Gathering 17 partners from 7 countries, METHAREN aims to demonstrate a cost-effective, innovative, more sustainable and circular biomethane production system enabling renewable energy sources intermittency management. To do so, METHAREN is providing improvements beyond the state-of-the art along four main axes related to: i) the biogas plant efficiency; ii) flexibility and energy management for RES integration; iii) the circularity approach for sustainable production and iv) innovative business models and adapted policies. The consortium will use the results of the engineering specifications (WP1) to develop the technologies related to the gasification plant (WP2), the methanation plant (WP3) and the development of the circularity (WP4) in the various processes as METHAREN will reuse water, O2 from the electrolysis, and heat to foster overall efficiency and sustainability. All individually developed and tested systems will then be integrated and tested in a pilot site (WP5) before being operated and optimised for more than a year (WP6). In parallel, the market uptake and exploitation of solutions will be carried out all along the project to ensure that the technologies develop will answer market needs (WP7) while dedicated communication and dissemination activities (WP8) will ensure that the results of the project are known and used by relevant stakeholders. Coordinated by a European industrial engineering world leader, the management of the project (WP9) will also be ensured by WP leaders, who all have strong experience and excellent expertise in their fields as research and technical centres, engineering development companies, or industrials. This combined expertise will allow METHAREN to demonstrate an increase of cost effectiveness by at least 20% while reaching a carbon conversion rate from biowaste to methane higher than 80%, a reduction of GHG emission compared to current process by 50% and the potential of replication on at least 30 other sites in Europe.

Thermal end-uses (space heating, hot tap water, cooling) represent a major part of electricity consumption in Europe and cause consumption peaks, often when electricity is expensive. Hot tap water is the only thermal end-use provided as a base load over a year and that is stored. Space heating and air conditioning are seasonal thermal end-uses with a high residential electricity consumption. They are not stored at the buildings scale to allow peak shaving of the residential electricity consumption. These statements show the interest to develop appropriate thermal energy storages, suitable for buildings, to reduce the electricity bill of end-users. ComBioTES will thus develop a modular compact thermal energy storage (TES) solution for heating, hot tap water and cooling fully adapted for electricity load shifting. A first modular TES will be able to store hot tap water to be converted into ice storage during summer (cooling needs). A second compact latent TES, using high performances (ΔH≈260kJ/kg) bio-based non-aggressive PCM, will store high heating energy amount, for space heating or hot tap water demands. As thermal end-uses in buildings are different regarding seasonal needs, this concept combines the advantage of a modular TES (high utilization rate) with the high volumetric energy density of a latent TES using a bio-based PCM (high compactness: ≥ 100kWh/m3 ΔT=50°C). The ComBioTES consortium and associated External Advisory Board (Idex, Danfoss and Passive House) involve all relevant key players in energy storage and management: RTOs for development and testing infrastructure and SMEs for manufacturing & commercialization of the technology, and representative of potential customers and end users (building owners &operators). In line with IC7, two partners from CHINA (The Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and The Henan Province GuoanHeating Equipment Co., LTD) will promote the ComBioTES concept in this country.

Industrial processes in the EU released 351 Mtons CO2e in 2020, 8% less than in 2019. In many cases, continuous, high-temperature heat is needed for these processes, and no viable decarbonization solution exists today. Viable, short-term thermal energy storage (up-to 48-hours) would enable the replacement of fossil fuels by industrial waste-heat and renewable electricity. HEATERNAL unites 4 public research teams specialized in prototyping and modelling of thermal systems, phase-change materials and 3D-printing; 2 metals manufacturers; 2 ceramic manufacturers; 1 process engineering SME and equipment manufacturer; 1 SME specialized in LCA and technico-economic analysis; and 1 SME experienced in dissemination and communication. They aim to prototype and model a new thermal energy storage concept combining strong scientific and industrial know-how: (i) innovative phase-change materials and unit designs allowing to increase the unit energy density by 350% versus ceramic bricks, and (ii) manufacturing experience ensuring that materials and units can be rapidly implemented in factories by 2030. Thus, the project will yield a 50kWh prototype (TRL5) and models of the upscaled storage system connected to factories. The preliminary technico-economic study predicts a return on investment below 3 years and levelized cost of stored energy below 6€/MWh. This is 60% lower than molten salt storage, which doesn’t work at sufficiently high temperatures for most metals and minerals industries (steel, glass, cement, ceramics, etc.) HEATERNAL’s solution meets industrial needs, including low footprint, lifetime over 10 years and fast return on investment. The exploitation plan aims to implement the solution in the first factory in 2030. Sales projections are estimated to reach 286M€ from sales of phase-change materials, ceramic refractories & engineering services by 2040, enabling 147.5 Mt CO2eq to be avoided by 2040 thanks to HEATERNAL thermal energy storage systems.