The potential for applying thermal solar energy to process heat in industry was the theme of the seminar “Solar Process Heat in industry: Technologies, applications, research”, organized by the Renewable Energies Chair at the University of Évora (CER-UÉ), Order of Engineers (OE) and Directorate-General for Energy and Geology (DGEG), which took place on February 7, at OE headquarters, in Lisbon.
The initiative is part of the activities of the INSHIP - Integrating National Research Agendas on Solar Heat for Industrial Processes, and sought to bring together researchers, policy makers, financing entities and industries, in the debate on the potential of renewable energies in industry, in a national workshop similar to what has been happening in the different countries of the project partners.
According to Pedro Horta, coordinator of CER-UÉ, “the heat of the process in the industry has a very significant weight in energy consumption, but it has remained under a certain invisibility in society and with little relevance in the political discourse.” The National Energy and Climate Plan (PNEC 2030) or the Roadmap for Carbon Neutrality (RNE 2050) do not pay much attention to the role of renewables in heating and cooling in industry, but “it is predicted that in 2050, 6% of energy needs industry will be suppressed by solar thermal”, reveals Luís Gil, a researcher at DGEG.
What the researchers at the seminar sought to demonstrate is that there are solar thermal technologies available on the market, capable of meeting the needs of most process heat consumptions, at low and medium temperatures. Ana Magalhães (INEGI - Institute of Science and Innovation in Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Engineering) presented a medium temperature solar process heat installation at the demonstration company Kemet Electronics Portugal SA, in Évora, developed under the SHIP - Solar Heat for Industrial project Processes, while engineer Tiago Eusébio (CER-UÉ) added other examples of industries that use solar process heat, in different configurations, such as Goess Brewery (Austria), Ruyi Textile (China), Barcel Merida (Mexico), Agrana Fruit (Mexico) or RAM Pharma (Jordan).
In the communication on the investigation and main results of the INSHIP project, Tiago Osório, a CER-UÉ researcher, analyzed the various collector technologies that absorb solar radiation, converting it into heat, from flat or vacuum tube models, applied to low temperature processes (80ºC to 150ºC), as well as concentrating technologies for higher temperatures, such as Fresnel, parabolic cylinder and almost stationary CPC type collectors. In industry, about half of the process heat needs are at temperatures below 400ºC and can be supplied by the mentioned technologies. Among the advantages for scientific and technological research in the sector are the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, the reduction of energy costs and greater energy security through less dependence on imports, as well as the creation of a European industry and consequent local job creation.
Nowadays, the technologies have a very efficient photo-thermal conversion, with more than 60% of sunlight being converted into thermal energy. The reason why these technologies have little use in the industry can be explained by questions of average cost and competitiveness. According to Pedro Horta, “from a 5-year payback perspective, conditions are not interesting for the industry”. It will be necessary to solve the financing problems, through the creation of investment lines, specific bank credit and the entry of new agents, such as Energy Service Companies (ESCOs), who can share or bear the costs of investments by subsequently selling energy to industrial consumer. Nowadays, the technologies have a very efficient photo-thermal conversion, with more than 60% of sunlight being converted into thermal energy. The reason why these technologies have little use in the industry can be explained by questions of average cost and competitiveness. According to Pedro Horta, “from a 5-year payback perspective, conditions are not interesting for the industry”. It will be necessary to solve the financing problems, through the creation of investment lines, specific bank credit and the entry of new agents, such as Energy Service Companies (ESCOs), who can share or bear the costs of investments by subsequently selling energy to industrial consumer.
The economic and financial problems guided the interventions of the final round table. For Collares Pereira, president of IPES (Portuguese Institute of Solar Energy), “the importance of scale is fundamental, in the image of what happened with the photovoltaic that became the most efficient way of producing electricity, partly due to having gain scale”. A perspective of scale gain that, according to Pedro Horta, “will depend a lot on big players and utilities. Process heat needs the same type of investment and approach”. As João Bernardo (DGEG) acknowledges, “it will not be easy to apply renewables to all processes and in industry there are processes that are not electrified, namely the biggest problem of high temperatures". However, “solar process heat can provide an answer and there is a high expectation in relation to this technology that should be part of the portfolio of available technologies”.
