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The challenge
Electric HEATing systems for decarbonization in the aluminium, steel, and cement industries
Industrial process heating is the single largest energy use in the industrial sector, accounting for 47% of EU industrial energy demand and roughly three-quarters of the CO₂ emissions generated directly by industry in 2018.
Approximately 75% of this energy comes from the combustion of fossil fuels, mainly natural gas, while electricity accounts for only about 4%. Europe’s energy-intensive industries urgently require high-power electrification technologies capable of reliably reaching 900–1,250 °C.
Electrifying high temperature industrial heat processes offers a pathway to eliminate fossil-fuel burners and fast-track the uptake of net-zero technologies across Europe’s energy-intensive industry (EII) sectors.
900–1,250 °C
the temperatures Europe’s energy-intensive industries need to reach reliably
Europe’s energy-intensive industries urgently require high-power electrification technologies capable of reliably reaching 900–1,250 °C. Current options either fail to provide sufficient energy density or imply prohibitive CAPEX for greenfield replacements. To remain competitive, plants need retrofit-ready solutions that integrate into existing furnaces while minimising investment requirements.
How can EHEAT tackle one of Europe’s hardest decarbonisation gaps: high-temperature process heat in energy-intensive industries?
The ambition
A scalable, energy-efficient and low-emission solution in energy-intensive industries
The project aims to deliver a retrofit-ready electrification platform that couples microwave (MW) heating of recirculated flue gas (FGR), orchestrated by robust sensing, model-predictive control, and empirically calibrated digital twins.
The result is fast, uniform, contactless heat with high energy-recovery and minimal emissions, deployable in existing furnaces without disruptive rebuilds.
MW
Microwave heating
FGR
Recirculated flue gas
MPC
Robust sensing & model-predictive control
Twin
Empirically calibrated digital twins
EHEAT timeline
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Systems Requirements and Analysis
set the technical, operational and regulatory baselines that steer R&D and enable pilots/demos.
2026 – 2027
1
R&D and testings
of the Hybrid system & Flue Gas Recirculation system.
2026 – 2028
2
Process integration, validation and pilot studies
test campaigns and integration of the developed systems into the pilot lines (representative of aluminium, cement and steel).
2027 – 2028
3
Industrial Scale Demonstration
integration of the developed systems into the industrial-scale demonstration lines.
2028 – 2030
4
Safety & impact assessment
to facilitate the replication.
2026 – 2030
5