INITIATE proposes a novel symbiotic process to produce urea from steel residual gases. The project will demonstrate a reduction in; primary energy intensity of 30%; carbon footprint of 95%; the raw material intensity of 40%; and waste production of 90%. Additional to this level of reduction, the concept represents a positive business case. INITIATE will demonstrate operating reliability and technology-based innovations in a real industrial setting at TRL7 by producing urea NH3 from steel residual gases as part of three test campaigns spanning six weeks each. The reduction in primary energy intensity, carbon footprint, raw material intensity and waste production will be assessed and verified on a regional and European level by advanced dynamic modelling and Life Cycle Assessment commiserated with ISO 14404 guidelines. The project will develop a commercial implementation roadmap for immediate deployment of INITIATE after project conclusion and for ensuring roll-out of INITIATE and similar symbiotic systems. Designing a robust and bankable first-of-a-kind commercial plant to produce urea from residual steel gases will allow implementation after project conclusion. Long term roll-out will be enabled by defining collaborative strategy for stakeholders alignment to implement INITIATE and similar symbiotic systems. Finally, effective and inclusive communication and dissemination of project results are maximized by organizing summer schools and creation of Massive Open Online Course. INITIATE will take advantage of a consortium spanning the full value chain, including major steel and urea industrial players (Arcelor Mittal, SSAB, Stamicarbon, NextChem), functional material suppliers (Johnson Matthey, Kisuma Chemicals), multi-disciplinary researchers (TNO, POLIMI, Radboud University) and experienced promoters of CCUS, circularity and symbiosis topics to public (CO2 Value Europe).

PROMETEO aims at producing green hydrogen from renewable heat & power sources by high temperature electrolysis in areas of low electricity prices associated to photovoltaic or wind. Solid Oxide Electrolysis (SOE) is a highly efficient technology to convert heat & power into hydrogen from water usually validated in steady-state operation. However, the heat for the steam generation may not be available for the operation of the SOE when inexpensive power is offered (e.g. off-grid peak, photovoltaics or wind). Thus, the challenge is to optimize the coupling of the SOE with two intermittent sources: non-programmable renewable electricity and high-temperature solar heat from Concentrating Solar (CS) systems with Thermal Energy Storage (TES) to supply solar heat when power is made available. In PROMETEO a fully integrated optimized system will be developed, where the SOE combined with the TES and ancillary components will efficiently convert intermittent heat & power sources to hydrogen. The design will satisfy different criteria: end-users’ needs, sustainability aspects, regulatory & safety concerns, scale-up and engineering issues. The players of the value-chain will play key roles in the partnership created around the project: from developers and research organizations, to the electrolyzer supplier, system integrator/engineering and end-users. A fully-equipped modular prototype with at least 25 kWe SOE (about 15 kg/day hydrogen production) and TES (for 24 hours operation) will be designed, built, connected to representative external power/heat sources and validated in real context (TRL 5). Particular attention will be given to partial load operation, transients and hot stand-by periods. Industrial end-users will lead to techno-economic & sustainability studies to apply the technology upscaled (up to 100 MW) in on-grid & off-grid scenarios for different end-uses: utility for grid balancing, power-to-gas, and hydrogen as feedstock for the fertilizer & chemical industry.