Research for more efficient industry

Last year, the Swiss Parliament followed the Federal Council’s proposal to make more funding available for energy research in Switzerland in response to the energy revolution recommended in the aftermath of Fukushima. Eight Swiss Competence Centres for Energy Research (SCCER) were created as the core of the support measures. Six of these SCCERs are already active; the final two, both of which focus on efficiency, are now commencing operations. ETH Zurich is the leading house for one of them.

ETH News: What is the new SCCER Efficiency of Industrial Processes all about?
Philipp Rudolf von Rohr: With its energy strategy, the federal government is aiming to reduce energy consumption in the manufacturing industry by 20 to 40 per cent before 2050. This can be achieved either by improving the efficiency of existing manufacturing processes or with completely new, low-energy production concepts. If, for example, it were possible to manage without a certain sub-process, then this process would no longer have to be optimised. There is a need for research and development at different levels here. At ETH Zurich, several professors have extensive experience in this field, which is perhaps the main reason why the government asked us to lead this competence centre.

Can you provide any other examples of approaches that should be followed?
I can give you two examples of existing ETH projects. Data centres use a lot of energy, as computers need to be kept cool, and so the rooms in modern data centres are usually equipped with cooling systems. ETH professor Dimos Poulikakos is working on a more efficient form of direct liquid cooling for a new generation of computer chip. Another example is the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, with which I have been concerned for a long time. Efforts are currently being made in this industry to switch to more efficient production methods. Usually, smaller quantities of chemicals are produced in batch processing, but the reaction vessels must be repeatedly heated up and cooled down. In comparison, continuous production processes not only require less energy, they also tend to produce less waste and make better use of raw materials.

Is a 40 per cent decrease in industrial energy consumption realistic?
I’m confident that we will reach an interim target of a 10 per cent decrease by 2020. But I must admit that 40 per cent is very ambitious, since the industry has already optimised its processes substantially in recent years. As a result, individual processes can now be optimised only to a limited extent. However, there is more potential if we consider the systems from a wider perspective. This is another area in which this SCCER is conducting research. For instance, it is looking into how greater use can be made of industrial waste heat in district heating networks and how the temperature of this heat can be increased with geothermal energy, solar energy or biomass to produce electricity. This sub-project is being managed by EPFL. The universities of applied sciences of Eastern Switzerland and Lucerne are also participating in the SCCER alongside EPFL and ETH Zurich.

The government originally planned to create just one SCCER in the area of efficiency, which was to cover both building technology and industrial processes.
Yes, but we realised that the area of energy efficiency is diverse. That’s why the government divided it across two competence centres. A new SCCER headed by Empa is focusing on improving efficiency in building technology, whereas we are in charge of industrial processes. The focus area of our SCCER is also very diverse: the approaches to increasing efficiency in the various sectors and their individual processes could not be more different. What makes it more difficult is that the manufacturing industry changes so rapidly. We don’t know which branches of industry will still be producing in Switzerland in the next decades or whether some will move their production abroad. It is therefore not easy to decide on which industrial processes the SCCER should focus.

How do you overcome this?
In the first sub-project, which we are now working on intensively, we want to analyse in detail which industries are particularly energy-intensive. We then want to set key focal points for these areas in the other sub-projects. In addition, another sub-project will focus specifically on process technologies intended to improve energy efficiency across industries. This involves, for example, improving frequently used components, such as heat exchangers or storage systems, which can be found in virtually all industries.