Page 13 - European Energy Innovation - Spring 2017 publication

Spring 2017 European Energy Innovation 13
society aim to build a bridge between basic research and
large-scale applications. BMBF aims to achieve a targeted
concentration of key stakeholders, which is why the projects
are designed to run for ten years – an innovative approach
in the German government’s conventional research funding
practice. €400 million has been earmarked for the Kopernikus
Projects.
The projects are focused on four key areas: power grids,
energy storage systems, renewable energies in industry, and
systems integration. These four critical areas will determine
whether the transformation of the energy sector is a success.
The Kopernikus Projects connect the societal, economic,
and environmental issues of our time: structuring a new
power grid (ENSURE), storing surplus electricity (P2X),
synchronizing industrial processes with the renewable
energy supply (SynErgie), and navigating through the
effects and side effects of economic or policy measures in
advance (ENavi). The projects are part of the Research for a
Sustainable Development (FONA). The scientific heads are
from prestigious institutions, such as the Karlsruhe Institute Carbon2Chem as well. l
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COMMUNICATION
of Technology (KIT), RWTH Aachen University, TU Darmstadt,
and the Institute for Sustainability Studies (IASS).
The funding process of projects is absolutely crucial to
implementing research projects with limited time schedules
and precisely defined content at companies, research
establishments, and universities.
REDUCE AND REUSE CO2: CARBON2CHEM
The consortium project Carbon2Chem is another very good
example of how all the relevant parties collaborate together
on this entire process. Together, they are developing a
globally applicable solution to convert waste gases from
thyssenkrupp’s steel furnaces into primary products for
fuels, plastics, and fertilizers. The hydrogen required for this
solution is produced using surplus energy from renewable
energy sources. The Carbon2Chem approach is expected
to make 20 million tonnes of the German steel industry’s
annual CO2 emissions economically exploitable in future.
This represents 10 percent of the annual CO2 emissions from
German industrial processes and the manufacturing industry.
PtJ is supporting the Ministry in the implementation of
Projects details of the Federal Ministry of Education
and Research
For more information about the Kopernikus Projects,
please see: www.kopernikus-projekte.de
A short movie about the project Carbon2Chem
can be seen here: https://goo.gl/QWnOOy
Photos: FONA/Photothek, Ute Grabowsky