In the first days of December the prof. Onorio Saro and the dott. Maurizio Santin of the University of Udine (Polytechnic Engineering and Architecture Department) – leader of the IDEE project – visited 3 companies in the Maniago industrial area potentially interested in the project activities. The companies are: C * Blade S.p.A, specialized in forging and processing turbine blades; STM srl specialized in hot molding of mechanical components for the automotive, earth-moving, renewable energy, industrial vehicles sectors; SIAP S.p.A. Carraro Group’s center of excellence specialized in the production of high quality components and gears for both Group companies and leading global players in off-highway and automotive vehicles.

The meetings included interviews with the companyies’ energy managers, the visit of the plants and, in particular, the most interesting areas of the production such as ovens and forging plant. The objective of the visits, as envisaged by the project, is to evaluate with the companies the extent of the thermal waste and the availability of the same companies with respect to the waste heat transfer hypothesis for energy efficiency purposes in the Maniago industrial area. Data collected during the visit and the subsequent contacts with the companies will allow to assess the extent of the thermal waste and their possible reuse for energy purposes.

With data collected it will be possible to hypothesise scenarios of efficient energy systems mainly based on the implementation of district heating networks for the industrial and urban area of ​​Maniago. It is important to underline the great attention paid to energy aspects already implemented by these companies and the fact that many processes are already optimized from the point of view of energy saving, demonstrating an advanced sensibility of the production world for energy aspects. In the next months, researchers of the University of Udine, in collaboration with the project partners from Veneto and Salzburg, will be involved in data processing and in the translation of results into useful materials for the simulation of scenarios and energy efficient systems.

The IDEE project staff wishes to express its gratitude to the companies that have opened their doors to researchers and made available data on their processes, significantly contributing to the achievement of the project objectives.