites are in Alnarp, Umeå and Uppsala, but activities are also conducted at research stations, experimental parks and educational establishments throughout Sweden. Daniel Bergquist is a researcher in SLU who connects this university to our project.
The proposed collaboration with SLU Food and Cities will facilitate access to the academic networks and knowledge fields required for this scientific scrutiny, and simultaneously will offer an existing case for SLU researchers to develop new research in a highly relevant empirical context.
In 1993, AB Volvo started researching fuel cell technology, a research which led to the founding of PowerCell AB in 2008. Since then, PowerCell has launched a number of groundbreaking products that enable customers to reduce their carbon footprint. PowerCell has developed a modular fuel cell system based on their own fuel cell stacks, where clean electricity is produced with heat and water as the only emission. Åse Bye, Business Manager of PowerCell who is participating in the Innovation Group says:
The scope presented here is scalable, global and innovative. Within fuel cells and hydrogen business, there are not any projects ongoing with the extent of delivery and circuit design as the one intended here. As far as we know the closest plant design would be mainly providing electricity, not including heat waste and loops, water gathering and possibilities as EnviroHouse design. It [EnviroHouse] is a chance to prove new technology that we already know how to handle, but not implemented in a system like this before.
Solarus – is an SME that was established in 2006, as producer of concentrating thermal collectors. In 2012, Solarus developed a unique concentrating photovoltaic thermal (PVT) solar collector that produces heat and electricity from the same area. This collector is called the Power Collector (PC) and Solarus started commercializing it in 2014. The PVT reflector was developed at Vattenfall and the design is called Maximum Reflector Concentration (MaReCo), which belongs to a family of stationary reflectors patented by Solarus.
João Gomes, the Research Director of Solarus believes:
Food production is the major contributor to CO2 emissions (30% of the total). This is a critical market, where solar needs to penetrate, if we are to avoid a climate disaster. Furthermore, this is a market that can utilize low temperature heat which is where Solar, and more specifically Solarus, can give its strongest contribution. Solar in agriculture is today residual, and mostly underdeveloped. EnviroHouse would provide a framework for this transformation to happen.
Solarus believes EnviroHouse has a highly innovative and revolutionary approach to the very relevant market of food production and is therefore very keen to participate in a project that has a high potential to transform the most important CO2 emission industry.
Visionskompaniet Arkitektur & Projekt AB and Limitless Design are two other companies working in Wood & Glass structures and Industrial Plants design. As Joachim Widerstedt, CEO and founder of Visionskompaniet Arkitektur says about EnviroHouse:
The application of wood and glass in the infrastructure of EnviroHouse is the most interesting side of the project for us. Since we are experienced in the design, installation and construction of timber based structures, we already know the opportunities which can change the whole story of the LCA in farming plants especially in Sweden.
While Sarbast Salih from Limitless Design says: EnviroHouse can be commercialized and it’s just a matter of how.
The activities in order to find the right competences and bring this Innovation Team together, have been supported and partially funded by Jordbruksverket (Swedish Board of Agriculture) within the EIP (European Innovation Partnership) program.
