The main objective of the project is to develop solutions to recover the waste heat produced in energetic intensive processes of industrial sectors such as cement, glass, steelmaking and petrochemical and transform it into useful energy. These solutions will be designed after an evaluation of the energetic situation of these four industries and will deal with the development of Waste Heat Recovery Systems (WHRS) based on the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) technology. This technology is able to recover and transform the thermal energy of the flue gases of EII into electric power for internal or external use. Furthermore, a WHRS will be developed and tested to recover and transform the thermal energy of the flue gases of EII into mechanical energy for internal use (compressors). In order to reach this objective several challenging innovative aspects will have to be approached by the consortium. It is planned to design and develop a multisectorial direct heat exchanger to transfer heat directly from the flue gases to the organic fluid of the ORC system and to develop new heat conductor and anticorrosive materials to be used in parts of the heat exchanger in contact with the flue gases. These aspects will be completed by the design and modelling of a new integrated monitoring and control system for the addressed sectors. The consortium consists of 8 partners from 4 European countries. They cover several relevant sectors of the energy intensive industry, namely cement, steel, glass and petrochemical sectors. The industrial involvement in the project is significant and the project addresses the implementation of a full demonstration of the WHRS for electrical energy generation in one of the industrial partners (CEMENTI ROSSI) and a semi-validation of the WHRS for air compressors energy supply system at pilot scale.

The project aims to design, develop and validate an innovative solution, the CIRMET solution, to provide energy and resource flexibility to Energy Intensive Industries (EIIs) The CIRMET solution will be validated in an operational environment (TRL7) in an existing process plant (non-ferrous sector) while the replicability of the solution will be assessed in three additional energy intensive sectors (steel, cement and water sector). For this purpose, three new demonstrators will be build up, plus the retrofitting of existing industry process unit. The new demonstrators or modules will be: EFFIMELT furnace, a new concept of flexible and modular process unit for industrial wastes treatment, RECUWASTE heat recovery unit, for flue gas heat recovery and transformation into compressed air to re-used in the same plant, having also the possibility of storing the excess energy and AFF40 (Analytic For Factory 4.0) platform, to improve process plant competitiveness, to increase energy and resource efficiency by controlling and optimizing process units. The retrofitting of an existing process unit (Metallo S.L process furnace) will be done to implement and validate the complete CIRMET solution. A well-balanced consortium formed by academia, research organization, SMEs and energy intensive industries ensures the whole value chain needed to achieve project objectives and paves the way for future exploitation of the solution. The effective dissemination of project outcomes to the current and next generation of citizen and employees through the development of learning resources with flexible usage to be carried out by education/training experts within the consortium is eventually also an important objective of the consortium.