On March 19th, the final conference of the Horizon 2020 CORALIS project took place in Brussels, with Solar Heat Europe (SHE) participating to promote the SOLINDARITY project and encourage collaboration with CORALIS’s partners.
CORALIS aims to facilitate Industrial Symbiosis (SI) and demonstrate substantial energy and resource savings in energy-intensive industries, leading to reduced waste, lower CO2 emissions, and improved energy efficiency. Its three demo-sites are in the Chemicals & Fertilizers, Food, and Iron & Steel industries.
In the first panel, representatives from CORALIS’s three main demo-sites—Fertiberia (Spain), RINA-C (Italy), and WA3RM (Sweden)—explained their reasons for joining the project, their achievements, and how Industrial Symbiosis enhanced their processes by reducing waste and emissions.
Waste Heat recovery and circularity were central themes in all presentations. For example, the WA3RM demo-site features a 10-hectare greenhouse for tomato production that uses waste resources from the pulp and paper sector, focusing on low-temperature waste heat recovery.
A European Commission representative highlighted the benefits of leveraging CORALIS’s Industrial Synergies, particularly in the context of the ongoing negotiations for the Industrial Decarbonization Accelerator Act.
The second panel tackled the non-technical aspects of industrial symbiosis including regulatory and standardisation barriers, business model development, data sharing, and role of facilitators.
The synergies between the CORALIS and SOLINDARITY projects
· Like SOLINDARITY, CORALIS developed innovative solutions applied in three real life industrial demonstrators in EU countries (Spain, Italy, and Sweden) and three “followers” cases (Austria, Spain, and Turkey);
· RINA Consulting and CIRCE are members in both projects;
· Despite CORALIS primarily focuses on energy-intensive industries, both projects emphasise the crucial role of heat, particularly low and medium-temperature heat, in industrial processes;
· Both initiatives share the commitment to develop innovative industrial solutions aimed at reducing carbon emissions and waste.
· Notably the food and pulp & paper industries are among the sectors covered in both projects.
The work in the three SOLINDARITY demo-sites and the versatility of the industrial solutions developed (such as SEHUS) were disseminated by Solar Heat Europe to industry representatives, primarily through project leaflets. It was a productive and engaging event.
