Net Zero

To meet the challenge of future energy demands, the European Commission has created several energy policies to support access to secure, affordable, and sustainable energy supplies. These policies aim to increase the share of renewable energy sources (RES) to at least 27% of the total energy consumption by 2030 and 55% by 2050. We are working to improve the performance of different RES technologies to achieve the policy objectives.

Recovery and utilization of industrial waste heat is recognized as a cost-efficient approach to improve the energy efficiency of a plant, which is a significant pathway of achieving net zero targets. Waste heat is a problem common to high temperature processing industries as a significantly underused resource, often due to challenges in economic heat valorisation. It is a wrong perception that a fraction of waste heat can always be re-used, without considering the potential constraints around this. Recovering waste heat is constrained by the ability to re-use this and any heat recovery technology is only worth considering if it is economically viable. TVS has worked with their partners to demonstrate a waste recovery technology in secondary aluminium and ceramic plant.

The carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technologies that contribute both to reducing emissions in key industries directly and to removing CO2 to balance emissions that cannot be avoided - lead to a path of ‘net-zero’ transitions. The advancement of CCUS technologies can play a vital role in future climate mitigation efforts. Meeting ‘net zero goals’, CCUS is virtually the only technology solution for deep emissions reductions from cement production.

For removing carbon from the atmosphere, CCUS can support an important technological approach for removing carbon and delivering a net-zero energy system. CCUS-equipped hydrogen production facilities can produce low-carbon hydrogen. By capturing and utilising CO2, CCUS innovations are intended to have positive impacts on the economy, society and environment. We are working with our partners to develop a technology related to the conversion of captured CO2 to industrial chemicals.

Globally, energy systems are undergoing change because of the need to cut carbon dioxide emissions and mitigate the effects of climate change. To satisfy international energy obligations, it is essential to increase the share of renewable energy sources that enable the power sector, which is accountable for two-thirds of world emissions, to decarbonize. Additionally, buildings utilise one-third of all energy consumed worldwide, with heating and cooling making up 60% of that. Thermal energy storage offers a number of alternatives and benefits for reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions as we move toward low-carbon, environmentally friendly, and energy-efficient buildings. Thermal energy storage options may be utilised in both active and passive applications in buildings and may function on thermochemical, latent, or sensible energy store principles.

Due to the stream of stored energy, active applications enable a reduction in peak load demand, lowering the required power for cooling or heating equipment. Active applications also improve system efficiency by altering the operating range (trying to avoid partial load operations and reducing sporadic input through repeated start/stop). Finally, by increasing the contribution of renewable energy, especially solar and aero-thermal energy, they help solve the temporal discrepancy between energy supply and demand. Buildings can use less energy by utilising passive applications that raise thermal inertia, enhance thermal comfort, and reduce peak interior temperatures. TVS has worked with partners to develop modular compact thermal energy storage solutions for heating, hot tap water, and cooling with regard to thermal-end usage in buildings.

Data-driven innovation is a key enabler of growth and jobs in Europe and about 40% of European companies share or re-use data with/from other companies. Through sharing and collaborating in data ecosystems, manufacturers can unlock the value of data and address business needs that they cannot address alone. This trend will grow significantly in a near future and will be an important contributor to the creation of a circular economy. Unfortunately, as of now, full-fledged digital platforms that support circular markets and digital transformation across supply chains, are non-existent. While there has been significant progress in the digitalization of factories, European manufacturers tend to manage their data in-house, indiscriminately treating it as one big trade secret and having no effective mechanisms to share it collaboratively within the relevant ecosystems.

TVS is building a platform where industrial data is available for sharing and connecting manufacturers from different sectors into a collaborative, mutually beneficial knowledge and data-sharing relationship. It builds upon the principles of Industry 4.0 by adopting a coherent approach to semantic communication between diverse actors, aiming to make both direct and indirect contributions to the EU climate neutrality goals of 2050. It will help organizations to unlock the value of data, leading to the development of more sustainable solutions, technologies, and materials. The platform will be designed to cover the entire product lifecycle and assist in steering it toward circular standards implementation at both technological and regulatory levels.