International projects
Optimization of systems, energy management and environmental impact in process engineering
Organisations (2)
Abstract
Currently the energy consumption in the European Union amounts to circa 1500 million tonnes (coal equivalent) of primary energy. By 2020, 1600 million tonnes will be needed even though the energy utilization efficiency is expected to increase by 18%. The changes in the European energy markets as well as the forthcoming Carbon Tax and emission-trading schemes are the primary scientific and technological reasons for establishing this network.The scientific and technical objective of this work is to develop a package of tools for optimization of energy usage in industry. Two types of tools are foreseen: the first type is a package of new methodologies for energy usage optimization that includes the thermoeconomic analysis (TEA) and the energy life-cycle analysis (ELCA). Both analysis include costs to the environment and the society due to individual pollutants. The second type includes development of specific software packages for optimization of energy generation by combustion of fossil fuels. To meet the S&T objectives an interdisciplinary and intersectorial approach is needed.The basic network disciplines are economics and process engineering and these are supported by computer sciences, complex environmental systems, fuel processing and combustion. The INSPIRE network team includes three important industrial companies (ENEL, GdF, IMPOL), two private research institutes (ECN, CUTEC GmbH), ten universities and a software company (FLUENT GmbH). Four institutions from the less-favoured regions of the EU participate in the network.
