ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN EUROPEAN STEEL INDUSTRY: SANT’ANNA SCHOOL IS THE COORDINATOR OF THE EU-FUNDED PROJECT ENERMIND FOR OPTMIZINING ENERGY MANAGEMENT AND REDUCING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
The project entitled EnerMIND - Energy Management in the Era of Industry 4.0 aims at developing a novel approach for supporting efficiency improvement in energy management of electric steelworks thanks to a software characterized by a new IoT/IIoT architecture connecting energy market, utilities management and internal energy demand. The project is coordinated by Valentina Colla, is funded by the Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) and involves researchers for the TeCIP Institute (Telecommunication, Information and Perception Technologies) of Sant'Anna School, in partnership with VDEh Betribforschungsinstitut GmbH (Germany) and Danieli Automation Spa (Italy).
The foreseen research activities are fully aligned to the most recent directions the research and innovation in the steel field, which is considered a strategic sector for the promotion of sustainable development and the preservation of the technological leadership of Europe. In particular, this project will exploit the potentials of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for limiting the energetic consumption and reducing the environmental impact of the steelmaking processes.
Launched in June 2020, EnerMIND is a 42 months program developing a new generation Energy Management System (EMS) dedicated to electric steelworks, namely the steelworks, which produce steel from scrap extracted from steel-rich end of life goods. All energy sources, will be considered, including both electricity and energy from fossil fuels. The EnerMIND approach focuses on the development of novel data-driven models as well as Machine Learning (ML) and Optimization techniques for energy demand forecasting and integrated resources planning. To predict energy consumption trends, the IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) infrastructure plays a vital role in Industry 4.0 matching high value data with real-time analysis to manage and improve resource efficiency. Through ML techniques, these advanced optimization methods based on AI technologies enable accurate predictions generated by plant operations management. In addition, transactions between companies and stakeholders for energy purchase, exchange and distribution will be secured by validated technologies such as Blockchain.
EnerMIND aims at a significant reduction of the costs related to energy management, lying in the range of 5-10%, which is a relevant figure considering the consumptions of this energy intensive industrial sector. Such target will be achieved by combining efficient management, process continuity, forecasting and prevention of anomalous events and improved interaction with the market. The overall ambition is to develop a tool and an overall approach, which can provide a significant positive impact on the global competitiveness of European steelworks, in the perspective of the green transition and the decarbonization of Europe, by preserving and enforcing their technological leadership. Therefore, the project is fully aligned to the strong commitment of the European research in the steel field toward the “green” steel production technologies.
Photo courtesy: Gruppo Pittini.
