The next step has been taken in the heat and cold matching platform project EMB3Rs: the code of the integrated platform and of its modules is now available at GitHub, a provider of internet hosting for software development and version control.
“Even if we are still working on the platform’s development, this means that a large community of potential users will now be able to access it for free,’’ says Mafalda da Silva, project coordinator for EMB3Rs. ‘’Hence, we are making available our tool for matching heat sources and sinks and meeting our wider project goals such as energy savings or emissions reduction.” At this stage, feedback and input received from potential users will help improve the platform during the remaining project’s lifespan.
By testing the platform’s application in different geographical locations, it can be tailored to the needs of the final users. “We would welcome to hear what additional functionalities users would like to see, or if there is any variable or feature that they don’t understand or doesn’t make sense,” mentions da Silva.
The next step will be then working on the graphical user interface (GUI) of the platform, making it user friendly (including a gamification feature) and testing how outputs could be presented to the user. Afterwards, the platform will be applied and validated with the different EMB3Rs case studies, which cover different types of end-users in different locations and assess different scenarios of waste heat recovery and reuse. This will then open the door to evaluating options for scalability and deployment.
The EMB3Rs platform, developed within an EU-funded H2020 project, will allow everyone in an energy community to explore ways of reusing excess thermal energy on-site. Users, like industries that produce waste heat, will provide the essential parameters, such as their location and the available excess thermal energy. The EMB3Rs platform will then autonomously and intuitively assess the feasibility of new business scenarios and identify the technical solutions.
