The HEATWISE project aims to tackle various thermal management challenges in tertiary buildings with a significant IT load. The project has specific objectives to develop and validate (to TRL 4 and 5) its technological innovation in two interrelated aspects: for IT system equipment in facility rooms and for a complete building management level. The innovation toward achieving energy efficiency and thermal management optimization follows up on a detailed thermal need analysis framework and theoretical validation, and is fulfilled through four novel solutions: i) Hybrid future-proof cooling hardware solution for high-density data processing based on two-phase dielectric liquid cooling and air immersion ii) Digital twin-supported holistic high-density data processing management system with a smart workload orchestration system, iii) Integrated multi-objective building energy management system covering both IT equipment needs and human presence, and iv) Self-assessment tool for energy management needs in tertiary buildings with power-intensive IT systems. On top of that, the project will develop a knowledge-sharing platform to showcase potential improvement pathways in energy optimization of tertiary buildings and maximize the project's impact. The project consortium consists of 12 partners from 8 different countries across the EU and with a more global inclusion; including 3 universities, 3 research centers, 4 SMEs, 1 large company, and 1 national standardization body, making sure that all the required expertise for a successful accomplishment of the project and future exploitation exist, and the partners complement each other in the most optimal manner. The technologies will be demonstrated in different specific designs and integrations in a university, a supercomputing research centre, industrial and office buildings, in Denmark, Poland, Turkey, and Switzerland, with extended investigations for medical centres and hotels as impactful tertiary building categories.

This project aims to develop and validate (in the relevant environment to reach TRL 5) a novel thermochemically operating technology that can very efficiently, safely, cost-effectively, and sustainably provide waste heat recovery of industrial processes and upgrade them to much higher temperature levels (the target temperature will be 150-250 deg. C, here). The technology is a novel yet outstanding generation of heat transformers (Hydration Heat Transformer), outperforming any other competing technologies including various designs of high-temperature vapor compression heat pumps due to several reasons. That is, TechUPGRADE's solution i) may simply be integrated with any renewable technologies including solar thermal systems, ii) consumes almost no electricity, and presents significantly high energy and exergy efficiencies, iii) can be much more cost-effective than competing technologies due to expected long useful lifespan, the simplicity of the design and operation mechanism, and the way it integrates low-value heat sources, iv) may be employed for a variety of integration possibilities, low-temperature heat sources, and various heat sink temperature levels, and also, v) with simple adjustment, can offer the storage of the recovered waste or renewable heat if there is a mismatch between the heat source availability and the process heating demand. The project consortium consists of 14 partners from the four corners of the EU; including 5 universities, 3 research centers, 4 SMEs, 1 large company, and 1 partner with several industrial end-users, making sure that all the required expertise for a successful accomplishment of the project and future exploitation exist, and also the partners supplement each other in the most optimal manner. The technology will be demonstrated in different specific designs and integrations in two relevant environments in Sweden and Germany in 35 kW and 10 kW high-temperature heat delivery capacities.

The SPECTRUM project aims to develop, validate and test an innovative solar concentrating collector that fully harness the solar spectrum by converting solar radiation into three renewable energy vectors (solar heat, solar electricity and green hydrogen) required by industrial sector, while performing industrial wastewater treatment. SPECTRUM will boost the sustainability of IWW treatment, converting waste into a valuable solar fuel, through an efficient photocatalytic remediation process coupled with H2 cogeneration. Matching the energy grade between the solar spectrum and the conversions, the system uses the UV for photocatalytic H2 production with synergistic degradation of pollutants, infrared for generating thermal energy and visible-near infrared light for PV electricity, allowing to achieve higher solar conversion efficiency. SPECTRUM concept will go beyond the current state of the art through i) the development of low cost, sustainable photocatalysts with focus on dual-functional photocatalysis processes, i.e H2 production and pollutants degradation, and considering the easy recovery and reuse of the catalysts and ii) development of spectral splitting solutions to separate IR part of the solar spectrum allowing the PV cells to be thermally decoupled from the thermal absorber, generating high-temperature heat without compromising the electrical efficiency. Integrate optical, thermal, and electrical subsystem of SPECTRUM hybrid solar collector will be design and developed aiming to reach an effective total management and distribution of the solar radiation. Two hybrid solar collector prototypes for low and medium temperature (SPECTRUM-LT and SPECTRUM-HT) will be constructed and tested under outdoor conditions. Techno-economic analysis using Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing, together with social impact analysis, will be used to validate the sustainability of the SPECTRUM approach in the economic, environmental and social domains.