THE NEXT GENERATION OF SPIRE INDUSTRIES WILL BE DIGITAL
Digital technologies are to shape the future of a modernized European Process Industry within the value chain ensuring global competitiveness, sustainability and jobs in Europe.
In the frame of the EU Single Digital Market, SPIRE industries need the IT programmers and Big Data specialists to work closely with them. Standardization of software interfaces, cyber-security of cloud-data platforms, robust real-time optimization or valid, reliable real-time measurements are crucial to take our industry to the new digital era. Digitalization is needed in all the aspects of the process industry and it is relevant for the eight SPIRE sectors (chemical, steel, non-ferrous, cement, ceramics, minerals, engineering or water).
As a PPP, SPIRE aims at sustaining European Process Industry to achieve a transformation that will keep and renew Europe’s leadership. F3 Factory is a relevant project example which, on the basis of digitalization, successfully introduced the concept of modular continuous plants that can make industrial processes more flexible and sustainable. The SPIRE project CONSENS is building further on the modular plant concept by introducing novel online sensing equipment that accelerates products’ time to market. And the project MORE successfully introduced computer based, real-time resource efficiency indicators.
Digitalization will play a key role to modernize European Process Industry and SPIRE projects are already showing first results. It is only the beginning. There is still much to be done if Europe wants to keep leadership, competitiveness and jobs while improving significantly the energy and resource efficiency of the production processes. Investments are needed. The time to invest is now.
In future, cognitive plants will use robust predictive and simulation tools, or digital twin models that will allow a thorough control and monitoring of the industrial plants in real time. Though this is not yet a reality, SPIRE projects such as Copro, Cocop, Fudipo or Monsoon are already working towards cognitive solutions for EU industry. Other projects are working on sensors which are needed to provide trustful information on real time (RECOBA), about different types of materials, like gas (ICSPEC) or raw materials (DESIRE), or provide different modes of data acquisition and processing (PROPAT).
Imagine the next generation of European Process Industries. Imagine an industrial plant monitored through a digital platform which provides real data in real-time of what is happening in the physical plant. A high level expert will monitor everything that is happening in the physical plant from his/her computer and will be able to communicate the plant operator what needs to be reviewed and when. S/he will also be able to accurately predict, at design level, what process will be more energy and resource efficient. Decision taking is exponentially improved. New skills will be needed. IT skills will be essential.
