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The EU manufacturing sector is vitally important to the EU economy, contributing ~17.1% of GDP and accounted for some 22 million jobs (2007) . EU exports have expanded by 4.7% p.a. over 2000-2008 and in some sectors the EU has increased its share of world exports between 1996 and 2006, notably in chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and motor vehicles. SMEs represent 99% of the EU manufacturing sector equating to over 2.5 million companies. As manufacturing is resource intensive both in terms of raw materials and energy consumption, despite rising costs (energy and raw materials) SMEs are under increasing threat to remain competitive against non-EU based companies.
The aim of the ICARUS project is to create an absorption power generation technology for low temperature (60-120oC) heat. This will enable us to create a waste-heat power generation system for industrial (chemical, cement etc.) applications that can achieve an efficiency of up to 20% for electricity to be generated from industrial waste heat (<120oC) without affecting industrial processes. By doing this, the absorption power generation system created will offer greatly improved environmental performance due to improved efficiency and reduced CO2 emissions at a cost that is affordable to the end-user. This will lead to significant economic and societal benefits to manufacturers. The SME consortium will target up to 10 % of the EU manufacturing SMEs operating within the Chemicals and Cement Industry within a 5 year period, thus achieving direct estimated annual sales of over €100 million, ~700 new jobs and thus helping manufacturing SMEs to make annual average CO2 emissions savings of up to 4,000 t p.a per company. |
