CHPM2030 Consortium Meeting and Advisory Board Workshop: halfway though the project, all the way to geothermal innovation's top
Brussels, the capital of Europe and, for four days, the heart of geothermal innovation. For four days, representatives from the different international partners of CHPM2030 gathered together inside the Royal Belgian Museum of Natural Sciences to review the project's progress, as it is already halfway though its lifetime. They exchanged views with the experts from the Advisory Board, submitted their work to the European Commission's review, and, last but not least, planned the next steps that need to be taken to guarantee the most promising future for this ambitious project that aims at converting ultra-deep metallic mineral formations into an orebody-EGS (Enhanced Geothermal System) in order to satisfy European needs for energy and strategic metals in a single interlinked process. On the first day, partners thoroughly prepared for the week ahead before heading to a typical Belgian dinner in the historical center of the Capital city of Europe. On the second day, Isabel Fernandez, Executive Director of the European Federation of Geologists (EFG, co-host of the event along with VITO and the Katholic University of Leuven) welcomed the partners as well as the experts from the Advisory Board, and officially launched the Workshop. The goal of this interactive meeting was to gather the precious remarks and comments from the experts, especially on topics related to methodology framework, laboratory experiments and orebody investigations; and metal recovery and electrochemical power generation. The exchanges were extremely rich and both partners and experts were thrilled with the many valuable outcomes that will sure be implemented moving forward with the project. The following days were dedicated to a thorough review of the project's progresses and future plans among partners who covered even more deeply the topics discussed with the experts, dedicating special time and focus to questions of integrated reservoir management, metal content mobilisation using mild leaching and with nanoparticles, systems dynamics and integrated sustainability assessment. Moreover, partners also discussed progresses and further plans when it comes to dissemination and stakeholder involvements as well as project involvement. The discussions were enriched by the valuable and positive inputs by the Project Officer, representing the Europe Commission. Summarising such a fruitful week is quite the challenge but it appears this 4th Consortium Meeting was very successful, looking at all partners' enthusiasm and common vision for the future of the CHPM2030 project. Now, before the next meeting, it is time to head back to work and make the second half of this innovative project's life even more successful!
Keywords
geothermal energy, minerals, metals
Countries
Belgium, Hungary