Collaborating institutions / companies
NCSRD (National Centre for Scientific Research “Demokritos”) was founded in the sixties and is the largest, multidisciplinary research centre in Greece.
NCSRD has a booming large Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, and a blossoming technology park “Lefkippos” packed with start-ups from the research centre and nearby Universities.
The plasma group is one of the most active groups in NCSRD with years of experience in plasma processing, reactor design, and two spin-off companies namely nanoplasmas and nanometrisis.
The group is led by Dr Evangelos Gogolides, a leader in micro and nanofabrication and wetting, editor in Chief of a new journal Micro and Nano Engineering and holder of more than 15 patent families. A large group with more than 10 tenured researchers comprises the membrane group, with decades of experience starting from Dr I. Petropoulos (deceased) and continuing with the recently retired Dr N. Kanellopoulos former NCSRD president. Dr Andreas Sapalidis a young researcher from the membrane group and the MD infrastructure of the group are also participating in the project.
Both groups include young PhD candidates and Post Docs with experience in the topic and eager to start their own career and potentially company. Dr Angelos Zeniou has just completed his PhD on new plasma equipment and is co-inventor in two of the patents owned by NCSRD. He has already participated in various coaching events for start-up creation including the MIT Greek chapter competition.
Three graduate students Mr Dimosthenis Ioannou, Mr Dimitris Nioras and Mr Panagiotis Sarkiris will be active in the project.
MPIP was founded in 1984. The mission of the MPIP is controlling soft matter to create function.
Max Planck Institutes are considered premier academic institutions in Germany. In the Experimental Physics of Interfaces department, MPIP studies the structure and dynamics of interfaces. A major research area is wetting, in particular fabricating and characterizing liquid repellent surfaces.
Nanofilament coatings were developed in the framework of the ERC Advanced Grant “Superamphiphobic surfaces for chemical processing (Supro)” 2014-19 led by the group leader Prof Hans-Juergen Butt, who recently obtained a second ERC grant in a related area.
With respect to fundamental questions in wetting MPIP participates actively in Priority Program 2171 and the Collaborative Research Center 1194 of the German Research Society. One aim of Supro was always to commercialize innovations. In the SuperClean project, there is a chance.
SolarSpring GmbH was founded in 2009 as a spin-off of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Freiburg, Germany.
The SolarSpring GmbH, membrane solutions has grown into a world market leader for membrane distillation technology.
Our core team of 6 engineers and scientists, most of which have been with the company since “day one”, is entirely committed to water treatment and drinking water production.
SolarSpring systems can be found all over the world and are built at our company venue the “Solarhaus” in Freiburg, Germany.
We cooperate and network internationally with smart and creative individuals, but since we value the preservation of resources and local partnerships most of our suppliers are regional.
As a reward for our innovative ideas and developments we were awarded the “Land of Ideas” prize in 2012 and the “Technology-Transfer-Prize” in 2014
Europlasma designs, builds, and sells turnkey low pressure plasma equipment since 1993.
It has supplied equipment to more than 350 customers worldwide in electronics, medical devices, and technical textiles.
Over the years the company has specialized in roll-to-roll equipment and using the plasma for polymerization of functional nanocoatings. It has a unique line of roll-roll-coaters and has built industrial equipment that can handle rolls up to 2,4 m wide and 1,5 m in diameter.
Next to the machines it also commercializes proprietary chemistries for hydrophobic coating under the Nanofics® (halogen) and PlasmaGuard® (halogen-free) brand names.
SolSep BV is a producer of membranes and spiral wound elements (modules) for ultra- and nanofiltration in organic solvents.
SolSep BV makes recovery of solvents easier, more economic and environment-friendly.
Having a long experience in wet processes it is ideal for the upscaling of the Nanofilament process of MPIP.
