Enhanced energy and resource Efficiency and Performance in process industry Operations via onsite and cross-sectorial Symbiosis (EPOS)

Overview

Built from the SPIRE community the Horizon 2020 project EPOS gives a vivid example of cross-sectorial symbiosis. EPOS focuses on 'Enhanced energy and resource Efficiency and Performance in process industry Operations via onsite and cross-sectorial Symbiosis'. It brings together 5 global process industries in 5 cross-sectorial clusters covering 5 key relevant sectors for Europe: steel, cement, minerals, chemicals & engineering.

 Objective

The EPOS objective is to develop a simple and single management tool for cross-sectorial industrial symbiosis; it provides a wide range of technological as well as organisational cluster solutions for making industry more efficient, more cost-effective, more competitive and more sustainable, across process sectors. The project focus is on good energy optimisation and management practice, based on the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) concept. It builds on industrial commitment and induces continuity, commanding industry to move on and take part in today's industrial renaissance.

 Structure

The EPOS project spans 48 months and its structure builds on activities that ensure the project challenge is addressed in an optimal way, including cross-sectorial key performance indicators, sector profiles and cross-sector markets, IS toolbox development, training and validation of the (simple and single) IS management tool in 5 clusters strategically located throughout EU (i.e. France, Poland, Switzerland and UK).

 UGent role

The EELAB ECM expertise in LESTS survey is applied on the 5 EPOS clusters to provide an analysis of the different industrial sites and their potential for clustering in order to achieve resource and energy efficiency, especially focusing on industrial symbiosis. Within this frame Samie Maqbool performs doctoral research on facilitating cross-sectoral industrial symbiosis and Helene Cervo does a joint PhD with the Aix-Marseille University (AMU) on developing a methodology to implement industrial symbiosis in the petrochemical sector.

Consortium

The EPOS consortium is a cross-section of the SPIRE community, bringing together 5 global process industries with 2 excellent science institutes and 5 highly R&I minded SMEs, under the supervision and coordination of UGent.

More info

Detailed information on the EPOS project can be found on the EU SPIRE website www.spire2030.eu/epos. For access to the EPOS toolbox and generic industrial symbiosis cases in the EPOS clusters, please visit the EPOS User Club epos.userecho.com.
Read the EC review of EU funded projects on Industrial Symbiosis, with EPOS as one of the core projects.

Team

prof. Greet Van Eetvelde (project coordinator)
Samie Maqbool (PhD student)
Helene Cervo (joint PhD student)
Francisco Mendez (researcher)