The main aim of the I-ThERM project is to investigate, design, build and demonstrate innovative plug and play waste heat recovery solutions and the optimum utilization of energy within and outside the plant perimeter for selected applications with high replicability and energy recovery potential in the temperature range 70 oC- 1000 oC.

Specific objectives of I-ThERM project include:

i) Identify and quantify streams of waste heat from industrial processes in the EU 27 and potential for energy recovery, for use within the process, the factory/site or for export/over the fence use. The objective is to be able to identify and exploit the market opportunities that will be developed through the project. This will involve Identification of the processes and industries that offer the greatest potential for heat recovery in terms of quantities of heat that can be recovered at given temperature levels.

ii) Use the ‘EINSTEIN’ toolkit to carry out energy audits in selected industrial sites and analyze the technical potential and economic viability of application of specific heat recovery technologies to these sites for demonstration purposes. The analysis will include the potential of wide replicability of these technologies if specific performance targets are achieved.

iii) Develop further the ‘EINSTEIN’ tool-kit which was developed for fast and high quality thermal energy audits in industry, under the framework of the European (Intelligent Energy Europe – IEE) project EINSTEIN (www.iee-einstein.org) and use it for

a) the assessment of the techno-economic potential for heat recovery from specific industrial processes, factories and industrial sites, and

b) the determination of the optimum system or combinations of systems from the ones chosen for development and demonstration to maximise ‘useful’ heat recovery and the economic value and environmental benefits of recovering, transmitting or converting energy from the heat recovery process.

iv) Develop heat recovery technologies and equipment in packaged or easily customizable plug and play forms that can readily be selected and applied in industry. The equipment will include innovative two phase heat transfer technologies based on heat pipes and waste heat recovery to power conversion technologies based on:

1. steam and

2. CO2 working fluids

to cover a wide range of heat source temperatures and applications.

v) Develop an intelligent system for monitoring and on-line integration and control of the operation of these technologies to maximise heat recovery and minimise operating costs and emissions.

vi) Investigate and evaluate organisational, technoeconomic and socioeconomic barriers to the wide adoption of advanced heat recovery technologies and ways of overcoming these barriers.

vii) Implement, monitor and evaluate the performance of heat recovery applications, evaluate their impact on overall energy consumption and CO2 emissions and disseminate the outputs widely to industry, other key stakeholders and policy makers.