Resource-efficient Machine for the Recycling of coal dust into High-calorie Briquettes

Project Information

INSTABRIQ

Grant agreement ID: 832339

DOI

10.3030/832339

Project closed

EC signature date 7 December 2018

Start date 1 November 2018

End date 28 February 2019

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

C.A. GROUP GMBH
Austria

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - INSTABRIQ (Resource-efficient Machine for the Recycling of coal dust into High-calorie Briquettes)

Reporting period: 2018-11-01 to 2019-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Coal dust as waste is an expensive problem for industries such as steel, power and freight. At least 1% per ton of coal is wasted as dust in European steelworks. This amounts to over 270ktons of waste dust p.a. worth €27m. Steel works need a solution to process dust into a fuel product to improve their raw material efficiency and reduce their environmental impact and costs.
Pollution, particularly CO2 emissions from coal, is a big environmental issue and the EU is seeing an overall shift from coal as a fuel source. However, coal must play a crucial role in the shift toward renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure projects. Coal remains a critical raw material for steel production, with 0.7t coal required for every 1t steel produced. The EU produced 175m tons of steel in 2017, using 122m tons of coal.
The INSTABRiQ project will provide an efficient waste to energy solution, producing coal briquettes from recycled waste dust. INSTABRiQ innovation removes the need to mix toxic chemical additives to bind the briquettes, requiring only dust and water. INSTABRiQ will be upscaled to offer a portable solution across European steel and coal intensive industries.

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

C.A.Group have built a working prototype which can process waste coal dust into fuel briquettes. Construction of machine 1.0 began in 2015, with laboratory certified briquette results obtained in 2016. The H2020 Phase 1 project was granted in 2017 and has delivered four tasks:
Technical Feasibility: Technical Risk Analysis with strategy for machine 2.0 upscaling and testing
Commercial Feasibility: Market & commercial analysis with dissemination strategy
FTO Analysis & IPR Strategy: Detailed FTO & IP strategy
Financial Feasibility: Detailed business plan with financial forecast & risk analysis

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)

INSTABRiQ progresses coal dust waste to energy solutions beyond the existing options which require toxic chemical additives. INSTABRiQ innovation allows for additive free, high calorific briquettes from all coal dust types. It is also a portable solution allowing customers to move machines between sites, as well as for leasing INSTABRiQ machines to multiple customers.
INSTABRiQ provides a crucial waste to energy tool for steelworks which, although an essential component in a sustainable energy future, rely heavily on coal use. INSTABRiQ will reduce the harmful environmental impacts from waste dust and improve efficiencies in raw material use, reducing mining requirements by up to 270ktons per year in Europe alone.

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