HyCool Project Last General Assembly in Barcelona – Final Results for Industrial Solar Cooling

The Hycool Project 9th General Assembly held in Barcelona, Spain, celebrated between 19th and 20th October 2022, brought the consortium together to show the results coming from the preliminary tests, after the commissioning stages at Givaudan and Bo de Debò demo-sites. VEOLIA was in charge to arrange the meeting at their premises in Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona.

The objective of the Assembly was to review and update the project progress after the 8th General Assembly in Halle, Germany, and to discuss about the final delivery of the project results, after the commissioning stage, with the eyes on the closure of the project, under the EU monitoring who will receive and review the success of this action.

The systems installed in Givaudan and Bo de Debò pilots are now providing data from the tests which are running in the solar fields, the heat storage systems and from the hybrid cooling machines.

The assembly sessions covered during the first day, were focused on the status of the different work packages and their level of compliance according to the work plan that had to be extended and modified for the COVID_19 pandemic impact.

HyCool Meeting, 9th General Assembly – Consortium at work presenting the final results

This final meeting, nevertheless, has been the starting point to finalise the different open points regarding the evaluation of the key performance indicators, to evaluate the benefits for the industry when using this renewable source of energy, and the life cycle, cost and social impact analysis. At the same time, the end users Givaudan and Bo de Debò had the opportunity to explain their expectations about the HyCool technology installed, and the further profits and the energy savings when the systems are totally operating beyond the EU financial support.

IDP also presented the Virtual Reality environment and the Intelligent Training system developed, and applied to the Ecotherm solar system in Givaudan demo-site. These demonstrations followed to the one performed in COMET within the Workshop on “REPRESENTATIVE OPERATIONAL AND MAINTENANCE ACTIONS OF THE DEMO SITES FACILITIES” held on the 11th of October 2022.

Virtual Reality tools evaluated during the General Assembly

Other topics discussed were focused on the final reports, deliverables and open tasks that must be submitted to the European Commission before the end of the year. There were also planned the final review meeting to be held with the supervision of the Project Officer and that is planned to be performed in Barcelona again, with the aim that the European Commission Representatives can see in person the HyCool installations.

HyCool Project is closing on 31st October 2022 but the final reporting process is extended until December 2022. Now is time to demonstrate how efficient and profitable is the HyCool and thermo-solar energy for the industry, being a pioneering technology for the industrial sector enabling the green energy transition between 2030 and 2050.

HYCOOL WORKSHOP 4 ON VIRTUAL REALITY AND INTELLIGENT TRAINING SYSTEMS IN REPRESENTATIVE OPERATIONAL AND MAINTENANCE ACTIONS OF THE DEMO SITES FACILITIES

Virtual Reality environment at the Givaudan demo site: Ecotherm, AIT, and solar field technical room

The purpose of this Workshop was to discuss and propose practical and useful applications of the VR and simulated tasks combined, at least with one on-site training that has been defined and developed for Givaudan facilities, for the internal training in O&M (operation and maintenance) or Contingency plans related to the HyCool Systems, in the demo site workers may perform maintenance or repair tasks, with a twofold objective of an easier and better integration of the system in the virtual environment linked to the real-time performance data, through the SCADA control system connected remotely. The activities demonstrated during the workshop, have been discussed with the objective to propose more simple and basic tasks, monitored by Ecotherm initially and with the support of Fahrenheit and AIT for future improvements, for the rest of the equipment installed, and including the Givaudan experience conclusions as end-user, providing suitable usability tips about this kind of tools for its internal training. At the same time, the VR / ITS tool has been shown and demonstrated by IDP as a developer, to be familiar during the final General Assembly and the final reporting meetings as one of the main results of the project.

Antoni Castells from Ecotherm and Mario Caballero from IDP during the demonstration Workshop in HyCool VR / ITS tools
An immersive experience with the HyCool VR / ITS environment

CEN Workshop Agreement on ‘ Experimental characterization of the hybrid heat pump module’ – open for public consultation

Industrial processes are often energy-intensive and the need for their efficient decarbonization is now at the forefront of governmental and corporate policies worldwide. However, solutions for the green transition of the industrial sector should be flexible, widely applicable, and reliable. Two-thirds of industrial energy consumption is related to heating and cooling processes and is becoming a major environmental problem. The integration of renewable thermal energy sources at industrial sites is therefore crucial.

This CEN Workshop Agreement specifies the experimental methodology to characterize a hybrid heat pump under real operating conditions to derive performance parameters, which can be also presented as a map of performance, and heat pump capacity as a function of operating conditions. The characterization includes a definition of testing rig configuration, a testing methodology, the list and definition of  relevant performance parameters and the procedure for calculating them. The characterization can be of help to make comparisons in terms of performance.

This CEN Workshop Agreement is valid to a vast range of industrial commercial and residential applications and to those wishing to:

  • turn renewable heat and waste heat into useful cooling effect;
  • minimize energy consumption;
  • reduce operational costs; and
  • lower CO2 footprint.

This workshop was motivated by the currently ongoing Horizon 2020 HYCOOL project “Industrial Cooling through Hybrid system based on Solar Heat” which aims to increase the use of solar heat in industrial processes by combining two key components: solar thermal collectors and hybrid adsorption-compression chillers to provide steam, heating, and cooling energy with greater efficiency.

All interested parties are invited to submit comments on the draft CWA to the Workshop secretary, Mrs. Natalia Ortiz de Zárate (nortiz@une.org), by 07 October 2022

More information on the Workshop at this link.

Download the documents:

HyCool Project participates in “sustainable places 2022” within the workshop: “RHC Solutions for Buildings and Industry – 3rd Edition”

Renewable energy technologies for heating and cooling are safe, clean, efficient and increasingly cost-competitive. In its vision 2050 prospective document, the European Technology and Innovation Platform on Renewable Heating and Cooling – RHC ETIP – envisions that 100% renewable energy-based heating and cooling (100% RHC) in Europe is possible by 2050.

This workshop is a continuation of the two previous RHC for Buildings and Industry Workshop at SP2020 and SP2021. Focused on the same topic which brought together a selection of H2020 EU-funded projects involving experts from the biomass, geothermal, solar thermal and heat pump sectors to discuss a common strategy for increasing the use of renewable energy technologies for heating and cooling for buildings and industry. 

Projects are again invited to pitch their progress and achievements to date. Interactive discussion slots will allow for opportunities to identify possible synergies, cooperation on horizontal issues or potential joint dissemination activities to maximise expected impacts. 

Session chair : Andrea Frazzica –  CNR-ITAE ( Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche  – Istituto di Tecnologie Avanzate per l’Energia “Nicola Giordano”)

HyCool Project will be part of this workshop in the session “RHC for industrial applications” together with:

To see the presentations and the workshop video, please visit: RHC for Buildings and Industry workshop 3.0 – Sustainable Places (SP)

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HyCool 8th General Assembly in Halle – Germany

The Hycool 8th General Assembly held in Halle, Germany between 10th and 11th May 2022, has represented the final run in the implementation of HyCool project in the two pilot sites. The event has been organized by Fahrenheit. The objective of the Assembly was to review and update the project progress after the 7th General Assembly in Barcelona and to discuss the final steps in the current commissioning stage and before the project closing at the end of October 2022.

After overcoming different delays because of the COVID_19 crisis, the systems installed in Givaudan and Bo de Debò pilots are now providing data from the tests which are being performed in the solar fields and from the hybrid cooling machines.

The sessions on the first day of the meeting focused on the status and performance of the pilots, Ecotherm showed the monitoring systems collecting, processing, and displaying the information remotely gathered in Givaudan and Bo de Debò, not only from the solar collectors but also from the heat delivered to the cooling machines of Fahrenheit. The field demonstration of control system and optimization was showed in real time as all the systems required are installed and working.

HyCool Meeting, 8th General Assembly – Ecotherm explaning the remote communication with the Systems in Givaudan

EMPA explained the validation of the models developed regarding the adsorber material and the estimation of long-term behaviour those materials in the adsorption chillers. The results of this research will be published within the next and final 6 months of the project life.

Regarding the analysis to be made based on the project results that are now collected in terms of investments of the assets installed, the works and performance data, this analysis will be focused on the Complete Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) + Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCC) + Project impact Assessment and will delivered at the end of July by CIAOCOMET.​

The project also must enter the final production of the impact assessment in the hands of R2M. The tasks related to the exploitation, standardization and training, and dissemination and communication activities carried out by R2M, AIT, IDP, and COMET will be focused on the project results, the as-built installations, and the potentially exploitable results and technologies, by means of a communication strategy with the different stakeholders and end-users identified during the project life.

During the WP9 presentation about communication and dissemination activities, COMET and the partners discussed about the coming events, workshops and training sessions based on Virtual Reality implemented by AIT, IDP and the support of Ecotherm and Fahrenheit.

Another key point discussed has been referred to the HyCool system KPIs calculations, the KPIs list includes Energy, Economic, Environmental and Technical KPIs as defined in the deliverable D2.5 of the project. The required parameters for calculating these KPIs will be collected with the aim to apply the specific formulas and demonstrate the whole project positive performance according to the investment and operational data. Ekodenge is coordinating this task.

HyCool Consortium in Halle – Family picture

COMET explained the progress in the work package 9 during the last period and since the beginning of the project, showing the KPIs results in terms of the objectives reached at communication and dissemination level. In general terms, the project’s website has received almost 3.000 visits and social media has been used in a proper way generating a huge number of posts viewed by hundreds of connections and followers. At the same time, some videos and images made by a drone in the two pilot sites are ready to be used in the production of commercial and communication materials, now the consortium has high quality material to start a more effective communication strategy based on the project results.

Ekodenge also has updated the EER Calculator tool that is running to predict the refrigeration capacity and energy efficiency ratio (EER) of the cascade HyCool chiller for a given industrial cooling process. With this tool, it is possible to attract potential users and customers to assess their potential opportunities to incorporate HyCool technologies within their industries. The EER Calculator tool is available at: EER Calculator

The GA finished with a visit to the Fahrenheit premises in Halle, the visit included a detailed description of the adsorption cooling machines production where the different materials technology and their applications in terms of the customers’ requirements are considered. The high-quality processes applied, and the knowledge used in the technology confirmed the hit including Fahrenheit as one of the key project partners.

Visit to Fahrenheit Premises in Halle

HyCool Project is in its final stage and at the end of October 2022 the consortium will meet again to deliver and demonstrate how efficient and profitable is the HyCool and thermo-solar energy in industry, presenting the project to the citizens and industry communities in different activities that are now planning.

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