From integrated environmental technology to water and waste water treatment, from air and gas purification to energy and resource efficiency, from soil recovery to sustainability assessments and climate protection
The International Sustainable Chemistry Collaborative Centre (ISC3) is hosting its 4th virtual Investor Forum on November 9th and November 10th, 2022.
The ISC3 Innovation Challenge in Sustainable Chemistry and Waste: Prevention, Valorisation & Management has started. Contest applications will be accepted until April 19, 2022.
The BMBF-funded research and development programme ‘Technologies for Sustainability and Climate Protection – Chemical Processes and Use of CO2’ ran from 2010 to the end of 2016 and covered the following main areas: ‘Using CO2 as a feedstock for the chemical industry’, ‘Chemical energy storage’ and ‘Energy-efficient processes’. Each of these main areas is accompanied in this final report by a review article that pro-vides a comprehensive overview of the topic. The 33 projects that received funding have been classified into these three main areas or clusters. A short article has been provided for each research project and focuses on presenting the central results of the project. In the ‘Energy-efficient processes’ cluster, the review article, which covers the subject of carbon capture, serves as an example of the very diverse range of projects grouped in this part of the report.
Carbon4PUR project explores industrial symbiosis between steel and chemical industry to produce polymer foams and coatings from steel off-gases Flue gases from steel manufacturing contain a mixture of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, valuable feedstock gases for chemical production. Manufacturing high value polyurethane materials from these flue gases to is the ambition of Carbon4PUR, a 7.8 Mill. Euro Horizon2020 project with 14 partners from 8 countries, coordinated by Covestro. The unique Carbon4PUR technology will valorise steel off-gas without previous cleaning or separation of the gas components. This flexible and energy efficient technology will allow a reduction of the CO2 footprint of polyurethane production by 20-60% and substitution of at least 15% of the oil-based reactants by waste-gas based carbon. A collaboration between value chain partners and experts The Carbon4PUR consortium comprises industrial partners along the entire value chain. Flue gas is provided by steel manufacturer Arcelor Mittal to feed the production of polyurethane intermediates at Covestro. Polyurethane manufacturers Recticel N.V. in Belgium and Megara Resins S.A. in Greece are involved as downstream producers, testing the intermediates for the manufacturing of rigid foams and polymer dispersions. The Port of Marseille Fos, an industrial production site for both Covestro and ArcelorMittal, is the model site for which the industrial symbiosis concept will be evaluated. Leading European research and technology support partners are involved to further develop and evaluate the Carbon4PUR technology: the French Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission and RWTH Aachen University for process design and catalyst development; Ghent University for flue gas treatment; Leiden University and TU Berlin for life cycle and techno-economic assessment;; sustainability solutions provider South Pole Group for investigating social impacts and mechanisms for market uptake; and PNO Consultants for value chain and stakeholder analysis. DECHEMA will provide mapping and assessment of potential replication sites for the technology, together with Imperial College in London, and is responsible for dissemination and communication.
Geobiotechnology does not only contribute to the remeditation of soil and mining waters. It offers also significant potential for the exploitation of resources from primary deposits as well as tailings and heaps and for recycling. The status paper by the Temporary Working Group Geobiotechnology gives an overview on the current status of research and technology and discusses perspectives for the further development. Relevant stakeholders in Germany and educational courses are also listed.
Raw Water – Process – Waste Water
Global changes in water availability and the manifold regulatory frameworks have already prompted many companies to develop ambitious strategies to improve their water usage efficiency. This requires a combination of know-how and process technology, embedded in integrated industrial water management solutions.
Due to the high innovation potential of an integrated industrial water management the ProcessNet Subject Division Production-Integrated Water/Waste Water Technology has developed a position paper to highlight the trends and perspectives in industrial water technology.
VOLATILE is a large scale project in the frame of Horizon 2020 involving 21 industry and research partners from nine European countries.
The project’s intention is to develop a Volatile Fatty Acids Platform (VFAP) for the economic utilization of municipal as well as industrial biowaste. Fatty acids will continuously be recovered from anaerobic digestion processes applying membrane technology and will be provided for value added fermentation approaches:
The evolvement of the new value-added chains will be supported by findings of executed case studies and market analyses. Furthermore, the processes will be optimized applying agent-based modeling. To ensure environmentally friendly and economical reasonable process design, VOLATILE additionally will be accompanied by a life cycle assessment (LCA) and an economic feasibility study. Business cases will be developed and a CEN workshop will support standardization on “Sustainable use of municipal solid and sludgy biowaste for added value biomolecules for industrial application”.
What is the role of Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) in industrial water management? This question is answered by the ProcessNet Expert Group “Production-Integrated Water/Waste Water Technology”, in cooperation with the DGMT-DME “Committee Water Future” (AWZ) in their discussion paper. Experts warn about excessive expectations in ZLD related to economical and ecological perspectives. Pros and cons are listed in the discussion paper and decision paths are outlined for industrial application.
Energy storage systems for the energy transition: Position Paper of the Joint Working group on Chemical Energy Research. Fundamental research for new storage technologies, a data base for the economic evaluation and an integrated system including electricity, heat and mobility are required in order to implement the energy transition successfully. A comprehensive article supplementing the position paper has been published in Chemie Ingenieur Technik (access via http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cite.201400183/pdf).