These were our themed sessions during the ISPT Conference 2022, you could choose between these 3 themed sessions:
1. Renewable and circular feedstock
The need to strongly reduce CO2 emissions and the rising prices of conventional (oil-based) feedstock have intensified the incentive for industry to transition towards alternatives. However, as seen today, the quantities of potential biobased/circular input streams to provide this feedstock is by far not sufficient to fulfil the demand of industry.
To provide industry with suitable circular/renewable feedstocks, (new) value chains need to be developed where ‘challenging’ waste sources (e.g. mixed and/or contaminated waste streams, mixed plastics, agro-food residues, wet sludges etc.) are processed by innovative technologies. The goal is to close the raw material cycles as much as possible.
2. How to unravel the Gordian knot of the transition(s)
We need to move to new systems for our energy, and for our food. But the road taking us there is like a Gordian knot. Which solutions are feasible? What considerations should we make? And can we make other options also feasible? Transition models can help validating different scenarios. They allow us to capture the complexity of the system. If we want to make predictions and considerations, we need industrial transition models.
In this session we discussed the data needed to untangle the Gordian knot of the transition(s) in order to make the right choices.
3. Industrial flexibility
Our industrial system, with operations optimized for constant production, has been built on the premise of a constant, secure and affordable energy supply. As the share of wind and solar in the energy mix increases, so does the variability of energy supply and prices, which is bound to significantly impact the economics of continuous industrial production. This challenges us to rethink and prepare industrial process chains for increased flexbility, by finding new optimal strategies for asset utilization, storage of electrons or molecules such as hydrogen, demand response management and process control.
This session took you through the future scenarios, opportunities, challenges and solution directions to prepare industry for a renewable and variable energy supply.