VULKANO's results have direct impacts on the society, environment and economy following the UN Sustainable Development Goals:
Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
The solution includes innovations such as the introduction of co-firing of NG and syngas in preheating furnaces will enable the gradual substitution of NG by syngas from 15% up to 40%. Besides, the developed innovative refractories and the energy recovery based on PCMs involve a reduction of the operating expenditure (OPEX) and heat losses of the whole heating system.
Goal 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
The solution aims to increase the energy and environmental efficiency in existing preheating and melting industrial furnaces currently fed with natural gas. The consumption in heating and cooling is about 37% in the European industrial sector. Thanks to this, the innovation is already helping Europe's industrial fabric to increase its competitiveness in the market by overcoming the challenges in terms of efficiency, reliability and adaptation to meet the sustainable development targets specified in EU and international Roadmaps.
Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
All the methodologies deployed in the VULKANO Solution aims to develop a coherent cost-efficient use of the energetic resources, namely: the new refractories, the Phase Change Materials energy recovery, the Co-firing system and the Monitoring and control system (around 100 CO2-eq tons/year savings).
Goal 13: Climate Action
The environmental impact is assessed by comparison with the reference conditions, considering direct and indirect emissions (such as electricity mix) related to the implementation of each technology, as well as the environmental impact related to the production of the equipment and materials required for the implementation of the solutions. The furnace energy efficiency can be directly enhanced and the syngas substitution is implemented (15-40%)-depending on the sector and the integration/combination of the solutions-, have an impact on the reduction of fossil-fuel consumption, and consequently, the environmental impact associated.
Goal 17: Partnerships for the goals
Many companies and entities have promoted their direct collaboration through VULKANO. Thanks to these alliances, this European project has consolidated the exchange of knowledge, technologies and financial resources and has promoted the formation of effective alliances between the public and private spheres and civil society. As a fruit of this partnership, several articles for scientific journals have been published in collaboration, and the consortium is exploring the most suitable exploitation options of the integrated solution developed in VULKANO project.
