The PHOTOSINT project presents solutions to the challenges chemical industries are facing in integrating renewable energy sources into their processes. The project will deliver sustainable processes to produce hydrogen and methanol as energy vectors using only sunlight as an energy source and wastewater and CO2 as feedstocks, making the industries more auto-sufficient. The pathway is based on solar-driven artificial photosynthesis, and aims to develop new catalytic earth-abundant materials and modifications of existing ones to improve catalytic processes. Design parameters of the PEC cell will be tuned to maximize solar to fuel (STF) efficiency. Moreover to improve the conversion for industrial implementation, PHOTOSINT will develop a novel way to concentrate and illuminate the semiconductor surface to maximize overall energy efficiency. Perovskite solar PV cells will be integrated to harvest the light to supply the external electrical voltage. PHOTOSINT is an ambitious project due to precedents in research conducted to date and the low production rate of the desired products. For integrating sunlight energy into the industry, the catalyst will be studied, and then the best one/s will be implemented in prototypes. The obtained results will be used for making scale-up in pilots with tandem PEC cells. These steps are necessary to assess the industrial scale-up feasibility, promoting the increased competitiveness of renewable process energy technologies and energy independence. MeOH and H2 will be tested in engines. Also, an HTPEM fuel cell will be used for electricity generation, and hydrogen will be tested as an alternative fuel for energy generation instead natural gas in melting furnaces avoiding CO2 emissions.

The HEPHAESTUS project is built around one key, overarching objective: To develop a set of scalable and tuneable unit operations, to be built as integrated processing plant, featuring the capacity to treat multiple process wastes deriving from primary mineral and metallurgical (primary and secondary) streams. The unit operations are: - Clean-Tech electric furnace, to transform the EAF and AOD dust into metal alloy to be immediately remelted, process supported with streams of fines by-products from the mineral primary extractions (construction, aggregates and dimensional stone) - EZINEX process, to extract the zinc present in the dust of the furnace - Fibre drawing, for mineral wool manufacturing out of the process slag in molten state - Catalytic conversion of CO2 gas into methanol or formic acid - Ammonia-ammonium carbonate (AAC) and methanesulfonic acid (MSA) based hydrometallurgical processes, to produce a recyclable Fe-rich residue and to recover metals (e.g.e.g., ZnS) from EAF dust The project is targeting primarily small-scale applications (order of magnitude 10 k tons waste dust per year), to cope with the typically fragmented European process size. Such scale is matching the waste volumes and differentiation and granting positive environmental AND economic sustainability through the valorisation of different streams of by-products at low operational and capital expenditure, ensuring vast replicability and short ROI Project will be demonstrated in two pilot applications, in Greece and Italy, with the purpose of creating awareness on the business potential and to generate the conditions for a long-term exploitation, leading to meaningful reduction of wastes for the extractive and steel industries.

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 CLEANDEM project, with its collaboration of 11 partners from 4 EU countries, proposes a technological breakthrough associated to various dismantling and decommissioning (D&D) operational steps with an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) Platform. The CLEANDEM strategy will be based on innovative detection technology systems that will constitute a toolbox for equipping an intelligent robotic platform for fully remote operations. The pre-identified technologies are low-cost sensThe CLEANDEM project, with its collaboration of 11 partners from 4 different EU countries, proposes a technological breakthrough for dismantling and decommissioning (D&D) operations of nuclear sites, employing an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) Platform equipped with innovative radiological sensing probes. The aim of the project is to deliver a cyber physical system which will support the end-users’ operations, initially performing a radiological assessment of the area and then monitoring D&D operations throughout the final characterization of the plant. This will result in a 3D and fully detailed digital twin of the surveyed area augmented with radiological information provided by the sensors, thus enabling an efficient and effective planning of the dismantling actions and optimizing the nuclear waste sorting for reprocessing or for delivery to the final storage. Targeted impacts of the UGV Platform are to: save time, drastically reduce costs, minimize human intervention, improve workers and population safety and be greener; all of those driving the project execution to match the stakeholders’ expectation. The effectiveness of the UGV Platform will be assessed in an extensive testing and validation campaign that will be performed in laboratories, in simulated environment and finally on the field. A demonstration event in a real nuclear site, involving all project partners and external stakeholders, will conclude the three years project activities opening for further exploitation in the D&D market.

Geothermal is the most under-utilized of renewable sources due to high investment costs and long development cycle. A big part (53%) of the cost is in drilling and it is time-dependent. Geo-Drill aims to reduce drilling cost with increased ROP and reduced tripping with improved tools lives. Geo-Drill is proposing drilling technology incorporating bi-stable fluidic amplifier driven mud hammer, low cost 3D printed sensors & cables, drill monitoring system, Graphene based materials and coatings. Geo-Drill fluidic amplifier driven hammer is less sensitive to issues with mud and tolerances, less impact of erosion on hammer efficiency and it continues to operate with varying mud quality in efficient manner. It is also less affected by the environmental influences such as shocks, vibrations, accelerations, temperature and high pressures. Low cost and robust 3D-printed sensors & cables along the surface of the whole length of the drill string provides real-time high bandwidth data during drilling; e.g. estimation of rock formation hardness, mud flow speed, density, temp, etc. Flow assurance simulations combined with sensor readings and knowledge-based system will assist in optimizing drilling parameters and cuttings transport performance and safety conditions. Graphene's ability to tune the particular form lends itself uniquely as a component in a wide variety of matrices for coating developments with enhanced adhesion and dispersion properties and improved resistance to abrasion, erosion, corrosion and impact. Placing few mm hard-strength materials on drill bit, drill stabilizer through diffusion bonding improves their wear resistance and improve the lifetime. Geo-Drill's hammers improved efficiency and lifetime, drill parameter optimisation and CTP via sensors, reduced time in replacing tools with improved lifetime work together to improve ROP & lifetime resulting in reduced drilling time. Thereby, Geo-Drill will reduce drilling cost by 29-60%.