Accueil - PROMES - CNRS - Contractor, Operator
The laboratory PROMES - Processes, Materials and Solar Energy - is a laboratory of the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) (UPR8521) on two sites Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via and Perpignan in the South of France .
Its creation by the CNRS and the Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) in 1949 under the name "Laboratory Ultra Refractories" in Mont-Louis was motivated to exploit the solar energy highly concentrated to the high temperatures necessary for synthesis and study of ceramics and metals resistant to more than 1500 ° C : heat resistant steels such as Inconel , tungsten , alumina , silicon carbide , etc.
This activity is still relevant, is made possible by the temperatures above 3500 ° C reached by eleven of the twelve solar furnaces operated by the laboratory, able to concentrate more than 16 000 times the incident solar energy to the ground, with a power ranging from 1 to 1000 kW . These means of special tests have enabled to Daniel Hernandez and his team to develop pyroréflectométrie bichromatic.
Since 1986, the laboratory works closely with the University of Perpignan Via Domitia . Since 2006, the laboratory is the tenant of the tower and 107 heliostats of the solar power plant Themis located Targassonne few kilometers from Font Romeu to test pilot industrial project such as PEGASE 1 .
Over time, the research carried out within this laboratory has focused on two concomitant axes:
The first of these axes concerns materials and extreme conditions (high-performance materials, nanomaterials, surface treatment, space atmospheres, etc.);
The second relates to the conversion, storage and transport of energy (solar power plants, thermodynamics, reactive systems, helioprocesses, electronics, automation, etc.).
