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The economic assessment of a sensible heat storage system, the Dual Media Thermocline (DMT), is estimated for an industrial application of waste heat storage on the range of temperature 80°C to 600°C. The DMT is a main component of the standard and modular system developed in the frame of the H2020 Smartrec project (GA n° 723838). Further, the life cycle assessment (LCA) of the 1MWh Smartrec system is studied.

Nowadays, the stability of energy supply that additionally should be sustainable is one of the most important global issues. Thus, many new potential energy sources are being investigated. Since automobile industry is growing, a huge amount of waste tyres (WT) occur each year. Pyrolysis of scrap tyres can be considered as a sustainable way to recover significant amounts of energy as well as the valuable materials. Potential of waste tyres in the energy sector is studied in this work. Proximate, ultimate and thermogravimetric (TG) analysis of mechanically grounded WT sample was done. Waste tyres feature high heating value combined with carbon content as high as 87.90 % (on dry ash-free basis). Additionally, TG analysis allows to choose optimal operating temperature for pyrolysis process which is between 350 and 500°C. However, the sulphur content is also relatively high – around 2 wt.% - and it is the most important challenge for utilizing this waste in a thermochemical way.

As the demand for energy is increasing and due to more focus on the utilization of low impact energy heat sources, heat pumps are a renewable energy technology that transfers thermal energy from one place to another. Heat pumps are used in various applications such as space heating, space cooling, heating water and many others. Heat pumps have many configurations but in essence they compose of components which are found in all units. The framework for 2030 climate and energy policy has decided that greenhouse emissions must be reduced by 40%. This has therefore, increased the need to utilize low grade energy. Heat pumps have the capability to utilize the upgrade of low grade energy and reuse it within any domestic and industrial application. This paper will explain the working principle of an air-to-air heat pump, describing the different configurations, and evaluate the performance of such systems.

Food waste generation is one of the most crucial problems of our constantly developing world. There are several common methods of its treatment, however each one has its own advantages and disadvantages. Pyrolysis attracting attention in this field since a long time, because it allows to utilize this valuable resource with energy and material recovery. Moreover, the environmental impact of the process is relatively low. In this paper, products of low temperature household waste pyrolysis underwent a detailed chemical analysis. Liquid and solid residues was examined. Composition and concentration of particular compounds and elements indicates presence of long chain alkane, alkene and carboxylic acid molecules together with small amounts of aromatics within the bio-oil samples. The presence of heavy metals in residues was detected, too. Since the products are usually described as non-toxic, the idea of waste’ low-temperature thermal treating in household was analyzed. In general, examined residues from the process are safe for the environment, thus pyrolysis can be considered as a legitimate mechanism to treat kitchen waste combined with energy recovery for homes.

The emission of acid compounds during the manufacture of ceramic tiles is strongly related to the presence of precursors in the raw materials and/or fuels used, with some exceptions such as the production of thermal NOX. The stages with the potential to produce significant emissions of these compounds have been identified as the suspension spray drying and tile firing stages. The monitoring of emission levels of acid pollutants in these stages has turned in a great importance issue from a regulatory and industrial aspect. The DREAM project (https://www.spire2030.eu/dream) will tackle the regulation of acidic emissions focusing in the firing stage. The initial stages of the project have made it possible to identify the design requirements for the monitoring system. This will allow the control of acid pollutants emissions and other key parameters such as pressure, flow, temperature and humidity. One of the tasks developed has been the review and compilation of current emissions monitoring systems detailing technical specifications such as: position (in situ or extractive), measurement principle and frequency. The future policy trends in air pollution are encouraging the continuous monitoring across the European industry. The present document assesses the advantages regarding environmental impact control, highlighting the main challenges for the ceramic tile industry.

Following the energy crisis in 1980, many saving technologies have been investigated with attempts to implement them into various industries, one of them is the field of ceramic production. In order to comply with energy saving trends and environmental issues, the European ceramic industry sector has developed energy efficient systems which reduced significantly production time and costs and reduced total energy consumption. The last achievement is of great importance as the energy consumption of the ceramic process accounts for a significant percentage of the total production costs. More precisely, the firing stage consumes the highest amount of energy during the whole ceramic production process. The use of roller kilns, fired by natural gas, involves a loss of 50% of the input energy via the flue gas and the cooling gas exhausts. This review paper briefly describes the production process of the different ceramic products, with a focus on the ceramic sector in Europe. Due to the limited on waste heat recovery in the ceramic industry, other high temperature waste heat recovery applications are considered in the paper, such as in concrete and steel production, which could have a potential use in the ceramic industry. The state of the art technologies used in the ceramics industry are reviewed with a special interest in waste heat recovery from the ceramic process exhaust stacks and energy saving technologies.