Innovation for
Preserving our World
Development
During this action Tazzetti has performed the validation of the data acquired from the lab (Casale Monferrato) in order to better evaluate the distillation column packing, intermediates purity and process yield. Tazzetti has performed several tests on a HC based blend in order to evaluate the distillation capability of the system to optimize the tray efficiency and to better study the parameters effects on the liquid gas equilibrium
Deviations
Authorization phase has took almost 2 years to be obtained, despite the effort and the, almost religious, dedication of all LIFE-IREPRO Team to continuously support the Offices in order to grant the Authorizations
The team have completed the designing phase according to preliminary testing results, parameters and targets collected in Action A.1. Such design include layouts and flow scheme of the pilot, design of the main plant components, design of fire and explosion protection systems, integration of the pilot plant in the existing infrastructure and simulations of the working phases.
Tazzetti’s technical team has produced and published on LIFE IREPRO website the tenders for all the core equipment of the pilot line. The tenders are composed by several annexes:
- Invitation to tender;
- Identification of the tenderer;
- Declaration of honour on exclusion criteria and absence of conflict of interest
- Tender specifications
- Price
- Contract (Draft to be defined once the winning supplier it has been identified
The tendering procedure and the relative supply contracts were very challenging. IREPRO Team has contacted several suppliers in Italy and throughout Europe in order to find a reliable supplier with extensive experience in this sector.
Since November 2020, the realization of the Pilot Line is in progress, the concrete works, carpentry and firefighting systems are already built and LIFE IREPRO Team is working hard to implement the piping and control system of the pilot line.
Deviations
Variations/complications/delays: due to the COVID-19 pandemic many manufacturers of pumps, instruments, sensors, SCADA lack some components needed for the production of the good. As mitigation action, the Team has completed the specification of the components in advance in order to proceed with the order as soon as possible to mitigate the delay, still it is expected some delay in the complete implementation of the Action
News
This part of the project was successfully completed by the IREPRO Team.
The activities relating to the construction and installation of the pilot line were completed, as well as all activities such as: installation of equipment, pipe lines, electrical system and fire-fighting system.
Currently the plant is able to start and ready for the testing and validation part.
In order to start the testing and the validation of the pilot line the Team has completed the installation of all equipment, expected during Q3 2021. LIFE IREPRO team is quite confident to be able to speed up the testing of the prototype in order to absorb some delays related to the supply of the equipment, still the COVID19 pandemic is yet in progress and it is difficult to foresee all the complication/variation that could impact on the realization step: in particular related to component’s delivery time
Work in progress
This action has entered the last bureaucratic stages.
The IREPRO team is awaiting the last permits to start production of the test blends. By October2022, the technology relating to the performance of the distillation unit will be validated. Subsequently, will be carried out tests on the performance of the new blends
Progress: The first big update is represented by the obtainment of the Fire Prevention Certification issued by the Fire Prevention Authority. This certification, which is only issued after the obtainment of the permission to operate and following the beginning of the operations, represents an important objective not only for the legislative conformity, but also as a premise for the industrial transferability of the prototype. Indeed, the Fire Prevention Permission is obtained upon examination of a plant project by the Fire Prevention Authority, while the Fire Prevention Certification is obtained once the plant is fully operative. Therefore, this certifies that all the plant units built comply with all safety requirements with respect to fire prevention and firefighting measures and procedures considering real field operations, emergency procedures, firefighting equipment and fire detection systems installed in working conditions throughout the entire plant. The preliminary testing phase is complete and the results obtained are extremely encouraging. The testing activities include:
1. Automatic filling of the distillation column from the storage tank
2. Distillation process to reach high purity components
3. Transfer of distilled products to cylinders
4. Blending of distillate to obtain multi-component mixtures The initial tests results on the pilot line indicated that it is possible to obtain even higher purities of the distilled products than expected: approximately 99.6% compared to the initial target of 99%. The project is now approaching its final stage with the production in place to reach its maximum capacity. It is important to test the robustness of the pilot line after reaching the project specifications, therefore the team is working in this direction to guarantee the reaching of high purity and yield of separation for several batches of raw material.
During this action Ri.Se has performed the preliminary Life-Cycle Assessment
in accordance with the information available, without a complete implementation of the pilot line, still in progress.
The LCA was performed according to the ISO 14040 (ISO 2006a) and ISO 14044 (ISO 2006b).
Two life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methodologies were used: ReCiP e 2016 Midpoint (H) v.1.0 (Huijbregts et al. 2016)
and Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) v. 1.09 (Frischknecht et al. 2003). ReCiPe includes in total 17 different environmental impacts.
CED is a single issue method which includes one single impact: the demand of energy from different energy sources.
Once the pilot plant is completed, Ri.Se will update the model with process information with the data coming from the pilot plant operativity. Ri.Se will also include reuse of the product (to replace raw material into the process).
Ri.SE has conducted a preliminary Socio-Economic Analysis (SEA) to provide information on a potential alternative to high-GWP refrigerants and the implications of using the alternative. More specifically, the aim is to evaluate the social, economic, environmental and health influences of the production of specific novel low-GWP refrigerant prototypes, in comparison to production of state-of-the-art refrigerants
Effective dissemination is essential in order to make sure that research results are well-tailored for target audiences, for this reason the Dissemination Plan was updated, in accordance with the Communication Manager in order to focus on the new dissemination strategy following the project extension.
As support activity of communication, Tazzetti has realized brochures, fliers and poster to distribute during the exhibition, congress, meetings and workshops. We believe that the materials produced has started to increase the awareness of the stakeholders, in particular the technical ones.
Finally in order to successfully carry out the LIFE IREPRO project, understanding the expectations of project stakeholders is absolutely a primary concern, not only because the Stakeholders should be the future clients and real recipients of LIFE IREPRO potential success, but also because many policy maker may be intrigued by the topics and the bold objective of our project and can be moved to take care of the addressed issues with the strength of the results of LIFE IREPRO.
If you are seeking opportunities to collaborate or if you consider yourself a potential stakeholder for LIFE IREPRO project, feel free to visit the contacts page to get in touch with our team.
In order to realize international networking activities between LIFE IREPRO and EU funded projects related to the climate change mitigation, Tazzetti’s communication team has started a campaign to contact interested LIFE’s Project Managers to cooperate and share news and practices, for reciprocal visibility and promotion.
The participation of LIFE IREPRO’s Team at event and conferences of the refrigeration sector event is considered a stimulating opportunity to meet with other LIFE teams and partners to foster a collaboration especially to increase the visibility of climate change mitigation EU founded projects and to raise awareness of policy makers about the topic.
Project management was carried out as foreseen with some modification related to personnel dedicated to the project. The collaboration between Tazzetti and Ri.Se is undergoing and the meetings are held with consistency.
Tazzetti has filled the online form at https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/eproposalWeb/kpi with the precious support of the NEEMO monitor. Up to the presentation of the present report, according to the fact that the actions C1, C2 and C3 are not yet completed, the KPI we foresee are almost the same as the one presented in the LIFE IREPRO Grant Agreement.
As at the date of the present Report, the project objective are still achievable and the Project’s actions implementation are undergoing without major issues other than some delays related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Progress: Not started yet