INDUFLEXCONTROL-2: CONTROL ALGORITHMS FOR FLEXIBILITY IN POWER-TO-X AND INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES

InduFlexControl-2 fits within the research trajectory on Energy Innovation (MOT4) of the Moonshot initiative. This program is funded by the Flemish Government intending to foster breakthrough technologies through innovative research with the objective of reducing the carbon intensity of the Flemish industry. Specifically, MOT4 trajectory targets the enormous CO₂ emissions that result from energy consumption in the energy-intensive sector.

In this context, InduFlexControl-2 aims to develop data-driven modelling techniques and control methodologies to harness flexibility in the energy-intensive industry and enable its active participation in the energy transition while remaining cost-efficient and minimizing its CO₂ emissions. For that purpose, the algorithms consider characteristics of:

a) relevant energy-intensive processes,

b) production constraints, and

c) energy markets and networks, which can all influence the feasible energy flexibility.

Moreover, this project is an extension of the sprint cSBO InduFlexControl. The extension continues the work on the foundations set by the sprint project and takes a step further towards (re-)design for flexibility. Thus, it explores how the incorporation of power-to-X technologies, storage and eventually an alternative design of selected components in the energy-intensive industry can extend the available flexibility.

This project is a collaboration between Ghent University (UGent) and EnergyVille partners VITO (Flemish Institute for Technological Research) and KU Leuven. The spearhead cluster for the Flemish chemical and plastics industry, Catalisti, is putting this initiative into practice with the close cooperation of Flux50, the Flemish cluster for the smart energy industry.