Industry Archives - RETROFEED

RETROFEED at EUSEW 2023

Posted on June 27, 2023 | by Ana Sofia Praxedes

The European Sustainable Energy Week took place, this year, from the 20^th to the 22^nd of June, in Brussels and online. In this edition, 7 plenaries and 61 policy sessions took place, RETROFEED, in a joint communication and dissemination action with RE4Industry – 100% Renewable Energies for Industries, was one of the 35 selected stands at the Energy fair.

The EUSEW offered, once again, fresh opportunities to deliver and lead Europe’s clean energy transition, and RETROFEED was one of the chosen projects to be present at this event, for its potential to deliver real and manageable solutions for the energy transition occurring, especially by the Energy Intensive Industries in Europe.

It was a huge opportunity to reach out to more people, and interested parties, and establish new contacts with like-minded projects, with common goals and objectives. The outcome was very interesting, in the sense that EUSEW visitors were most of the time curious and interested in what story the project had to tell.

A very fruitful event, in which RETROFEED was proud to take part.

RETROFEED VIII GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Posted on May 19, 2023 | by Ana Sofia Praxedes

Another RETROFEED meeting has been held on 4^th and 5^th May in Castellón (Spain) to update the status of the project and visit the installations of TORRECID, and, specially, the ones related with RETROFEED project.

It was great to see that all new sensors to be developed within RETROFEED such as the camera that registers the heap of feedstock and the flame visualisation monitoring tool both developed by CIRCE and the quality monitoring system for clinker developed by AIMEN have been installed and it is expected that working in the following weeks.

Also, DSS has been released for all demo sites. Now, partners are testing it and making fine-tuning, but the first results have already been observed after using it such as reduction of waste, water, and electricity consumption!

Moreover, workshops for each demo site were conducted, where involved partners explained the status of the developments and the planning for the following months:

In TORRECID (ceramic sector, Spain), they are finishing the long tests campaign of the DSS and the new sensors and equipment installed (by-pass for combustion air pre-heating, camera for monitoring heap of feedstock, etc.). They are right now evaluating the impact of the retrofitting actions.
In SECIL (cement sector, Portugal), the flame monitoring tool is working properly and the new quality monitoring system for clinker is almost ready. Moreover, the installation of the new satellite burner will be done during mid-June and tests of the final version of DSS will start after the commissioning.
ASAS (aluminium sector, Turkey) has finished the tests after the installation of all retrofitting modifications, reducing the amount of energy consumed. Now, they are testing the DSS to find a higher reduction in energy consumption and emission of GHG.
At FERRIERE NORD (steel sector, Italy) and TENARIS SILCOTUB (steel sector, Romania), the results obtained show that RETROFEED solutions reduce the amount of Anthracite that they use in their processes. Moreover, the DSS helps them to make decisions about the best working configuration.
Finally, in FERTIBERIA all the equipment is ready for the installation of the reactor in the real plant during the next production stop. Meanwhile, the digital twin and the DSS will be validated in the following months.

For finishing the first day, a visit to the whole plant of TORRECID was done, and the partners saw the exhibition room where the new products and services of the TORRECID group are shown and then, the plant with the furnace where the solutions of the RETROFEED project have been implemented.

On the second day, and with the participation of the Project Officer of RETROFEED, the guidelines for the last months related to business plans and communication activities were presented, and the e-learning platform that will be available for students, researchers and the general public was presented. Finally, a workshop about replicability and exploitation was carried out in order to obtain feedback of the RETROFEED solutions from all partners beyond the end of the project.

The next GA will be held in Istanbul (Turkey) by ASAS…stay tuned!

Researchers visit Fertiberia plant

Posted on May 11, 2023 | by Ana Sofia Praxedes

Researchers from the University of Seville visit Fertiberia plant at Palos de la Frontera (Huelva).

Within the framework of RETROFEED, in April, Fertiberia – one of the demo sites in the agrochemical sector involved in the project, received a group of researchers from the University of Seville at their plant in Palos de la Frontera.

The students’ group took the opportunity to learn about the technologies being developed in the facilities, as well as the project and its goals and developed tools.

Ramón García, Director of the plant, received the researchers together with Francisca Galindo, Technical Director of Grupo Fertiberia. A very fruitful visit in which Fertiberia was able to share the progress of the project focused on the use of by-products to obtain circular economy-based raw materials, as well as the reduction of industrial consumption thanks to the use of alternative sources, reintegrating into the chain of value the residual heat of the reactions.

Grupo Fertiberia participates directly in the RETROFEED project with a demonstration at the NPK plant in Huelva, where an innovative in-line reactor will be installed, in which phosphoric acid is replaced by sulfuric acid, an industrial by-product from the neighbourhood, in the circular economy to valorise incineration ashes from food industries and water treatment products, among others.