RENESENG - Renewable Systems Engineering: Project Overview Antonis C. Kokossis National Technical University of Athens Kick-off meeting, Athens, 28 Nov. 2013

CONTEXT AND FUTURE CHALLENGES

EU POLICY AND AIMS EU: well-positioned to spearhead 2 nd generation bio economy – Sophisticated agricultural sector; – strong network of biochemical clusters – Strong commitment to GHG reduction – Dominant position in key technologies (enzymes, biotechnology) Competition: Brazil, USA, China Niche: Competitors focused on biofuels and less on other products

EXPECTATIONS IN EUROPE Huge socio-economic benefits for 2020 (Bloomberg 2012) Over 1,000 new biorefineries Revenues in excess of €bn 32 Over 1 million new jobs

IMPORTANT ISSUES Capital requirements – Strong economies of scale: a facility twice the size may cost 1.6 times more – Strong economies of learning: cost evolution expected a strong downward slope – Synergies of co-location: significant scope to reduce costs with parallel production of chemical and fuels Further synergies – Integrate biochemical and thermochemical chains – Scope to build on existing facilities

THE ROAD AHEAD Scale up successful chemistries to pilots and plants Build design expertise to improve material and energy efficiencies How? Develop technology to – Support scale-up (costing, flowsheeting, screening) – Support modular bio refinery concept (regional diversifications) – Reduce experimentation with lab chemistries building modeling and flowsheeting capabilities – Build process integration technologies – Build high-throughput capabilities due to the large number of products and feedstocks

COSTING AND FLOWSHEETING Design technology from Chemical Industry – Often unreliable as bio refineries and essentially different industries – Multiple feedstocks and unknown products (as against fixed product/supplies in Oil & Gas) Flowsheeting and modelling technology: missing – Important unit operation models – Multiple modelling layers (detailed vs conceptual) – Thermodynamic properties of intermediates and products

INTEGRATION AND DIVERSFICIATION Important questions: supplies and products – Which feedstocks to use? – Which products or product portfolios? – Regional and market uncertainties – Co-location vs distributed production Important questions: technologies – Processing technologies to use? – Scope to combine technologies? – Scope to combine with existing installations? – Impact on anticipated improvements and technological progress (technology uncertainty)?

RENESENG: Renewable systems engineering A Marie Curie project to build systems engineering capabilities needed for the timely development of bio refineries

4-YEAR MARIE-CURIE PROJECT 15 partners : 7 countries, 9 RI, 6 industial partners, 4 SMEs EU contribution : €Coordination : A. Kokossis NTUA CERTH Helector DTU Surrey Imperial BPF DLO TU Delft Arkema CIMV EPFL Quantis ETH Bioenergy 2020+

RENESENG COMPETENCIES Research expertise: the leading groups in PSE and agricultural engineering Expertise: process & property modelling, process integration and process intensification, knowledge modelling, LCA tools and methods Some of the most active industrial partners in the area

RENESENG APPROACH Deliverables: research and tools, training, dissemination – 4 core WPs packages that address fundamentals – 2 WPs in validation and software development – 2 WP on training, multi-center schools and workshops – 1 WP on dissemination, outreach activities, spin-offs

RESEARCH STRUCTURE Multi-disciplinary, multi-layered approach Fundamental research – Mathematical modelling and multi-scale applications – Process integration – Supply chains and synthesis – Life Cycle Analysis

PROJECT VISION Fill in gap on missing – Process engineering, process equipment models – Thermodynamic properties and LCA – Cost models and scale-up correlations New generation of tools – Process integration and synthesis – Tools that screen and scope for innovative designs Libraries of flowsheets and engineering data Dedicated, user-friendly software to share with and sell to the public

TRAINING OBJECTIVES Multicenter PhD training program and long term collaborations Shape up an emerging engineering profile in bio renewable systems engineering with – The active participation of industries – Strong multi-disciplinary capabilities Workforce to support sustainable processing technologies and – Deliver engineering solutions to new and complex problems – Develop and use systems tools that promote innovation, creative & holistic thinking

DISSEMINATION Create hub to share and trade knowledge – Link space for knowledge and information – Data and model sharing and exchange Create and support a platform to integrate applications in biorenewables – Integrate different applications, also with commercial software (CAPE-OPEN) – Industrial validation – Prototype software for commercial use

KEY RENESENG FEATURES Supporting the creation of a new discipline

INDUSTRIALLY RELEVANT, INDUSTRIALLY VALIDATED MODELS Industrial expertise in: – lignocellulosic, oleochemical, water and waste biorefineries Capitalize on experience and produce reliable models in – Process unit operations (fermentation, gasification etc) – Substrates and phase equilibria Costing: reliable estimates of CAPEX, OPEX Shortcut models for process units, cost and LCA

BUILDING HIGH-THROUGHPUT CAPACITY Stage-wise screening Analysis of uncertainties in technologies, feedstock supplies and products

HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL INTEGRATION Integration of supplies – Agricultural residues, forestry hardwood, macro and micro-algae – Common feedstocks, intermediates, Integration of chemical paths and supply chains – Integration of technologies and processing paths – Consolidation of supplies to viable plant sizes Process integration – Process and energy integration – Process-to-process integration

MULTIPLE PRODUCTS, MODULARITY Differentiation with respect to – Regional priorities and access to supplies – Collocation opportunities – Capacity of supplies and targeted markets

SOFTWARE INTEGRATION, SHARING COMMUNITIES User-friendly environments to support decisions of policy makers Technology to search, link and automate the launch of integrated applications Open environments to share and integrate models (ontology engineering) What is the Potential to Profit from Agricultural Residues in Reims?

WORKING TOGETHER TOWARDS A NEW SYSTEMS ENGINEERING BRANCH (