High tEmperature heat and new Feedstocks for SusTainable zerO emission induStry

On May 20, 2025, the Hefaistos project team organized a consortium meeting at EnergyVille. We had the opportunity to visit their lab.

Photo: The HEFAISTOS project partners visiting the EnergyVille lab. From left to right: Patrick Hendrick (ULB), Yves Marenne (ICEDD), Denis Pinsar (ICEDD), Jim Gripekoven (ENGIE-LABORELEC), Joris Valee (VITO), Amine Meghari (ULB), Giampaolo Maio (ENGIE-CRIGEN), Quentin Crabbe (ULB)

The Hefaistos project was presented at a digital twin modelling for decarbonisation of energy intensive industries conference held by CYPHER COST Action in Thessaloniki on 13 and 14 September 2024.

At this conference, a poster session was organised during which ICEDD explained the aim of the project and the first preliminary results. It seems really important to present the project to people working in industrial research and to discuss key issues such as the retrofitting of existing furnaces or hydrogen furnaces in terms of technical possibilities and costs.

The link with the general issue of security of supply and flexibility of electricity demand was highlighted during the conference. Furthermore, the following elements underpinned the conference and the parallel discussions :

• How can the decarbonisation of industry be a lever for flexibility of electricity demand? 
• During electricity production peak, where (on-site or off-site) and how can electricity (methane or hydrogen) be stored?
• If retrofitting is technically and economically feasible, is it still relevant to implement methanisation and the CO2 loop?
• What about the quality of final products when the fuel in the furnaces is replaced by hydrogen?

These are just some of the questions we’ll be trying to answer or give some pointers to in our research.

On May 28, 2024, the Hefaistos project team met at the new CRIGEN facilities. We had the opportunity to visit their new laboratory, where numerous cutting-edge decarbonization technologies are being tested and validated in practice.

Photo: The HEFAISTOS project partners visiting the CRIGEN (ENGIE) facilities. From left to right: Joris Valee (VITO), Enya Lenaerts (VITO), Giampaolo Maio (ENGIE-CRIGEN), Quentin Crabbe (ULB), Nadège Meister (ICEDD), Raphael Capart (ICEDD), Patrick Hendrick (ULB), Energy Specialist (ICEDD), Jim Gripekoven (ENGIE-LABORELEC), Yves Marenne (ICEDD), Ludovic Ferrand (ENGIE-Laborelec).