Integrated Use of Renewable Energy Carriers in Industrial Sites

Scope

• Proposals under this topic should:
  • Develop highly efficient technologies for, and prototype designs of, integrated structures of industrial sites, including storage elements and solutions for their integrated operation under varying conditions;
  • Take due account of logistic aspects, risk assessment and management at plant level;
  • Develop systemic solutions embracing industrial symbiosis, and if relevant, contribute to further evolution of existing Hubs4Circularity;
  • Consider the interaction with the supply side, in particular electric power grids, hydrogen pipelines or district heating;
  • Demonstrate full integration and use of advanced digital technologies from fields of distributed process control strategies, and data driven AI based optimisation and the application of model-based technologies for the improved, safe and efficient operation of industrial plants and sites, including the interaction with different grids;
  • Demonstrate and evaluate energy efficiency and CO2 footprint reduction by optimal integration of energy from renewable sources as well as providing demand side flexibility;
  • Propose new ways to adapt the workplaces and organisation of site management to ensure that the solutions can be widely implemented.
• Proposals should include energy efficiency, techno-economic and life-cycle assessment considerations of the overall process.
• Proposals should consider representative real industrial sites demonstrating the solutions at least in open-loop computations. This should be done in parallel to the actual operation of the plants with validation of the benefits by simulations with accurate models. Experiments involving real industrial sites are encouraged.
• Proposals should actively pursue involvement of all actors in the value chain, from industrial sites management to plant operators, and renewable energy providers. Interoperability as well as secure and trusted data sharing between stakeholders in the value chain should be considered, in accordance with the FAIR data principles. Proposals submitted under this topic should include a business case and exploitation strategy (as outlined in the introduction to this Destination) underlining how the proposal will serve the purpose to boost industrial decarbonisation technologies supply chain in Europe.
• A strategy for skills development to master the challenges of such integrated systems should be included associating social partners. Attention should be given to using results from existing initiatives that have developed education and skills development concepts in this area.

Funding Information

• Budget (EUR) – Year 2025: 25 000 000
• Contributions: 6000000 to 8000000

Expected Outcomes

• Energy Intensive industries will benefit from the following outcomes:
  • Enable the integrated use of different types of renewable energy carriers in industrial sites with the aim to provide a constant robust low-carbon and economic energy input to process industries;
  • Pave the way for strategic industrial cooperation to cope with fluctuations of the energy inputs and to achieve overall energy and cost efficiency;
  • Support stability and operational flexibility of the power grid, including implementation of storage solutions to buffer energy demand peaks;
  • Enable the use of renewable energy labelling and documentation, scheduling of energy use and price compensation models to achieve optimal grid load;
  • Improve the technical and economic feasibility of the integrated use of renewable energy carriers in industrial sites compared to other solutions with a similar CO2 reduction potential.

Eligibility Criteria

• Entities eligible to participate:
  • Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from nonassociated third countries or international organisations (including international European research organisations) is eligible to participate (whether it is eligible for funding or not), provided that the conditions laid down in the Horizon Europe Regulation have been met, along with any other conditions laid down in the specific call/topic.
  • A ‘legal entity’ means any natural or legal person created and recognised as such under national law, EU law or international law, which has legal personality and which may, acting in its own name, exercise rights and be subject to obligations, or an entity without legal personality.
• To become a beneficiary, legal entities must be eligible for funding.
• To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the following countries:
  • the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions:
    • Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.
  • the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States:
    • Aruba (NL), Bonaire (NL), Curação (NL), French Polynesia (FR), French Southern and Antarctic Territories (FR), Greenland (DK), New Caledonia (FR), Saba (NL), Saint Barthélemy (FR), Sint Eustatius (NL), Sint Maarten (NL), St. Pierre and Miquelon (FR), Wallis and Futuna Islands (FR).
  • countries associated to Horizon Europe;
    • Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Tunisia, Türkiye, Ukraine, United Kingdom.

For more information, visit EC.