To curtail CO2 emissions, many changes of steel production chains are needed. Investments have to be planned while future framework conditions are unknown. The increasing replacement of fossil sources with intermittent renewable energy (in particular H2) will increase fluctuations in energy availability and prices. Injecting H2-rich gases in the BF and replacing a BF with DR-EAF significantly affect the site-wide gas supply. Process integration will need re-optimisation, in particular with respect to gas and energy flows. Current ICT tools are not able to address these new tasks due to lack of flexibility and optimisation capability. These challenges are addressed in AgiFlex, which exploits a highly innovative multi-agent approach for production and energy management on a completely new level. This tool monitors and controls processes, conditions and resources and optimises process integration and gas and energy flows along the complete steel production chain. AgiFlex develops digital twins for existing and new production steps and couples them into a framework for holistic optimization. The new system is demonstrated as “digital AgiFlex plant“ at two industrial sites in TRL 7 and is thoroughly verified with existing data and tools. By this, it will immediately decrease the carbon footprints. Scenarios for future framework conditions (e.g., availability and costs of renewable energies, future plant states) are studied with the new ICT tool and different options for injection, utilisation, recycling or export of gases are assessed considering process needs, safety issues and economic aspects. Decarbonisation strategies with optimised process integration are derived for different steps of plant transition to low carbon technologies. This includes also possible control measures for demand-side response. The easy and flexible transfer of the modular tool to other plants will be proven, supported by intensive communication and dissemination actions.

Over the past decade, the steel industry in Europe has been spending a lot of effort in Research and Development of technologies that help in achieving the EU’s CO2 emissions targets and reduce the cost of EU ETS compliance. That has been done through a combination of large scale projects which were part publicly funded with European funding and partly through smaller privately funded research activities. From the initial stages of feasibility studies, several technologies were put forward for further development, one of which is the HIsarna smelting reduction process The objective for the current proposal is to prove the capability of the HIsarna ironmaking technology to achieve at least 35% reduction in CO2 emission intensity, compared to blast furnace operated site based on Best Available Technology Currently Installed. This will be achieved through: -Change operation parameters in order to achieve at least 35% CO2 intensity reduction per tonne of hot rolled coil compared to the conventional blast furnace – BOF route through: >Combined iron ore and scrap operation with a scrap rate of 350kg/thm; >Partially replacing coal injection with sustainable biomass injection (at least 40%); >Minimising coal rate by maximising energy use in the reactor, through balancing the energy between the upper and lower part of the reactor (Using limestone instead of burnt lime as a fluxing agent; >Quantifying potential for energy recovery from hot off-gas by installing boiler test panels; >Making the process ‘CCS ready’ by having process gas suitable for CCS with little or no processing by replacing compressed air and N2 carrier gasses with CO2 and CH4 as carrier gas; -Operation of the HIsarna pilot plant for several months continuously in order to establish process and equipment stability; -Test process conditions and validate for scale up to 0.8 Mtpa plant

The flexolighting programme is focussed on research and innovations on materials, processes and device technology for OLED lighting with the intention of building a supply chain within Europe. The aim is to realise OLED devices over a large area/surface with high brightness, high uniformity and long life time. A demonstrator will be built and delivered at the end of the project. The main targets are (i). Cost of the lighting panels should be less than Euro 1 per 100 lumens. (II). high luminous efficiency, in excess of 100 lm/W with improved out-coupling efficiency. (ii). white light life-time of at least 1000 hours at 97% of the original luminance of 5000 cdm-2.(iii). The materials and the devices therefrom will allow for differential aging of the colours, thus maintaining the same colour co-ordinates and CRI over its use. (iv). Attention will be paid to recyclability and environmental impact of the materials and the OLED lighting systems. Flexolighting project will also ensure European industrial leadership in lighting. The introduction of OLED Lighting technology is held back by the current cost of the systems, life-time and poor uniformity of luminance on large area panels. The programme aims to combine existing state of the art OLED materials technology (Thermally activated fluorescent materials (TADF) and phosphorescent emitters and world class transport materials) with new developments in processing technologies (Organic Vapour Phase Deposition (OVPD) and printing technologies) to develop new next of generation low cost OLED lighting systems to move forward to scale up and full scale production on novel planarized flexible steel substrates with cost effective conformal encapsulation method. The transparent top contacts made of thin metallic films, conducting polymers or graphene monolayer with metal tracks to reduce the series resistance will be employed in inverted top emitting OLED structures to deliver 100 lumens per Euro.

HERCULES introduces a novel breakthrough approach towards thermal energy storage of surplus renewable energy via a hybrid thermochemical/sensible heat storage with the aid of porous media made of refractory redox metal oxides and electrically powered heating elements. The heating elements use surplus/cheap renewable electricity (e.g. from PVs, wind, or other sources) to charge the metal oxide-based storage block by heating it to the metal oxide reduction temperature (i.e. charging/energy storage step) and subsequently (i.e. upon demand) the fully charged system transfers its energy to a controlled airflow that passes through the porous oxide block which initiated the oxidation of the reduced metal oxide. It is an exothermic process thus a hot air stream is produced during this step which can be used to provide exploitable heat for industrial processes. The proposed research will be conducted by an interdisciplinary consortium constituting leading research centers, universities, innovative SMEs, and large enterprises including ancillary service providers and technology end-users.