Waste heat is a problem common to high temperature processing industries as a significantly underused resource, often due to challenges in economic heat valorisation. Secondary aluminium recycling and ceramic processing were identified as key examples with economically recoverable waste heat. Several challenges are inherent; these processes are batch-based rather than continuous with corrosive particulate-laden flue gas over a wide temperature range. The Smartrec system meets these challenges by development of a standard, modular solution for integration of heat recovery with thermal storage that valorises medium to high grade waste heat, adaptable to different temperatures and industries. Following end-user analysis and characterisation of exhaust streams and waste products, full life cycle costing and assessment will be carried out with candidate molten salts selected for thermal storage and heat transfer fluid, validated by corrosion testing. A custom heat pipe heat exchanger will be modelled and designed around the requirements of heat transport capacity wick structure and capable of heat exchange with a molten salt pumping loop. This loop will include dual media thermocline thermal storage system with cost/system modelling, validation and instrumentation incorporated. A pilot Smartrec system will be constructed and deployed in a secondary aluminium recycler and/or ceramic processor valorising high grade heat for continuous energy-intensive salt-cake recycling. Smartrec will be validated by integration with existing systems with >6 months operation including a fully developed instrumentation framework. A knowledge-based tool will be developed containing all relevant Smartrec parameters and information to model the system fully and allow users to determine their requirements, potential benefits and integrate Smartrec into their own systems via an open access workshop hosted by the consortium.

WeldGalaxy project will deliver, a B2B online Platform that brings together global buyers (end-users/OEM) and EU sellers (manufacturers/suppliers/distributors/service providers) of welding equipment along with auxiliaries/consumables and services, thereby enhancing the visibility of EU’s welding products/prototypes/services to global users (via digital marketing strategies) and providing innovative web-based services (e.g. equipment selection and inventory management, digital design/testing of equipment capabilities) to boost EU market share and competitiveness. The digital platform will incorporate Knowledge base engineering (KBE) tool that streamlines equipment selection process for end-users and allows ‘plug and produce’ digital manufacturing of the right equipment to specified customers’/end-users’ requirements and regulatory compliance. Though the full capability of the WeldGalaxy platform including associated product services (including the services from all third parties) will be demonstrated in welding equipment (along with auxiliaries) and consumables manufacturing domain, yet, the conceptual and functional framework of WeldGalaxy technology concept can be used in any industrial domain related to manufacturing. The Dynamic Knowledge Management based B2B platform will be designed by following the standard 3-tier architecture. Scalability and reliability will be assured by the use of: RESTfull architecture for API layer, cloud-based backend platform hosted on mainstream cloud providers like AWS or Google Cloud Platform who offer clustering, loading balancing, caching to support scalability and redundant data backup to ensure reliability. Use of blockchain/Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) will make the platform inherently stable, highly scalable and always up. The digital platform, supported by integrated blockchain/DLT for improved reliability/visibility/ transparency/ security of transactions, will enhance the competitiveness of EU manufacturing sec

The Geo-coat project has been specified as necessary by our geothermal power and equipment manufacturing members, who, in order to reliably provide energy, need to improve plant capability to withstand corrosion, erosion and scaling from geofluids, to maintain the equipment up-time and generation efficiency. Additionally they need to be able to produce better geothermal power plant equipment protection design concepts through virtual prototyping to meet the increasing requirements for life cycle costs, environmental impacts and end-of-life considerations. Current materials, transferred from oil and gas applications to these exceptionally harsh environments, (and the corresponding design models) are not capable of performing, leading to constant need to inspect and repair damage. The Geo-coat project will develop new resistant materials in the form of high performance coatings of novel targeted "High Entropy Alloys" and Cermets, thermally applied to the key specified vulnerable process stages (components in turbines, valves, pumps, heat exchangers and pipe bends) in response to the specific corrosion and erosion forces we find at each point. We will also capture the underlying principles of the material resistance, to proactively design the equipment for performance while minimising overall capex costs from these expensive materials. The Geo-coat consortium has user members from geothermal plant operations and equipment manufacture to ensure the project's focus on real-world issues, coupled with world-leading experience in the development of materials, protective coatings and their application to harsh environments. In addition to developing the new coating materials and techniques, we also aim to transfer our experiences from the development of Flow Assurance schemes for Oil&Gas and Chemical industries to provide a new overarching set of design paradigms and generate an underpinning Knowledge Based System.

Rigorous thermodynamic models are crucial to understanding the properties of geofluids, as part of planning for exploration, design and operation of geothermal energy facilities. However, these models are currently incomplete and do not give accurate enough results for reliable planning; Operators commonly need to carry out empirical, site-specific trials instead, which are costly and occur ‘after the fact’, reducing their effectiveness. The GEOPRO project will produce a set of integrated knowledge based design and operation tools to allow the geothermal industry to explore, design and operate systems more effectively, reducing the LCOE to competitive levels. To do this, we will firstly generate new experimentally derived datasets to fill gaps in current knowledge of the heat and mass transfer behaviour of complex and highly concentrated fluids under hot and superhot conditions. These will provide next-generation equations of state, which we incorporate into a set of operation and exploration tools. To address these objectives, we have assembled a consortium that combines excellent strength in all areas from the systematic and accurate experimental determination of fluid properties through beyond-industry standard reservoir modeling to process optimization and flow assurance modeling. Our consortium also contains geothermal industry partners, on whose sites we will verify the accuracy of the toolsets. We will then incorporate these into open-access knowledge base for use and development across the industry. The geothermal industry will use these new tools to benefit from: the capability to better explore and ‘vector in’ on new resources; the ability to predict the return on a well more reliably for investment decisions; control-oriented simulations to reduce the engineering overkill currently required; improved energy extraction through knowledge of the real production constraints.

Geothermal drilling industry faces various challenges such as poor overall drilling confidence and performance, and lack of bottom hole awareness resulting in NPT, tripping time etc. OPTIDRILL concept was born to address and solve problems in drilling for geothermal resources that increases uncertainty and well construction costs. OPTIDRILL ´s innovative drilling advisory system is based on a combination of enhanced monitoring systems, multiple data-driven ML modules, each being responsible for either analysis, prediction, or optimization of one aspect of drilling or completion process. OPTIDRILL consortium, brings together highly experienced drillers, drilling project managers, engineers and operators, each having a different, yet complementary set of expertise in differing geological conditions, operating parameters and production end-goals. They will be providing data from various wells around the world. An enhanced monitoring system will be developed based on real time MWD systems as well as acoustic and vibration sensors. The automated machine learning analysis method will predict drilling parameters, using a real-time monitoring and optimization tool, as a unified system combining existing data and the newly developed methods, and finally, a coupled drilling optimization models to reduce overall geothermal drilling and production cost. The goal is to advise and support drilling operators in making informed decisions through real-time data, reducing many of uncertainties associated with drilling, which in term leads to less NPT, as the drilling can be more readily optimised to maintain good ROP, borehole control and address possible drilling issues, before they could impact operation. The OPTIDRILL Advisory System is NOT an attempt to just fully automate drill rig operations, but rather to enhance and digitize decision making and reporting, instrument and optimize the drilling process, and share and transfer this learning across subsequent future application.