Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a fast−growing sector with the ability to evoke a revolution in manufacturing due to its almost unlimited design freedom and its capability to produce personalised parts locally and with efficient material use. AM companies however still face technological challenges such as limited precision due to shrinkage and build−in stresses and limited process stability and robustness. Moreover often post−processing is needed due to the high roughness and remaining porosity. In addition qualified, trained personnel is hard to find. This ITN project will address both the technological and people challenges. To quality assure the parts produced, PAM² will, through a close collaboration between industry and academia, address each of the various process stages of AM with a view to implementing good precision engineering practice. To ensure the availability of trained personnel, ESRs will, next to their individual research and complementary skills training, be immersed in the whole AM production chain through hands−on workshops where they will design, model, fabricate, measure and assess a specific product. The expected impact of PAM² thus is: 1. The availability of intersectoral and interdisciplinary trained professionals in an industrial field that's very important for the future of Europe, both enhancing the ESR future career perspectives and advancing European industry. 2. The availability of high precision AM processes through improved layout rules with better use of AM possibilities, better modelling tools for first−time right processing, possibility for in−situ quality control ensuring process stability and, if still needed, optimised post−processing routes 3. As a result of 1: an increased market acceptance and penetration of AM. 4. Through the early involvement of European industry: a growing importance of the European industrial players in this fast−growing field. This will help Europe reach its target of 20% manufacturing share of GDP.

Current fossil-fuel power plants have been designed to operate in base-load conditions, i.e to provide a constant power output. However, their role is changing, due to the growing share of renewables, both in and outside the EU. Fossil-fuel plants will increasingly be expected to provide fluctuating back-up power, to foster the integration of intermittent renewable energy sources and to provide stability to the grid. However, these plants are not fit to undergo power output fluctuations. In this context, sCO2-Flex consortium addressees this challenge by developing and validating (at simulation level the global cycle and at relevant environment boiler, heat exchanger(HX) and turbomachinery) the scalable/modular design of a 25MWe Brayton cycle using supercritical CO2, able to increase the operational flexibility and the efficiency of existing and future coal and lignite power plants. sCO2-Flex will develop and optimize the design of a 25MWe sCO2 Brayton cycle and of its main components (boiler, HX, turbomachinery, instrumentation and control strategies) able to meet long-term flexibility requirements, enabling entire load range optimization with fast load changes, fast start-ups and shut-downs, while reducing environmental impacts and focusing on cost-effectiveness. The project, bringing the sCO2 cycle to TRL6, will pave the way to future demonstration projects (from 2020) and to commercialization of the technology (from 2025). Ambitious exploitation and dissemination activities will be set up to ensure proper market uptake. Consortium brings together ten partners, i.e academics (experts in thermodynamic cycle/control/simulation, heat exchanging, thermoelectric power, materials), technology providers (HX, Turbomachinery) and power plant operator (EDF-coordinator) covering the whole value chain, constituting an interdisciplinary group of experienced partners, each of them providing its specific expertise and contributing to the achievement of the project’s objectives.

Facing the urgent challenges of climate change and the necessity for a transition towards more sustainable and efficient energy systems, the industrial sector, with the steel industry at the forefront, is compelled to significantly cut energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The steel sector, accounting for 9% of global anthropogenic CO2 emissions and consuming an average of ~5.2 MWh of primary energy per ton of steel produced, is at the heart of this challenge. The SYRIUS project, spanning 54 months, aims to revolutionize this landscape by integrating a 4.2 MWel Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cell (SOEC) for producing 100 kg/h of green hydrogen into a real Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) plant. Hydrogen will feed a 280tsteel/h – 84 MWth slab reheating furnace, demonstrating the potential to reduce steel reheating process CO2 emissions by 5,600 t/year during the project and up to 100% with full hydrogen feeding. By generating steam through furnace off-gas heat recovery, implementing by-product oxygen recovery in the furnace (allowing additional savings of 430 tCO2/year in SYRIUS and of 2% fuel input in future expansion) and analysing options for water recycle, SYRIUS seeks to minimize external energy consumption and sets industrial circularity at the project core. With a viable business case centred on process integration, SYRIUS aims to strongly enhance market opportunities in the short to medium term by driving industrial green hydrogen costs below 2.2 €/kg, surpassing the SRIA targets for 2030. By preserving end-product quality at competitive costs, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, lowering hydrogen costs, and creating new direct and indirect jobs, SYRIUS will play a pivotal role in enhancing the circularity of the EU steel sector. A first-of-its-kind TRL7 plant, ready to be scaled up, extended to other industries, and replicated globally thanks to the unique geographic coverage of the technology providers in the SYRIUS consortium, will showcase innovation in action.

According to JRC CSP platform, with an increased efficiency of component and price reduction, 11 % of EU electricity could be produced by CSP by 2050. In the EC energy strategy, CSP finds mention as a potential dispatchable RES thus increasing potential market/need for CSP if coupled with flexible, high performant and low CAPEX power conversion units. In this sense sCO2 has been worldwide studied for several years as enabling technology to promote CSP widespread. SOLARSCO2OL presents sCO2 cycles as key enabling technology to facilitate a larger deployment of CSP in EU panorama which is composed (also considering available surfaces and DNI) by medium temperature application (most of them Parabolic trough – Tmax = 550°c) and small/medium size plants enhancing their performances (efficiency, flexibility, yearly production) and reducing their LCOE. Considering that compared to organic and steam based Rankine, sCO2 cycles achieve high efficiencies over a wide temperature of range of heat sources with lower CAPEX, lower OPEX, no use of water as operating fluid (a plus for arid CSP plants area), smaller system footprint, higher operational flexibility, SOLARSCO2OL would like to demonstrate in Spanish La Africana parabolic trough CSP power plant, the first MW Scale EU sCO2 power block operating in a real CSP plant. SOLARSCO2OL will capitalize previous EU expertise (SCARABEUS, sCO2-flex, MUSTEC), bridging the gap with extra-EU countries R&D on these topics and studying different plant layouts also to enhance CSP plants flexibility to enable them to provide soon grid flexibility services. SOLARSCO2OL is driven by an industry oriented consortium which promotes the replication of this concept towards its complete marketability in 2030: this will be properly studied via scale up feasibility studies, environmental and social analysis encouraging business cases in EU (particularly in Italy and Spain as two of the most promising EU CSP countries) and Morocco thanks to MASEN.

CO2OLHEAT will demonstrate at TRL7 in the CEMEX cement manufacturing plant in Prachovice (CZ) the operation of a 2 MW Waste-Heat-to-power (WH2P) skid based on a 2MW-sCO2 cycle able to efficiently valorize local waste heat at a significant temperature of 400°C. Capitalizing consortium excellent knowledge coming from previous sCO2 turbomachinery design experience and EU funded projects on industrial waste heat valorisation (TASIO, i-THERM, sCO2-FLEX etc.) and stimulated by SPIRE roadmap and EU sCO2 R&D initiatives, CO2OLHEAT aims to valorize waste heat even at higher temperature if compared with the traditional steam/ORC solutions. The project will demonstrate the EU MW scale first-of-a-kind waste heat-sCO2 plant towards a cheaper/more flexible waste heat valorisation. The project will strengthen EU industrial leadership in both energy intensive industries (making them more competitive) and turbomachinery sectors, bridging the current gap on sCO2 turbomachinery that EU has with US and Japan-Korea. The project will analyse sCO2 WH2P potential from a technical, economic and environmental point of view, developing innovative models for the design of the cycle and of the turbomachinery as well as investigating CO2OLHEAT cycle benefits in the cement, glass, aluminium, power generation sectors via techno-economic and Life Cycle based replication feasibility studies, involving relevant EU industrial players (EDF, ENGIE, MYTH, CEMEX, SISECAM, CELSA). The project is coordinated by ETN and involves an industry driven consortium with key turbomachinery OEM (SIE-BH), energy intensive industries, energy utilities and R&D partners all committed to bring soon CO2OLHEAT sCO2 cycle technologies on the market. Thanks to its robust demonstration and replication campaign (also foreseeing extra-EU stakeholders collaboration), CO2OLHEAT can be considered a “demonstration to market” project, being keystone for EU sCO2 turbomachinery industry and for a more effective waste heat valorisation.