This document combines four reports on existing regional business support programmes for inclusion or understanding of circular economy (CE) objectives, deliverable DT3.1.2 from the transform-CE project. Besides a general overview on national and regional level, the focus is on a selection of national and regional programmes aimed at the plastics industry. After explaining the format to structure the programmes, the results for the four regions are presented: Greater Manchester (UK), Rhineland Palatinate and North-Rhine Westphalia (DE), Wallonia (BE), Central Netherlands (NL).
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In order to gain a more mature share in the future energy supply, green gas supply chains face some interesting challenges. In this thesis green gas supply chains, based on codigestion of cow manure and maize, are considered. The produced biogas is upgraded to natural gas quality and injected into the existing distribution gas grid and thus replacing natural gas. Literature research showed that relatively much attention has been paid up to now to elements of such supply chains. Research into digestion technology, agricultural aspects of (energy) crops and logistics of biomass are examples of this. This knowledge is indispensable, but how this knowledge should be combined to help understand how future green gas systems may look like, remains a white spot in the current knowledge. This thesis is an effort to fill this gap. A practical but sound way of modeling green gassupply chains was developed, taking costs and sustainability criteria into account. The way such supply chains can deal with season dependent gas demand was also investigated. This research was further expanded into a geographical model to simulate several degrees of natural gas replacement by green gas. Finally, ways to optimize green gas supply chains in terms of energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reduction were explored.
This paper proposes a Hybrid Microgrid (HμG) model including distributed generation (DG) and a hydrogen-based storage system, controlled through a tailored control strategy. The HμG is composed of three DG units, two of them supplied by solar and wind sources, and the latter one based on the exploitation of theProton Exchange Membrane (PEM) technology. Furthermore, the system includes an alkaline electrolyser, which is used as a responsive load to balance the excess of Variable Renewable Energy Sources (VRES) production, and to produce the hydrogen that will be stored into the hydrogen tank and that will be used to supply the fuel cell in case of lack of generation. The main objectives of this work are to present a validated dynamic model for every component of the HμG and to provide a strategy to reduce as much as possible the power absorption from the grid by exploiting the VRES production. The alkaline electrolyser and PEM fuel cell models are validated through real measurements. The State of Charge (SoC) of the hydrogen tank is adjusted through an adaptive scheme. Furthermore, the designed supervisor power control allows reducing the power exchange and improving the system stability. Finally, a case, considering a summer load profile measured in an electrical substation of Politecnico di Torino, is presented. The results demonstrates the advantages of a hydrogen-based micro-grid, where the hydrogen is used as medium to store the energy produced by photovoltaic and wind systems, with the aim to improve the self-sufficiency of the system
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UNLOCK aims to improve the implementation of regional development policies and programmes, in particular programmes for Investment for Growth and Jobs, including European Territorial Cooperation programmes, supporting SMEs (in all stages of their life cycle to develop and achieve growth and engage in innovation), in different European regions developing regional green hydrogen economy.
