Sustainable Industry
Achieving the EU’s climate and environmental goals requires a new industrial policy based on the circular economy. The European Union is supporting Criaterra and OptiQGain – two Israeli companies participating in EU-funded projects seeking solutions to achieve this goal
Industry is a key part of the European Commission's "sustainable product" policy and of the broader circular economy action plan aimed at modernizing the EU economy and adapting it to the environmental needs of the 21st century. Among the issues related to in this policy are the decarbonization and modernization of energy-intensive industries such as steel and cement, prioritization of the reduction and reusing of materials before recycling, development of a digital sector that promotes sustainability and green growth and that presents new opportunities for monitoring pollution, and optimizing the consumption of energy and natural resources.
Initial efforts will focus on resource-intense sectors such as textiles, construction, electronics, and plastics. New business models based on renting goods and services will also help to shift consumption patterns away from single- or limited-use products.
Eco-innovative Building Products for Sustainable Construction
As the EU continues to significantly reduce its energy consumption and carbon footprint, green construction has become a top priority. Construction and the use of building materials currently account for nearly 50% of Europe’s extracted materials, 50% of its energy consumption, one-third of its water consumption, and one-third of all waste generation. A dramatic change in the construction industry represents the largest potential for cost-effective emission reduction and a significant reduction in energy demand, aside from other obvious benefits such as improved air quality, and increased thermal comfort. All these challenges led to the foundation of the EU-backed RE-CREATE project.
Criaterra, the Israeli company managing the project, develops regenerative construction materials and products to enable the transition to a circular economy construction industry.
Traditional construction material manufacturing processes incinerate virgin materials, changing their natural properties and rendering them non-biodegradable and eventually problematic waste. Redesigning this resource-intensive process and the entire lifecycle of building products and their production methods is thus central to reducing the industry's environmental impact. Criaterra's innovation produces products using minimal energy (90% energy savings compared to ceramics), that generate minimal emissions, which are manufactured from up to 70% recycled materials, and that are themselves 100% recyclable and biodegradable. They have the strength of concrete and very low thermal conductivity, dramatically reducing energy consumption and the waste stream.
"Europe is the fastest market to adopt sustainable building solutions", says Adital Ela, Founder and CEO of Criaterra. "Our value proposition impacts building occupants, builders and government. Homes and businesses enjoy the benefit of healthy air, thermal comfort and reduced energy bills, builders can offer our unique products and get financial incentives through green accreditation, and governments benefit from the reduced pollution and minimized waste."
Project Acronym: RE-CREATE
Grant agreement ID: 868509, 946255
EU contribution: € 4,123,603
Start date: 1 June 2019; End date: 30 September 2020
Topic(s): Topic EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020
Call for proposal: H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020
Israeli participant: Criaterra Innovations Ltd
> CORDIS link
Industry is a key part of the European Commission's "sustainable product" policy and of the broader circular economy action plan aimed at modernizing the EU economy and adapting it to the environmental needs of the 21st century
Molecular analysis for Advanced Process Control and Energy Optimization
Existing industrial process analysis procedures demand large quantities of energy and expensive resources due to ineffective and insensitive equipment. After analyzing the existing Scattered Raman Specroscopy (SRS) technologies in the fields of academia and research, the Israeli company OptiQGain decided to found SRSensor – an EU-funded project charged with the development of a revolutionary, real-time, lightweight, cost effective, IoT based, on-site system for high resolution commercial molecular level analysis. SRSensor, with a range of probes and a main CPU unit, utilizes a SRS spectrophotometer which produces a high-resolution Raman spectrum in just 0.1 seconds. Data is then transferred via fiber optic cables to the main CPU for data processing and presentation to the engineer or process manager.
The highly accurate molecular analysis results can be adopted in a vast range of process analysis fields to optimize industrial processes, offer high resource efficiency, and huge cost savings resulting from lower maintenance costs and potential avoidance of unexpected engine, turbine, and generator failure. OptiQGain will initially target natural gas and biogas processing plants, turbines and gas transporting pipelines where potential savings are substantial. Within the overall innovation project, OptiQGain aims to upgrade subcomponents of the sensor and finalize the industrial design of the SRSensor system for improved accuracy, to transfer the production to a secured third-party contract manufacturer, to optimize the process for adoption in natural gas and biogas plants, turbines and pipelines, to perform a quality demonstration and validation of the SRS technology at different site locations, and to develop a sound commercialization and market strategy.
"We have combined the optimal capabilities of existing technologies in applying academic knowledge to industry, thereby enhancing the efficiency of processes using biogas and other biomass-based gases. Ultimately this will result in cleaner processes throughout industry", says Ram Alon, one of the original founders of SRSensor.
Project Acronym: SRSensor
Grant agreement: 859111
EU contribution: € 1,788,682
Start date: 1 May 2019; End date: 30 April 2021
Topic(s): EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020 - SME instrument
Call for proposal: H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-2
Israeli participant: optiQGain Ltd
> CORDIS link