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PRocess Innovations for the Mineral industry focusing on ROasting and Calcination Kiln technologies and supported by novel pre- and post-processing

Project description

New frontier processes for a competitive and sustainable extractive industry

Globally, demand for minerals has been increasing steadily for many decades, but the rate of increase has accelerated significantly in recent years, resulting in large increases in the cost of many raw materials and bottlenecks in supply. In this framework, the EU-funded PRIM-ROCK project represents a new frontier in the metallurgical industry in view of developing and demonstrating the necessary fundamental knowledge that will pave the way to sustainable, more energy efficient processes, with low carbon footprint in a considerable number of cases. Novel pre- and post-processing, thermal processes electrification, hydrogen as alternative to carbon reductant, microwave induced plasma reactors and digitalisation powered by artificial intelligence, will result in EU leadership for a climate neutral, circular and digitised production.

Objective

PRIM-ROCK addresses process efficiency through a multifaceted strategy addressing industrial processes from input to output, supported by an ambitious digital framework and transversal supporting activities. In particular, advanced techniques for the pre-processing of the raw material will be deployed to enhance its efficiency according to the requirements of the process, supplemented by simulations and decision support systems to increase the operational limits of flexibility in the feedstock domain. Additionally, the process intensification component of the project will design, develop, and validate innovative and efficient processes, as well as optimizing the existing ones. The aim is to develop a portfolio of technologies to a higher resource efficiency and lower level of GHG emissions of extractive industries. The project will focus on improving the resource efficiency of the calcination and roasting processes, that are commonly used in the mineral and cement industries.
To this end, process simulations in collaboration with AI data-driven models will be utilized and a digital twin for each process will be developed. Finally, waste reduction and re-utilization strategies will be investigated targeting to the real-time processes’ adjustment capabilities to feedstock changes and tighter processing control solutions. All these components will be supplemented by transversal supporting activities, such as technoeconomic assessment, LCA, standardization etc. The PRIM-ROCK solutions will be demonstrated in 3 different ASPIRE sectors, namely Minerals (magnesite, laterite), Cement (limestone) and Non-ferrous metals (sphalerite, chalcopyrite).
The consortium is composed of 7 SMEs along with 6 RTDs, 3 universities and 5 large enterprises, working together to achieve over 30% resource efficiency enhancement in each use-case, 770ktCO2 averted, productivity increase in the range 9-16% and more that 1,360 new jobs by 2033.

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HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) HORIZON-CL4-2024-TWIN-TRANSITION-01

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Coordinator

ETHNICON METSOVION POLYTECHNION
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 107 625,00
Address
HEROON POLYTECHNIOU 9 ZOGRAPHOU CAMPUS
157 72 ATHINA
Greece

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Region
Αττική Aττική Κεντρικός Τομέας Αθηνών
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

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Participants (21)

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