CaPeX

The Pioneer Center CAPeX will develop and implement a new powerful Materials Acceleration Platform (MAP) for rapid development of materials and a closed-loop data infrastructure where new catalysts and other materials for power-to-X are discovered, synthesized and designed directly for their intended operating conditions.

About

The Pioneer Center unites leading P2X experts from five Danish and three international universities in conducting fundamental strategic research and delivering transformative breakthroughs across scientific disciplines, methods, and sustainable and scalable materials discovery and development.

By building upon recent advances in complementary fields like computational materials design, operando characterization, and scalable materials synthesis, as well as autonomous robotics, digital twins, and machine learning, CAPeX will reinvent the ways we invent new sustainable materials for P2X.

The Center is run in a partnership between DTU and Aalborg University (AAU), and is located in a new interdisciplinary ‘Climate Challenge Laboratory’ at DTU, Kgs. Lyngby in Greater Copenhagen.

Tejs Vegge and Frede Blaagaard in front of a building similar to the future ‘Climate Challenge Laboratory’

The CAPeX Academy

A strategy for educational excellence

Educating the next generation(s) of researchers, engineers, innovators, and leaders in the green transformation by providing educational excellence at the MSc, PhD, and postdoctoral level is critical for ensuring societal impact, and a key focal point in CAPeX. CAPeX will assume a highly collaborative effort, where young talent from all geographies will have access to the best professors, state-of-the-art infrastructure, and the latest educational approaches.

Leadership Team

Lead

Prof. Tejs Vegge, DTU,

is an internationally recognized expert in the accelerated discovery of materials for the green transition, specializing in the close integration of atomic and multi-scale computer simulations with experimental characterization and machine learning (ML) application.

Co-lead

Prof. Frede Blaabjerg, AAU,

has pioneered the application of power electronics to power conversion and control for renewable energy systems and P2X for over three decades. He has been a key driver for the power electronics technology in renewable energy systems, including its control.

Further, a team of coPIs and key scientists consisting of leading Danish experts and future P2X leaders from DTU, AAU, University of Copenhagen, Aarhus University, and the University of Southern Denmark will assist in the project management and supervision of PhD and postdoc projects.

Three international experts will also serve as coPIs and leaders of our three International Fellowship Programs

Profs. Rossmeisl and Hansen - Computational materials discovery
Profs. Winther, Bligaard, and Bhowmik - Machine and deep learning;
Profs. Kibsgaard, Escudero-Escribano, and Seger - Electrocatalysis
Profs. Meyer and Mckenzie - Bio-catalytic processes
Prof.s Brummerstedt Iversen, Ørnsbjerg Jensen, and Pryds - Advanced materials synthesis
Profs. Helveg and Lauritzen - Atomic-scale characterization
Profs. Petersen, Bøgh, and Chang - Autonomous robotics
Prof. Degn Jensen - Chemical reactors
Prof. Davari - Power electronics
Profs. Wang and Lund - Digital twins
Profs. Højgaard Jensen, Rosendahl, and Pedersen - Electrolysis cells
Prof. Vesborg - System integration

Prof. Thomas Jaramillo from Stanford University; Director of the SUNCAT Center (expert in materials physics and chemistry related to catalyzing electrochemical reactions, specifically the fundamental catalytic processes on solid-state surfaces, fundamental materials discovery, and process devices).
Prof. Bert M. Weckhuysen from Utrecht University; Director of the European Consortium SUNERGY on solar fuels and chemicals (expert in the design, synthesis, operando spectroscopy, and microscopy for studying catalytic solids under realistic catalytic conditions, and imaging of catalysts at the macro, meso, and micro scales).
Prof. Alán Aspuru-Guzik from the University of Toronto; Director of the Acceleration Consortium (expert in theoretical chemistry, machine learning, and materials discovery, aiming to drive the design of MAPs to accelerate the discovery of new materials and make fundamental breakthroughs in AI, robotics, computational and materials science).

Newsroom

News

Future ‘Power-to-Xperts’ can pave the way for new Danish business success story

There will be a huge need to educate future experts in Power-to-X, which is why the Pioneer Center CAPeX is investing heavily in accelerating the process by training more than 100 PhDs and postdocs and giving them access to the world’s leading researchers and equipment in this field.

Press release

Power-to-X center will revolutionize materials for the green transition

Danish foundations grant DKK 300 million to a pioneer center for the development of materials and Power-to-X technologies for the green transition. The center brings together leading national and international researchers.

Capex in the Media

"Nyt center retter 300 mio. kr. mod at skabe fremtidens eksperter til spirende milliardsektor", BØRSEN (article in Danish)
"Storstilede danske PtX-ambitioner kan blive forhalet af mangel på ingeniører", Ingeniøren (article in Danish)
"Med 300 millioner kroner i ryggen: Pionercenter skal frigøre PtX af sjældne metaller", Ingeniøren (article in Danish)
"Nyt Power-to-X center revolutionerer materialer til den grønne omstilling", Science Report (article in Danish)
"Forskningscenter åbner. Power-to-X-direktør: Vi revolutionerer vejen til grøn omstilling", P1 Morgen, DR (Radio interview in Danish at 9:39)

Get in touch

For press related inquiries:

Email: presse@dtu.dk
Tel: +45 45 25 78 78

Weekday from 9. a.m. - 4.p.m.

Partners

The Center unites experts from five Danish and three international universities in conducting fundamental strategic research and delivering transformative breakthroughs across scientific disciplines, methods, and sustainable and scalable materials discovery and development.