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Companies: The collaboration with AAU on sustainability gives us a head start
Published online: 24.04.2023
News
Companies: The collaboration with AAU on sustainability gives us a head start
Published online: 24.04.2023
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Companies: The collaboration with AAU on sustainability gives us a head start
By David Graff, ENGINEERING Dean Secretariat
Hvad do the companies Krüger, Grundfos, Schneider Electric and Neogrid Technologies have in common?
They are among the companies who collaborate with researchers from the ENGINEERING Faculty at Aalborg University and get a head start compared to their competitors out of it.
Krüger's role is to get the latest and best technologies out to our customers who are in the utilities and water industry. AAU is amazing because of their solution-oriented project structure. We really thrive in the way we work with AAU, and they are used to working with companies and utilities suppliers so we can all benefit from the projects we have.
We partner with Aalborg University because it gives us the opportunity to work with technologies that are further ahead than the market. So the collaboration enables us to be relevant and constantly have products that are tapping into the times so we are at the forefront of the market all the time.
For us, this collaboration has been very fruitful. We've actually seen some outcomes that we didn't expect. Our customers don't have to replace our products after 10 years. Instead, service life is extended so we consume fewer resources which leads to a smaller CO2 footprint.
Collaboration with a higher purpose
According to the prodean for research and innovation at ENGINEERING John K. Pedersen, the purpose of the collaboration with the companies is to contribute to the major societal challenges with sustainability.
In order to systematize the work, the faculty has identified nine sustainability areas within which the research is conducted across the various departments and in line with the university's overall visions. One of the areas is future transport and mobility where researchers develop green fuels:
For transport that cannot be electrified, such as ships and aircrafts, we want to make new sustainable fuels.
According to John K. Pedersen, we have come a long way in Denmark in terms of reducing the use of energy, but the transport sector is far behind. Research might change that, though:
Sewage, sludge and food waste contain a lot of carbon. We specialize in that carbon and converting it to liquid fuels. This is an important area to study because it has a major impact on our society and the way we are handling the green transition.
We need the companies
The focus of the collaboration with companies on green fuels is to test the researchers' solutions and scale up the production, before companies can take over and commercialize the recipe for the fuel.
But the significance of the collaboration goes further than that:
The essence of a multi-partner collaboration is access to each other's competences. AAU is also really happy to be involved because we have competencies in using materials and in knowing what it takes for something to be usable.
Professor Harpa Birgisdottir from the Department of the Built Environment confirms that it is crucial to receive specific experience-based input from companies:
It’s crucial for us to collaborate with different companies. We can't come up with solutions for construction without the experience and collaboration with companies.
Prodean John K. Pedersen, representatives from companies and researchers tell about the collaboration.
The sustainability videos
ENGINEERING has recorded nine films in the autumn of 2022 which portray the collaboration with companies about the research at the faculty within the nine sustainability areas.
Each of the nine films exists in a long version (about 3 minutes) and a short version, which is shared on social media. The above film is a joint, cross-cutting summary of the nine films.
Watch the nine films and read cases, background etc. about the research areas!