15 / 84
Latest News
Ficosa, top-tier global provider
devoted to the research, development,
manufacturing and marketing of high-
technology vision, safety, connectivity
and efficiency systems for the automotive
and mobility sectors, has been awarded
four contracts from two American OEMs
to produce 8,900,000 units of rear-
view mirrors over a period of five years
in North America. The total amount
of these orders is 510 million dollars
(approximately 449 million euros) and
means a record number of contracts
closed with OEMs in a single year in the North American region.
In the words of Joan Cañellas, Ficosa North America CEO:
The production plant made up of container-sized units
assembled on the LUT campus is to be completed in 2017.
The purpose of this cooperation project is to convert solar
power-produced electricity into gas or liquid fuels.
The research plant, which has been named SOLETAIR,
will be made up of three components: VTT will design the
equipment that will extract carbon dioxide from air and
store it. LUT’s task will be to build a device that will utilise
electricity to produce hydrogen through the electrolysis
of water. Another of the VTT’s tasks will be to develop a
synthesis device that will produce e.g. methane or liquid fuel
from carbon dioxide or hydrogen.
The plant will be used to demonstrate how processes can be
combined in a way that allows the utilisation of renewable
electricity in the production of e.g. methane, fuels and
chemicals. The demo plant could thus also function as a
fuelling station for vehicles that run on hydrogen or natural
gas.
“This research is the first of its kind in Finland in this type of
combination of processes,” states LUT Professor Jero Ahola,
who is responsible for the research.
“The project will produce expertise for enterprises in various
fields, and it will result in a multidisciplinary industrial
integration that no one company can achieve on its own.
First test plant to produce fuel from solar power to be
established in Finland
Ficosa awarded multiple rear-view mirrors contract
worth $510 M in North America
“These new projects for rear-view mirrors
ensure high production volume and
consolidate our business with strategic
customers in the North America region,
reaffirming our commitment and steady
growth in this area”.
The new facility in Cookeville wins three of
the four contracts
Three orders will be produced in the
new facility in Cookeville (Tennessee),
which will be the group’s most advanced
worldwide. These will be the first new
projects to go to the new factory, which
will kick off its activity in October 2016.
In total, these new contracts will account for 1,700,000
Collaboration will strengthen the expertise of Finnish
industry in this sector,” states VTT’s Principal Scientist Pekka
Simell. He is responsible for coordinating the project as well
as VTT’s share of the research.
To help cut carbon dioxide emissions, in the future, all
sectors of industry must be within the scope of carbon
dioxide emission-free energy production. In practice, this
means that the future’s most important energy market will
be the electricity market, where different sectors of industry
will operate with electricity produced from carbon dioxide
emission-free energy sources. Combining the electricity
system and other energy systems will be successful with the
researched methods.
The research will aim to build expertise that will facilitate the
implementation of industrial-scale solutions. The project’s
second key aim will be to create new business opportunities
for Finnish industry.
LUT and VTT have invested one million euros in the plant.
Tekes and a group of Finnish companies including ABB,
Gasum, GreenEnergy Finland, Hydrocell, Ineratec GmbH,
Proventia Emission Control Oy and Trafi Finnish Transport
Safety Agency, will fund the research.
New-Tech Magazine Europe l 15