Periodic Reporting for period 2 - IbD (Intensified by Design® for the intensification of processes involving solids handling) Reporting period: 2017-03-01 to 2018-08-31 Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project Context and overall objectives of the project The Intensified by Design project (or IbD for short) was funded under the SPIRE (Sustainable Process Industries through Resource and Energy Efficiency) Public Private Partnership within the European Commission’s H2020 Programme. SPIRE brings together cement, ceramics, chemicals, engineering, minerals and ores, non-ferrous metals, steel and water. Together they represent a major part of the manufacturing base in EU-27 including more than 450,000 individual enterprises. They represent 20% of the total European manufacturing industry, with over 6.8 million employees and generating more than € 1,600 billion turnover. They all have a clear and urgent interest in improving resource efficiency, as their production processes are highly dependent on energy (European industry accounted for more than a quarter of total energy consumption in 2010 in Europe with a significant portion of that used within the process industry), utilities and raw materials. The SPIRE Roadmap is committed to increasing the competitiveness of the European sector and transitioning it towards a model of sustainability. It is here where Process Intensification (PI) could contribute significantly to the competitiveness of the European process industries by making industrial processes faster, more efficient and better for the environment. In very simple terms PI is the ability to produce much more with less, thanks to new solutions based on high end technologies that result in more compact equipment, as well as faster, more efficient industrial processes that are better for the environment. PI substantially decreases the equipment- size/production-capacity ratio, and ultimately results in cheaper, sustainable technologies as a result of process and chain efficiency and reduced capital and operating costs.Despite the impacts for cost competitiveness, energy savings, CO2 emissions reduction, process safety and reliability, the industrial implementation of PI is complicated and particularly in processes involving solids, whereby practical challenges in relation to blockages and fouling among others need to be overcome. In response to this need, our project has developed a holistic software platform that will provide engineers with the knowledge, methodology and tools for the design of Process Intensification devices and processes based on a revolutionary ‘intensified-by-design approach’. Six PI industry case studies have been implemented in mining, ceramics, pharmaceuticals and chemical processes in order to validate our tools and approach, as well as to, in their own right, scale up PI modules and their control and fouling remediation strategies towards industrialised intensified processes. Over the course of 3 years, our IbD project has brought about a step change contribution to this very important and emerging field of process intensification. Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far The Intensified-by-Design (IbD®) Project has created the world’s first holistic software platform for facilitating process intensification design and optimisation. We have been successful in designing and building a comprehensive devices-and-processes design-platform for the industrial realisation of PI involving solids handling. In parallel, novel PI technologies have been scaled up and implemented in 6 industrial PI case studies, which have also served to provide insights towards the design and validation of the Platform itself. Over the course of the project, a communication campaign has ensured that we engage with the Process Intensification actors, and in particular the Process Intensification Network (PIN), as a leading PI network at European level, as well as relevant stakeholders from the value chain to generate awareness about IbD and to pave the way forward for enduring impact. Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far) The IBD® project has been highly pioneering and ambitious. In terms of our impact at a technological level, Process Intensification is not a new concept. PI has been achieved through the use of large forces, such as increased pressure, smaller geometry, microfluidic interactions, structured surfaces, and different types of energy. However, methods for the handling of solids in continuous intensified processes have been lacking, and this has hampered the industrial realization of processes involving solids handling. The IbD project contributes to a landmark advance in bridging the technological and knowledge gaps in the area of the industrial implementation of PI in processes involving solids.At the end of project now we stand at the doorway of an enormous opportunity to position ourselves as a worldwide reference: a ‘made in Europe’ enabling platform for the successful industrial implementation of PI technologies. We open the floodgates to innovation, where industry can be facilitated in the implementation of novel, efficient and cost-effective production concepts realized in commercially available process intensified equipment, respectively process equipment modules, that will promote more sustainable processing models, more flexible processing concepts that cater well to processing solids in medium to small scale production units, as well as shorter times to process/market and higher production capacity.The ultimate and enduring impact of our project will become manifest in improved industrial competitiveness, job creation, prosperous regions, access to high quality, safe and affordable products, and the ability to enjoy healthy environments- these are all benefits that contribute to our quality of life as European citizens. ibd-postera0.jpg
