BMWK-funded project for intelligent energy management

The Ger­man Fed­er­al Min­istry of Eco­nom­ics and Cli­mate Pro­tec­tion (BMWK) is now fund­ing the project Oeko­ProOf — “Intel­li­gent eco­nom­ic & eco­log­i­cal resource effi­cien­cy con­trol using a dig­i­tal process pass­port”. The project deals with a new approach for indus­tri­al com­pa­nies, in which resources can be trans­par­ent­ly and effi­cient­ly allo­cat­ed to process­es based on demand through intel­li­gent ener­gy mon­i­tor­ing and man­age­ment. The aim is to devel­op an IT sys­tem that can be used across all industries.

The August-Wil­helm Scheer Insti­tute, Wegen­er Härtetech­nik GmbH, KRAFTBLOCK GmbH and the Insti­tute for Oper­a­tions and Tech­nol­o­gy Man­age­ment at the Envi­ron­men­tal Cam­pus Birken­feld of Tri­er Uni­ver­si­ty will start the project in Jan­u­ary 2022 with a dura­tion of three years.

Ris­ing prices for scarce resources, the urgency for cli­mate pro­tec­tion and grow­ing envi­ron­men­tal aware­ness are accel­er­at­ing the impor­tance of sus­tain­able man­age­ment in all sec­tors. The eco­nom­i­cal use of finite resources and their intel­li­gent reuse are there­fore becom­ing essential.

For this rea­son, indus­tri­al com­pa­nies of all sizes are under pres­sure to meet the grow­ing demands of soci­ety and their cus­tomers in terms of sus­tain­abil­i­ty, in addi­tion to increas­ing costs due to the ris­ing CO2 price. The chal­lenge for com­pa­nies is to take into account both their own eco­nom­ic require­ments for ener­gy and resource effi­cien­cy and the eco­nom­ic and eco­log­i­cal wish­es and goals of cus­tomers and soci­ety. Since the wish­es of cus­tomers and the require­ments of com­pa­nies can vary, intel­li­gent, needs-based adap­ta­tion of ener­gy and resource effi­cien­cy is necessary.

The Oeko­ProOf project, fund­ed by the Ger­man Fed­er­al Min­istry of Eco­nom­ics and Cli­mate Pro­tec­tion to the tune of EUR 1,223,777.96, is there­fore address­ing these chal­lenges and look­ing for suit­able solu­tions. “In the project, we are devel­op­ing an IT sys­tem for this pur­pose, the dig­i­tal process pass­port, which trans­par­ent­ly allo­cates resource con­sump­tion and effi­cien­cy in the form of waste heat and elec­tric­i­ty effi­cien­cy to process­es,” explains Dr. Dirk Werth, sci­en­tif­ic direc­tor and man­ag­ing direc­tor of the August-Wil­helm Scheer Insti­tute. Togeth­er with the com­pa­ny Wegen­er Härtetech­nik GmbH, the sys­tem is being direct­ly applied and test­ed in prac­tice. Dr. Simon Hech­ler of Wegen­er Härtetech­nik GmbH: “With this project, we are cre­at­ing the con­di­tions for ener­gy-inten­sive com­pa­nies in Ger­many to remain inter­na­tion­al­ly com­pet­i­tive, cre­ate required trans­paren­cy and meet the chal­lenges of cli­mate change.”

In the con­text of increas­ing resource effi­cien­cies, the project is also inves­ti­gat­ing the poten­tial of ther­mal uti­liza­tion of waste heat. The aim of this is also to derive gen­er­al­ly applic­a­ble solu­tions for oth­er branch­es of indus­try. The recy­cling of waste heat makes it pos­si­ble to reduce ener­gy require­ments and con­se­quent­ly CO2 emis­sions. This solves a cen­tral prob­lem of indus­try. So far, the use of (high-tem­per­a­ture) waste heat has played a sub­or­di­nate role in the ener­gy tran­si­tion and the trans­for­ma­tion of indus­tri­al ener­gy supply.

“The solu­tion devel­oped in the project is to be ensured and test­ed in the future in near­by ener­gy-inten­sive indus­tri­al sec­tors such as tex­tile pro­cess­ing, auto­mo­tive parts sup­pli­ers, poly­mer pro­duc­tion, etc. In addi­tion, the Oeko­ProOf project fits into the ener­gy pol­i­cy objec­tives of the Ger­man government.”

-  Prof. Dr. Hen­rik te Heesen