EMB3RS, INCUBIS, R-ACES, SO WHAT AND S-PARCS TO HOST WEBINAR ON INDUSTRIAL WASTE HEAT RECOVERY
The aim of the webinar Waste heat recovery and energy cooperation in European Industries is to explore different solutions to enhance a smart and sustainable energy use in industrial and regional contexts, as well as WH/C recovery and reutilization, to find synergies between the work the different projects are carrying out, and to raise awareness among stakeholders on the new tools under development. Likewise, the webinar will include time for discussion and questions. Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of how to optimize energy use and recovery in industrial environments. Heating and cooling are the largest sources of energy demand in Europe and currently they are mainly covered by fossil fuels, while low carbon energy sources like waste heat and cold recovery and renewable energy sources remain marginal. Nevertheless, current studies showed that, in the EU, the amount of heat wasted by industries in the form of hot water or flue gases would be sufficient to cover the entire EU’s heating needs. This would foster the EU’s decarbonisation while reducing its dependence on fossil fuels. To achieve this, these projects are developing technologies and software tools to facilitate waste heat and cold recovery, as well as the integration of cooling and heating demand with renewable energy sources. EMB3Rs is investigating the potential of recycling industrial excess heat and cold and designing a platform that explores how energy – normally wasted by releasing it into the environment – could be reused as a valuable source for other industrial processes, district heating and cooling or further purposes. INCUBIS will develop a set of tools and support services to help key stakeholders in Industrial Parks and Districts in the development and implementation of Energy Symbiosis (ES) projects. ES involves the use of the excess heat/cold produced by one or more industries, to provide heating, cooling or electricity for other industries or buildings. The concept can also be extended to the production of sustainable energy by using waste materials (e.g. biomass) as fuel. ES projects are complex multi-stakeholder activities facing long lead times, high transaction costs, a range of technical, financial, and legal uncertainties before securing an investment. Nonetheless, they can lead to energy efficiency improvements, CO2 & cost reductions, new revenue, jobs, and local investments. R-ACES is supporting industrial clusters & business parks in becoming ecoregions that reduce their CO2 emissions by at least 10%. To achieve this, ecoregions are created where multiple stakeholders engage in energy cooperation by exchanging heat/cold streams, investing together in renewable energy solutions, or managing energy streams through smart energy management platforms. SO WHAT is developing an integrated software to identify and simulate how industrial WH/C could cost-effectively balance with the local community’s forecasted energy demand, and how this could be integrated with renewable energy systems. The tool, designed to support different stakeholders in auditing and mapping their energy processes, will assess the impact of energy processes on both a technical and non-technical level and help to reduce the cost of energy audits. This will be validated by 11 demonstration sites that will test the software in real operating conditions in industrial facilities. S-PARCS presents a sound concept for reducing energy costs and energy consumption in industrial parks, while, at the same time, increasing renewable on-site energy production. It aims at moving from a single-company energy efficient intervention approach to cooperative energy efficient solutions, enabling higher energy savings and the subsequent increase of competitiveness of the companies located in the parks. S-PARCS will systematically analyse technical, economic, regulatory, legal, organisational, environmental & social barriers to energy-efficient park design & operation.
Keywords
energy cooperation, energy transition, waste heat, industrial symbiosis, ecoregion