HyCoFlex is aiming at the development of a retrofitable decarbonisation package for cogeneration of power and industrial heat with 100%-fired gas turbines. The solution will be integrated and fully demonstrated at an industrial site in Saillat-sur-Vienne in France. HyCoFlex will leverage on and further advance the infrastructure of a power-to-hydrogen-to-power industrial scale plant which was developed and demonstrated within the HYFLEXPOWER project. The project will develop operational flexibility capabilities and protocols to satisfy the typical operating profiles experienced by industrial cogeneration plants. By doing so, HyCoFlex will elaborate credible pathways for upscaling and replicating the retrofit package, ultimately accelerating the achievement of industrial and energy sector decarbonisation. In order to meet the global objective, within the HyCoFlex project, the HYFLEXPOWER plant concept and infrastructure will be implemented for 100% H2-fuelled cogeneration. In the framework of the project a Siemens Energy SGT-400 gas turbine will be upgraded with an advanced dry low-emission (DLE) H2 combustion system to operate with different natural gas / H2 fuel mixtures. The retrofitted demonstrator plant will be validated for flexible operation under various natural gas/hydrogen mixtures and loads, while aiming at overcoming state-of-the-art efficiencies with decreased NOx emissions. Finally, HyCoFlex will explore pathways for upscaling and commercialization of decarbonised power generation from gas turbines within a circular-economy framework.

SteamDry develops and pilots superheated steam drying technology (SSD) for weblike materials such as paper, board, tissue, and nonwovens. SSD is expected to reduce the consumption of energy radically, leading to 60% energy savings in a drying process, representing ~40% energy savings on the entire production line. It also demonstrates a concept that can lead to CO2 emission-free paper and board manufacturing, and an increase in the share of renewable energy. In a long term, the energy savings potential in Europe is 127 TWh or 6 B€ annually for paper and board manufacturers. In addition to pulp and paper sectors, the developed concepts are expected to be suitable for chemical industry and wood processing applications. Through the developed SteamDry concept, the technology suppliers can increase their market share revenue 230-345 M€ annually in Europe. The global annual energy savings potential is 870 TWh, almost 7x of European energy savings and market potential. The developed solution can be installed on either existing infrastructure or on newbuilt machines with low CAPEX and OPEX creating new opportunities for technology suppliers and savings for the users of this technology. Results ultimately lead to the prosperity of these companies and the CO2-savings targets of the EU. Exploitation potential will be validated through the business cases calculated by technology suppliers and product manufacturers. The piloting of SSD increases knowledge of a) keeping two gas phases, air and steam, separate, b) cleaning superheated steam from biobased particles, c) operating these safely and d) AI-supported advanced control platform. This approach builds on the consortium with strong capabilities to perform the action. The consortium consists of four R&D institutes and two universities - with piloting, technology upscaling, AI, and modeling expertise - two leading technology suppliers and five product manufacturers that are potential end users for the developed technology.

SPIRIT (Implementation of sustainable heat upgrade technologies for industry) will demonstrate three full-scale (>0.7 MWth) industrial heat pump systems that upgrade industrial waste heat to valuable temperatures (135-160°C). The demonstration covers sites in the paper & pulp and food & beverage industry, covering 63% of the potential high-temperature heat upgrade market. SPIRIT achieves technology scaling by designing modular heat pumps with standard components covering a large portion of the industrial heat upgrade market. The standard components allow a straightforward and cheaper manufacturing, thereby achieving improvement in economic performance. Compared to regular heat pumps, technical performance improvements of 30% are validated with advanced working fluids (zeotropic mixtures). SPIRIT will develop standard heat pump integration methods for industry to allow easier integration. New business models and contractual agreements for upgrading heat technology are developed considering single and multi-stakeholder environments, mainly through considering heat as a service. To ensure sufficient capacity is available to carry the innovation of SPIRIT, a competence framework is developed to identify which skills are needed (and missing) in the market. The missing skills are used as input for two summer schools, where SPIRIT will educate and train engineers, maintenance staff, and other critical enabling stakeholders. The learnings from the demonstrations, market analysis, technical and non-technical barriers analysis are captured and communicated to raise awareness of the challenges and benefits of heat pumps in the industrial sector. SPIRIT has a strong partnership consisting of technology suppliers, end-users, knowledge providers, business and market experts, and dissemination and knowledge transfer partners. A multi-sectoral advisory board guides the SPIRIT project and its partners with representatives of the district heating, chemical and refinery sector.