Improvement of energy efficiency in industrial water circuits using gamification for online self-assessment, benchmarking and economic decision support

Project Information

WaterWatt

Grant agreement ID: 695820

DOI

10.3030/695820

Project closed

EC signature date 19 January 2016

Start date 1 April 2016

End date 31 March 2019

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 1 782 532,50

EU contribution

€ 1 782 532,50

Coordinated by

DECHEMA GESELLSCHAFT FUR CHEMISCHETECHNIK UND BIOTECHNOLOGIE
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - WaterWatt (Improvement of energy efficiency in industrial water circuits using gamification for online self-assessment, benchmarking and economic decision support)

Reporting period: 2017-10-01 to 2019-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The improvement of energy efficiency across European industry is crucial for competitiveness. So far, the measures for increasing energy efficiency have been directed at primary production processes. In this project, the improvement of energy efficiency in industrial water circuits has been addressed, namely auxiliary electric motor driven systems with high optimisation potential. The European manufacturing industry consumes about 37,000 million m3/y freshwater recycling it up to 10 times with the specific electrical energy consumption > 0.2 kWh/m3. With according energy consumption of 74,000 GWh/a, the potential 10 % savings amount to 7,400 GWh/a.

Up to the beginning of the project, there was neither a benchmark on the energy consumption in industrial water circuits, nor tools for its systematic reduction, nor awareness of the saving potential. The WaterWatt project aimed at removing market barriers for energy efficient solutions, in particular the lack of expertise and information on energy management and saving potential in industrial water circuits.

These aims have been achieved through: i) case studies in relevant industries, ii) development of improvement measures for energy efficiency in industrial water circuits, iii) market studies, iv) capacity building activities and v) dissemination in workshops and by e-learning. An Energy Efficiency Evaluation Platform (E3 Platform) has been developed and rolled out to disseminate knowledge/know-how on energy efficiency improvements using gaming approach. The tools of E3 Platform are designed to be used by SMEs and large industrial producers for self-assessment and improvement of the energy efficiency in their circuits. WaterWatt has already reached and will in future reach more than 2,000 relevant persons, organisations and policy makers triggering investments of € 7 to 12 million resulting in primary energy saving of 100 to 180 GWh/a during the project life-time. The planned spin-off company will ensure further investments and savings after the project has finished.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Eleven case studies have successfully been modelled, calibrated and integrated into the E3 Platform. A business plan and an exploitation plan have been developed for the afterlife of the project. Two cross cutting issues and four training workshops have been organized. Also the training content and additional e-leaning material have been developed for the training sessions as well to support the E3 Platform. Particular efforts have been made in video tutorials to support end users in the modelling of IWC in the E3 Platform.

A special focus was on the organisational and human challenges of improving the energy efficiency performance of industrial water circuits. Based on a programme of qualitative case-study research across three sectors (metals, paper and pulp, food and beverage) in four countries (Germany, Norway, Portugal, UK), the work provided an account of the way firms organise on energy efficiency, as well as the particularities of context (e.g. sector, regulatory, topography, etc.) of energy performance (i.e. contextual factors) and the space and capacity for improvement measures. The outcomes impacted aspects of the E3 Platform, the gamification and training applications.

An Energy Efficiency Evaluation platform for self-assessment (WaterWatt E3 Platform) has been developed, tested and released by incremental steps, in a continuous process of improvement, which led to the final version. The final release provides many tools to assess and to benchmark the energy efficiency in industrial water circuits. Moreover, the E3 Platform is a shared knowledge base of good practices, technologies and organizational models concerning energy and water management. Thanks to the provided tools the platform increases the awareness of the reduction of energy consumption in industrial water circuits. Additionaly, a database for energy efficient components to be used in industrial water circuits was generated. The database provides examples of components that can be used in order to make water circuits more energy efficient.

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 E3 Platform is freely available online and provides many interactive tools to assess and to improve the energy efficiency in industrial water circuits. The core of the E3 Platform is the simulator tool, which allows registered users to add specific hydraulics components (more than 30) on a board, to connect them creating a circuit and to finally perform a simulation showing the energy efficiency of the built circuit. This tool can easily tell the user both the current behaviour of the circuit and what would change replacing installed units (e.g. using different pumps) or changing the circuit’s structure.

Basic data for the calculation of benchmarks and evaluation of energy efficiency of industrial water circuits has been gathered from the case studies. Relevant circuits from various industries were studied and their specific energy demand was measured. This data basis has been widened providing benchmarks and also descriptions of good practice in the construction and operation of industrial water circuits.

The eleven case study models have been imported into the E3 Platform and text and video tutorials have also been created to support end users. This will engage operators in optimizing their water circuits and consequently boost the reduction of energy consumption of industrial water circuits as well as to reduce the CO2 emissions, thus increasing the competitiveness of the European industry.

A special focus in the case studies was on the organisational and human challenges of improving the energy efficiency performance of industrial water circuits. The results identify the capacity for gamification techniques to improve energy efficiency behaviours and provide new understandings of the scope of socio-technical innovations in the workplace for energy efficiency improvements. In addition, the identification of contextual factors and research on the implications of efficiency and environmental regulations has contributed to understandings of the capacity and scope for energy efficiency in ways not envisaged at the outset of the project. Here, the project contributes to contextualising the cost-effectiveness of investment in water circuits, thereby indicating whether an investment in energy efficiency has positive or negative cost implications.
To ensure the efficient exploitation of the results into the European and global market and to enable the afterlife of this project a multi-stage approach has been performed: (i) A practical and useful ‘data-joint’ tool for easement of the access to existing national and European funds has been developed; (ii) A market analysis has been performed to estimate the amount of users/clients, to evaluate potential energy savings and to identify possible drivers along the value chain for demanding the tools of the E3 Platform; (iii) A business plan that enables the continuation of the E3 Platform beyond the project lifetime has been created; (iv) An exploitation plan has been developed as basis for the foundation of a spin-off that allows the continuity of the project, especially the E3 Platform; (v) Relevant standardisation activities have been identified to achieve best practices by analysis of policies and standardisation in the field of energy efficient technologies and management approaches.

Example of an industrial water circuit