Energy-Intensive Industries (EII) in Europe are characterized by very high energy production costs as well as by an important level of CO2 emissions. Energy production costs account for up to 40% of total production costs in some EII, while EII emissions represent a quarter of total EU CO2 emissions. EII are therefore directly concerned by the EU 2014 Energy/Climate Package, which sets a global objective of 40% reduction of GHG emissions and 27% increase of energy efficiency by 2030. The report on energy prices and costs for some energy-intensive sectors published by the European Commission showed for example that natural gas prices for European ceramic companies increased by around 30% between 2010 and 2012 and they were four times higher than in Russia and more than three times higher than in the USA. Similarly, electricity costs were two times higher in the EU than in the USA and Russia. Such figures clearly confirm that energy is a crucial element for the competitiveness of our industry. Therefore, an integrated approach to process innovation is proposed within ETEKINA project covering design, simulation, operating conditions and process management together with breakthrough technology for waste heat recovery. The overall objective of ETEKINA project is to improve the energy performance of industrial processes. For this to be possible, the valorisation of waste heat by a turnkey modular Heat Pipe Based Heat Exchanger (HPHE) technology adaptable to different industry sectors will be addressed within the project and demonstrated in three industrial processes from the non-ferrous, steel and ceramic sectors in order to demonstrate: (i) the economic feasibility of the solution, and therefore (ii) its market potential.

Present approaches to increasing resource efficiency in manufacturing companies are mainly focused on single process optimisation. A wider and integrated optimisation is assumed to have significantly higher savings potential.In fact, a pilot study has been performed by Greenovate!Europe, showing resource saving potentials of 70% Such a strategy should include optimisation across the interfaces between different steps in complex production chains and different companies involved in the overall value chain In that sense, MEMAN consortium brings together 15 partners from 6 countries represented by industrial enterprises, SMEs mainly, and service companies experts in eco-innovative models, working on improving the competitiveness of the metal mechanic sector, through the full validation of new business models that allow the collaboration of companies in the whole value chain in order to reduce global impacts in terms of energy and other resources MEMAN project will implement an approach to optimise resource efficiency across 3 manufacturing value chains cases, integrating an analytical toolbox based on MEFA and LCA and providing practical decision-making support. Furthermore, new business models will be developed to support the implementation of global energy and resources efficiency along the 3 value chains. Energy characterisations considering the whole value chain, will be also developed within MEMAN The consortium has the capacity and ambition of exploiting and reaching the market with the results of the project, at an international level, in terms of technology and business models. Hence, the technologies developed and the synergies created in the project would have the impact estimated bellow - Energy consumption and CO2 emission reduction for the final product between 20-30% from cradle to gate and between 30-35% from cradle to grave - Product's LCC reduction between 10-20% from cradle to grave The budget and the final requested EC contribution reaches 5.998.686€