Project “Digitally-enabled FLEXible Industries for reliable energy grids under high penetration of Variable Renewable Energy Sources (VRES)”, Horizon Europe, grant agreement No 101058453, 1 June 2022 – 30 November 2026
Popular science summary
In many industrial plants, process heat is released straight into the surroundings even though it could still generate power. The FLEXindustries project shows how large factories can use less energy, recover waste heat and flexibly cooperate with a power grid increasingly supplied from renewable sources. Model energy transformations, covering the technical, digital and business layers, are being built at seven plants in six countries. One of the demonstration sites is the K-Flex factory in Uniejow, where Lodz University of Technology is building a prototype heat recovery unit. FLEXindustries was the first Horizon Europe project carried out at Lodz University of Technology.
Project objective
The project develops and demonstrates a Dynamic Energy and Process Management Platform and integrates new equipment with production processes: battery energy storage systems (BESS), heat pumps, waste heat recovery units and solar thermal installations. The demonstration plants represent energy-intensive sectors: automotive, biofuels, polymers, steel, pulp and paper, pharmaceuticals and cement. At demonstration scale the project targets savings of at least 159 GWh of primary energy per year, an emission reduction of about 33,000 tonnes of CO2-eq per year and life cycle cost savings of about EUR 6 million per year.
Project partners
The consortium consists of 35 institutions from 9 countries: Italy, Greece, Spain, Germany, Bulgaria, Portugal, Turkey, Switzerland and Poland. It brings together large enterprises, SMEs, research institutes, universities and non-profit organisations. Lodz University of Technology and K-Flex are the only Polish participants. Demonstration installations are being built at plants in Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Germany, Italy and Poland (K-Flex, Lodz–Uniejow).
Role of Lodz University of Technology
The task of the Institute of Turbomachinery team is waste heat recovery at the K-Flex plant in Uniejow. The original concept assumed an ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle) installation generating electricity, but heavy contamination of the medium leaving the furnace made it unfeasible. The scope was changed to direct recovery of waste heat and its use within the plant. The innovation lies in testing, under operational conditions, a self-cleaning heat exchanger that recovers heat from the highly contaminated outlet of the rubber foaming furnace. This is the first implementation of heat recovery in this industrial sector. The project is led at the University by Grzegorz Liśkiewicz, DSc, PhD, Assoc. Prof., and the team includes Radomir Magiera, PhD, Artur Gutkowski, DSc, PhD, Assoc. Prof., Marcin Łęcki, PhD, and Krzysztof Kantyka, MSc. The team also included the late Władysław Kryłłowicz, DSc, PhD, Assoc. Prof., who throughout his involvement made an outstanding substantive contribution to the project and was held in deep respect and high regard by the whole consortium.
Expected impact
Energy-intensive industry is among the largest energy consumers in Europe, so every recovered megawatt-hour lowers production costs and emissions. The technical, digital and business solutions developed in the project are intended as a template for similar transformations at other European plants. Factories gain the ability to respond to the variable supply of wind and solar power, which strengthens grid stability as the share of renewables grows. For Lodz University of Technology the project also builds national competence in recovering heat from heavily contaminated process gases, needed wherever waste heat currently goes unused.
Project funding
Total project value: EUR 17,084,537, including an EU contribution of EUR 12,384,500. The budget of Lodz University of Technology: EUR 537,750