The typical lifetime of an industrial process plant is between 30 and 50 years. Technologies to enhance the operation and optimization of process plants can both guide the development of new state-of-the-art process plants and, perhaps more pertinently, can ensure that the large installed base of existing plants operates efficiently. The PRONTO Consortium partners are strongly convinced that for Europe to stay competitive, the overriding challenge is the efficient and sustainable operation of assets already installed and running at the present time. Production involves flows of material and energy over an extended area through the distributed and interconnected equipment of the process network. Process plants also generate complex information from disparate sources in the form of measurements from the process, mechanical and electrical sub-systems, and elsewhere. Efficient and sustainable operation of assets over a timescale of 30-50 years therefore requires sophisticated approaches for managing information and managing resources to ensure optimal operation. The research topics of PRONTO are (i) data analytics for assessment of the condition and performance of networks of equipment used for production in the process industries, (ii) optimization of use of resources in process networks taking account of real-time information about the condition and performance of the process equipment, and (iii) new concepts for process operation identified as having high potential for impact by industrial partners. The consortium partners include leading universities and well-known companies with high reputations for innovation. The consortium offers the early stage researchers training under the European Industrial Doctorate scheme by involving the non-academic sector extensively in joint supervision of the doctoral training with a strong emphasis on industrially-relevant PhD projects leading to practical demonstrations.

Production of electrical insulation components is globally a B$1.19 business. Cellulose is one commonly used raw material for insulation components. State-of-the-art production methods for high quality electrical insulation products are typically labour intensive and slow. The main objective of NOVUM is to develop and demonstrate a compact and feasible pilot line concept based on novel processing technologies for rapid, design driven production of advanced cellulose-based electrical insulation components. This new pilot line will result in significant efficiency improvement and higher productivity and flexibility, while ensuring lower operational costs as compared with the state-of-the-art process. Manual production will be replaced by an automated manufacturing concept with increased resource efficiency, including 40% reduction in labour time and 60% reduction in waste generation, 20% lower energy consumption and 40% decrease in operating costs. Processing technologies in the focus of NOVUM are 3D printing of cellulose-based materials having thermoplastic features as well as foam forming and thermoforming of cellulose fibres. These three technologies will be developed in parallel to each other, together with the cellulose materials, in order to reach optimal combination for the pilot line concept. Besides technical feasibility, the decision on the pilot line concept will be based on the end use requirements as well as on economic, social and environmental impacts including circular economy considerations. The novel manufacturing concept will also enable exploitation of the full potential of design in generating form and thus novel functionalities to cellulose-based electrical insulation components. In addition, the concept will be based on multipliable technologies, enabling their transition and wide adoption for cellulose-based materials across the process industry and for applications beyond NOVUM for other industrial areas.

This action, entitled “Development of high reliability motor drives for next generation propulsion applications”, is a 4-year research focused training program. It is aimed to form a coherent Research and Innovation Staff Exchange network so as to address technical challenges facing the electrifying transport industry, with a focus on high-reliability electrical traction drives. Transport electrification has been considered as a major advancement to reducing CO2 emissions and improving energy efficiency. At the heart of the propulsion systems are electrical traction drives. But technological developments are still at an early stage. Industries are trying out different traction drive technologies. Permanent magnet synchronous motors, induction motors, reluctance motors and DC motors-based traction drives are all found in use while they have their inherent advantages and drawbacks. In academia and industry, there are no consensus on the best traction drive for a single application. Existing technologies cannot meet the ever-growing market needs for safe, fast, green and affordable transportation. Major challenges include demands for very high torque density, power density, fuel efficiency and fault tolerance, pushing the devices and components to their physical and material limits. Particularly operating motor drives at high speeds and harsh environments require a new mindset of component and system design for safety-critical high-reliability requirements, as well as multidisciplinary approaches to combine multiphysics (e.g. thermal, stress) with the conventional electromagnetic and electronic designs. This program will bring together EU’s leading universities and industries, and utilise the latest technological discoveries in power electronics, motor drives, drivetrains and control, sensors and monitoring, communications, big data and artificial intelligence. The outcomes will be significant to impact on EU transport sector, EU research landscape and EU economy.