The industrial sector heavily depends on fossil fuels for heating, contributing to 40% of global CO₂ emissions. Inefficient heating systems result in significant energy losses, slowing progress toward climate neutrality.
JOULIA is accelerating the energy transition by demonstrating advanced electric heating solutions that enhance flexibility, efficiency, and renewable energy integration. The project focuses on induction and microwave heating for rubber vulcanisation and glue activation in multilayer pipe production, optimised through digital models and simulations.
JOULIA will demonstrate two fully electric heating processes—induction and microwave technologies—at TRL 7. This campaign will not only validate their technical feasibility but also assess their environmental, health, safety, and economic impacts.
The demonstration and upscaling will take place in two industrial processes—rubber flooring vulcanisation and adhesive gluing—at demo sites in Italy and Poland.
Throughout the project, market evolution, future opportunities, and key stakeholder challenges will be analysed to support the upscaling and replication of these technologies in other industries, including food and ceramics at replication sites in Portugal and Spain.
TPG role
TPG-UNIGE is responsible of conducting a detailed thermoeconomic analysis of the two project democases (with a particular focus on ARTIGO one located in Cairo Montenotte) in order to properly size and manage the proposed innovative electric heating solutions. In this framework, the potential use of such assets for grid flexibility purposes will be studied too via specific modelling dispatchment tools to be developed by UNIGE and KTH.