BioProfit – Profitable valorisation of biogas fermentation residues through CO2 storage and nutrient recovery
It is now becoming painfully clear that the previous model is not sustainable: fertiliser produced with fossil energy and mostly imported has become so expensive that many European countries expect drastic harvest losses for the coming year. Yet with the appropriate technologies, fertiliser and even humus could be produced from the fermentation residues of biogas […]
COHORIS – Continuous enzymatic hydrolysis in oscillatory flow as process intensification strategy for biorefineries
Despite intensive research activities in biorefineries on sustainable biomass conversion to value-added products, key steps such as hydrolysis, remain bottlenecks in technical and economic efficiency and require radical intensification. Typically, the hydrolysis step is processed in stirred tank reactors (STRs), however the process economics are limited by challenges such as the energy intense and insufficient […]
IEA Bioenergy Task 40 – Deployment of biobased value chains Triennium 2022-2025
Task 40 examines technological development and implementation, market diffusion, diversity and complexity of biomass resources and value chains, logistics and competitive applications for bioenergy, bio-based chemicals and materials (bioeconomy), and other services (CO2 sequencing and utilization, system stabilization services) with IEA bioenergy relevance. Task 40 sees its role and mission as clarifying the conditions for […]
HighCon – High-performance concrete for underground large-scale thermal energy storages
A key technology in the transformation of our energy supply towards a higher share of renewable but significantly more volatile energy sources is represented by underground large-scale thermal energy storages (ULTES) for the short-, medium- and seasonal storage of heat in district and local heating networks as well as applications in industry. As experience from […]
DESIRED – Direct co-processing of CO2 and water to sustainable multicarbon energy products in a novel photocatalytic reactor
Solar fuels, produced via solar driven CO2 and water conversion can contribute to drastically reducing GHG emissions and implement a man-made carbon-cycle complementing the natural-one, deploying the circular economy strategy. However, at present, significant improvement in the photocatalysts and reactor technology is required for solar fuels’ production to become technically feasible, scalable, affordable, secure, sustainable, […]
Happening – Heat pumps in existing multi-family buildings for achieving the union’s energy and environmental goals
Currently, buildings are responsible for 40% of the energy demand and 36% of the CO2 emissions in Europe. Decarbonization of existing buildings plays a key role in order to reach the overall climate protection targets. However, current renovation rates do not exceed 1%. Heat pumps are a key technology with regard to increase the share […]
PredictIT2.0 – Software for operation optimization in district heating networks based on self-learning load forecast models
The majority of Austrian district heating network operators are SMEs. In this field, innovative digital methods for increasing efficiency are rarely or never used in practice. The project PredictIT2.0 aims at the development of a low-threshold access to digital operating point optimization based on self-learning load forecast models in district heating networks. The aim is […]
IEA SHC Task 68 – Efficient solar district heating
In the increased use of CO2-free technologies for local/district heating supply, solar thermal systems in particular offer an efficient alternative and high decarbonisation potential for the heating and cooling sector. In the IEA SHC Task 55 it has been shown that existing concepts, e.g. from Denmark, cannot be trivially transferred to local/district heating networks in […]
PRO Service – Business model innovations for rental and service models in the manufacturing sector
PRO_Service aims to contribute to a better understanding of the economic and ecological potentials of an implementation of rental and service models in the manufacturing sector in Austria and to show which changes and R&D efforts are necessary in order to realize them through suitable business models. To this end, a comprehensive analysis of existing […]
IEA EBC Task 84 – Demand Management of Buildings in Thermal Networks
When integrating residents and buildings into district heating/cooling (DHC) systems, knowledge of energy requirements is important. For residents, energy is mostly an invisible entity and often simply consumed on demand with little reflection on the impact this has on the connected heating/cooling grid. Experiments with the power grid have shown that occupants are to some […]