Periodic Reporting for period 2 - IbD (Intensified by Design® for the intensification of processes involving solids handling)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2017-03-01 do 2018-08-31
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.
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.