Case Studies
These test locations will validate the ASTEP solution for a substantial part of the potential requirements of industrial heating and cooling demand of the European Union (EU28), which is estimated at approximately 72 TWh per year.
Mandrekas:
The company MANDREKAS is a family owned dairy located in Corinth, Greece (latitude is 37.93 N), i.e. it is located close to the sun Belt, where solar concentrating systems can be installed at a lower price. They produce all types of yogurt, yogurt-based dressings (tzatziki sauce) and milk desserts (rice pudding, custard cream and chocolate). In their process they need both the generation of steam at 8 bar (175 ºC), to pasteurize milk, and cooling for storing their products at temperatures around 5 ºC. The concentrator developed for this case study must be designed so that capital and maintenance costs are minimized.
ArcelorMittal:
ArcelorMittal is the world’s leading steel and mining company. In particular, AM Iasi, which belongs to Europe Division ArcelorMittal Tubular Products (AMTP), is engaged with the manufacturing of welded steel tubes for many diverse applications. This industry is located at a relatively high latitude location Iasi, Romania (latitude 47.1 N). One of the key finishing for the AM Iasi’s products is the so-called colour coating, consisting on a thin layer of (epoxy, water-based, thermoplastic, etc.) coloured protective/decorative material covering the whole tube external surface. In order to apply this colour coating tubes, they need to be pre-heated to a temperature of 220 ºC.
The two selected industries, rely on the integration of solar energy into the industrial process. ASTEP will introduce into them reliable solar heat, since the current energy demand in both cases is covered with non-renewable energy sources.
The expected advance is to achieve temperatures that other systems cannot reach at the specific latitude and in a reasonable cost.