ENERGY-SMARTOPS

"Energy savings from smart operation of electrical, process and mechanical equipment"

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The drive across the world towards energy efficiency and reduction of CO2 emissions is leading to new industrial processes and new ways of operating existing processes. In particular, the control and operation of processes, rotating machinery and electrical equipment is becoming radically more integrated giving new opportunities for energy saving through equipment management, automation, and optimization. In the light of these challenges, there is a need for new training and research action to address technology gaps at the interfaces between the process, mechanical and electrical domains, and to realize energy savings from integrated operation. The ENERGY-SMARTOPS consortium has detailed plans for cross-disciplinary training of a cohort of Early Stage engineering researchers through personalized programmes which will provide experience of research as an exciting and rewarding career, in-depth training in research projects at the host site and on intersectorial secondments, local and network-wide courses on technical topics, complementary skills training, and participation in workshops and symposia. The research programme is organized into three themes: (i) Equipment and process monitoring integrating multiple measurements from the process, mechanical and electrical sub-systems, (ii) Integrated automation capturing information from all three subsystems, and devising new algorithms that explicitly manage the interfaces and interactions between them, (iii) Optimization to provide energy savings by better integration of operations across the process-mechanical-electrical interfaces. The consortium involves universities and the R and D groups of end-user companies and an industrial technology supplier. Its investigators are experts in electrical machinery and power electronics, compressors and pumps, modeling and optimization, instrumentation, signal analysis, equipment condition monitoring, and automation of oil and gas, steel and chemical processes.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

EU-funded researchers are focusing on reducing energy consumption by 25 % in the manufacturing industry. They believe that this should result from optimising the existing infrastructure in terms of processes and machinery.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

New industrial processes and new ways of operating existing processes seem to be the global mantra for higher energy efficiency and reduced carbon dioxide emissions. In particular, process control and operation, rotating machinery and electrical equipment are becoming radically more integrated. This offers new opportunities for energy saving through better equipment management, automation, and optimisation.

There is a need for further training and research action to address current technology gaps. Scientists initiated the EU-funded project 'Energy savings from smart operation of electrical, process and mechanical equipment' (http://www.energy-smartops.eu/ (ENERGY-SMARTOPS)) to train a cohort of early-stage engineering researchers toward this direction.

Through personalised programmes, researchers will gain research experience and in-depth training in research projects. Furthermore, they will be offered short courses on technical topics, training on complementary skills, and participate in workshops and symposia.

Researchers are working on generating and testing creative ideas for energy savings in large-scale industrial sites through case studies. Focus is placed on developing scalable monitoring systems that will integrate multiple measurements from the process, mechanical and electrical subsystems. New algorithms for better overall performance and control will be devised through integrated automation. Optimisation will provide energy savings with better integration of operations across the process, mechanical and electrical interfaces.

Researchers have already modelled electromechanical systems and used electrical drives for diagnosing mechanical-electrical interactions. Furthermore, they developed a model methodology for turbomachinery processes and a platform for online monitoring, diagnosis and optimisation. The interconnections between process, mechanical and electrical equipment have been designed and maintenance has been planned based on equipment performance.

ENERGY-SMARTOPS is in line with the European strategy for reducing energy consumption by at least 20 % before 2020.