The SCIENCE|SQUARE 2018 program has come up with two storage technology innovations. The Speakers Corner at the group stand of Germany’s various regions provides exhibitors with the opportunity to prominently showcase their exhibits.

Innovations, events, products, and services from seven German federal states will be onstage at SCIENCE|SQUARE this year. “All the projects will be demonstrated and comprehensible to the general public,” explains Daniel Graffé of Messearbeitskreis Wissenschaft e.V. The association supports SCIENCE|SQUARE, which is being used in 2018 by research groups from the German federal states of Berlin/Brandenburg, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Research for the Future (represented by Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxon).

The Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS is providing one highlight: The high-temperature battery ce¬renergy® is a compact battery module consisting of 20 cells that serves as stationary energy storage. The “most cost-efficient and safest battery currently in the world” is, according to IKTS based “exclusively on non-hazardous and readily available raw materials” such as nickel, aluminum, and cooking salt. In comparison to lithium-ion batteries, the ce¬renergy® the cost of the system in terms of volumic energy is less than 300 euros/kWh.

In an age of increasingly scare natural resources, organic batteries also present interesting storage alternatives. The Center for Applied Research at the Friedrich-Schiller University in Jena is presenting a corresponding solution at SCIENCE|SQUARE: The active materials in this new development consist of organic compounds (polymers) and can therefore replace scare anorganic electrode materials such as lithium cobalt oxide, simplify processing methods, and enable flexible batteries.

In addition, the Friedrich-Schiller University in Jena is appearing at SCIENCE|SQUARE with an “ink-jet printer with functional material”. The polymers can be printed on various surfaces in a “targeted manner that conserves materials”. This opens up applications for bio-chip manufacturing as well as in micro-electronics and organic electronics. Among other things, conjugated polymers can be used as organic solar cells. Ink based on silver nano-particles can create extremely thin conductible lines.