Last week, the ANEMEL consortium gathered in Berlin, Germany, for our 8th Plenary Meeting. During the 23rd and 24th of June, we had the opportunity to present the progress made over the past few months and to get ready for the work ahead. Although several work packages (WPs) have now been completed, there was still plenty to discuss following our previous meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in November. This gathering would not have been possible without the efforts of our partner Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin), who kindly hosted us in the German capital.
This plenary meeting was particularly important as we prepare for the final stage of the ANEMEL project, which will conclude in December. The project will culminate with the test of two stacks operating continuously for 2.000 hours, one under saline conditions and the other in an alkaline medium with a pH of 12.
As a result, much of our current effort is focused on preparing both stacks, a key responsibility of WP4. This led to extensive discussions following WP4’s presentation, as partners reviewed progress and the remaining challenges. WP5, in charge for sustainability, also generated considerable discussion, as the team continues to collect data from all project partners to carry on life cycle assessment analysis.
“So far all the actions have been progressing very well, and we are confident that the stacks will perform well under these operating conditions throughout the long-term experiments,” says Pau Farràs, ANEMEL coordinator.
As always, it was a pleasure to see each other again and spend two productive days working together. While not everyone was able to travel to Berlin, several partners joined the meeting online but that didn’t stop them from actively contributing to the discussions and presentations.
After all the hard work, we certainly deserved a reward. We enjoyed a boat trip along the River Spree, taking in some of Berlin’s most iconic landmarks, including Museum Island and Berlin Cathedral. It was a wonderful opportunity to relax together and enjoy the city.
Our next plenary meeting will take place in Sion, Switzerland. By then, one of the two long-term stack tests is expected to have been completed, bringing us another step closer to the successful conclusion of our project. Until then, there is still plenty of work ahead!