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Digital transformation in industry is seen as a key technology enabling decarbonization. It is obvious that measures to increase the energy efficiency and integration of renewable energy technologies must be fostered, and in most cases, these measures need a smart combination of several solution pathways. This results in a significant increase in both the design and operation complexity of these systems. However, there is no clear guidance regarding optimized systems. This work presents a standardized methodology enabling the optimized management of the demand and supply side of an industrial process towards decarbonization. The methodology is presented and showcased based on examples from the food industry and demonstrates how to realize energy efficiency measures and the integration of renewable energy by combining the supply side (SS) and demand side (DS) of industrial processes. The results show that data availability and individualized modeling are major challenges in implementing the methodology. To show the impact of optimization, well-selected key performance indicators (KPIs) are a proper means of evaluation and validation, but it is important to select them on purpose. Therefore, future research should focus on efficient data acquisition, expanding expertise, standardized modeling tools, and KPI definitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Research and Innovation (R&I) on Large‐scale Industrial Solar‐thermal driven Drying technologies (LISDs) is one of the strategies required to transition to a low‐carbon energy future. The objective for this work is to guide future R&I on LISDs by defining the state of the art, gaps, and opportunities. To provide a high‐level perspective on the current state of solar drying research, results are presented from an analysis of the content relevant to LISDs found in 45 solar drying Review Articles published in journals over the past 25 years. A conclusion is that most of the existing solar drying research is not focused on LISDs. To build‐on these existing 45 solar drying Review Articles, results are presented from an analysis of 30 Original Research Articles with significant content relevant to LISDs published over the past 5 years. A gap is identified in coupling existing or slightly modified solar thermal collectors with existing or slightly modified industrial drying technologies to create indirect LISDs. To facilitate formulating new coupling strategies, the drying characteristics most relevant to this coupling are described and four fundamental classes of industrial dryer technologies are defined based on the underlying heat transfer mechanism, which then impacts the appropriate collector choice. At their most fundamental level, many of the technologies needed to couple solar collectors and industrial dryers to create novel indirect LISDs are not unique to indirect LISDs, but rather can be generalized across a wide range of Solar Heat for Industrial Processes (SHIP) applications, and integration issues are discussed at a more fundamental SHIP level. The technical and economic characteristics of 19 existing LISDs installations throughout the world are presented, and potential and emerging areas discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two key steps in reducing the energy demand of a production site are (1) technological optimization via efficient technologies increasing process efficiency and (2) system optimization via heat integration of the total production site. Heat integration solutions will be influenced by the implemented process technologies, so the evaluation of the existing technologies and analysis of potential changes is a vital basis in energy demand reduction. This article presents the new pinch analysis tool ' SOCO' for systematic heat integration with intelligent storage systems which can reduce thermal energy consumption and improve the design of solar process heat integration in the food industry, specifically in breweries. The application to two brewery case studies reveals the usability of the new approach for designing new heat recovery concepts and the implications of technology changes in the energy demand profile. The simulation module of SOCO identifies that the use of modern state-of-the-art technologies in brewing can enhance heat integration potential by 10-35% for different processes and allows the evaluation of storage design. WIREs Energy Environ 2014, 3:561-574. doi: 10.1002/wene.117 For further resources related to this article, please visit the . Conflict of interest: The author has declared no conflicts of interest for this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]