Making industry more sustainable

The energy chain

Valuable components can often be recovered from industry waste flows. Through the optimal use of raw materials and the reuse of waste and process flows, the cycle of industrial processes is closed. We contribute to this through the development, upscaling, and implementation of innovative technologies and systems. The emphasis is on developing key technologies such as:

• membrane separation
• adsorption
• ion exchange
• electrically powered separations such as membrane capacitive deionisation (MCDI)

More information about carbon-neutral industry

TNO’s contribution

We bring together parties such as end users, technology developers, and suppliers. The main sectors here are the chemical, food, paper, and steel industries. We have test facilities for separation and conversion technologies as well as prototype manufacturing. We are working on:

• a pilot for removing and reusing salt from process water
• nanofiltration membranes to recover valuable metals from chemical processes in an energy-efficient way
• HybSi membrane technology to dehydrate solvents from the process making them suitable for reuse

Technologies in practice

After successful lab tests and pilots, we transfer promising technologies to industry. What matters is that they are actually adopted. This is important for energy-efficient industry, and it provides opportunities for new market entrants. In this way, sustainability and new business come together.

Making heat management in industry more sustainable

Heat management should also be more sustainable. Dutch industry needs more than 500 petajoules of heat annually, for separation processes, reactions or heating of raw materials. Today, this heat comes almost entirely from fossil fuels such as natural gas, oil, and coal, while regulations, consumer demand, and cost savings demand that their processes become more sustainable. This can be achieved via three routes: process efficiency, reusing and upgrading residual heat, and a more sustainable heat supply.

1. Process efficiency

Process efficiency is the development of efficiency processes or ‘unit operations’ for application in existing and new processes. This is how we achieve major, step-by-step reductions in energy consumption. This has already led to several inventions that make industry and business more sustainable, including:

• HybSi® membrane technology for the purification of solvents
• HYSEP® hydrogen separation modules

2. Reusing and upgrading residual heat

Energy from industry enters the environment as residual heat through active cooling, flue gases or heat loss from installations. Reusing this residual heat reduces energy demand, lowers energy costs, and reduces emissions.

The challenge here is that the temperature level of the residual heat is often too low or the timing does not match demand. We are working on technologies to solve this, for example, regarding effective heat storage. Together with fellow institutes, we have also drawn the attention of the EU to the importance of heat pumps for industrial energy transition via a white paper.

Download the white paper (pdf) (pdf)

Reusing and upgrading residual heat is a little further from the heart of the process and that makes implementation easier in the short term. This solution is applicable in all industrial sectors.

3. More sustainable heat supply

Making heat supply more sustainable is the third route to making heat management in industry more sustainable. By using more renewable energy sources in heat production, the use of fossil energy sources is reduced, as are carbon emissions.

Industrial decarbonization and thermal energy storage

One quarter of total final energy consumption in the European Union is consumed by industry. Within that quarter, over 80% is consumed by heating and cooling processes. The continued, wide-scale use of gas, oil, coal, and other fossil fuels for industrial thermal processes leads to an estimated greenhouse gas (GHG) emission of 513 Mt CO2 equivalent per year, 12% of total GHG emissions. Thermal energy storage (TES) can assist in the decarbonisation of industrial heating and cooling, and increase energy system flexibility and security. The full roll-out of industrial TES could enable a potential 1,793 TWh of fossil fuel replacement by renewable energy and/or surplus heat. This is one of the conclusions from the white paper “Industrial Thermal Energy Storage – Supporting the transition to decarbonise industry” by TNO and partners from the EERA Joint Program Energy Efficiency in Industrial Processes