The strategic objectives of COMET are: developing new expertise by initiating and supporting long-term research co-operations between science and industry in top-level research, and extablishing and securing the technological leadership of companies. By advancing and bundling exting strengths and by integrating international research expertise Austria is to be strengthened as a research location for the long term.

The competence center BEST - Bioenergy and Sustainable Technologies GmbH is funded by BMK, BMDW and the federal states Vienna, Lower Austria und Styria within the scope of COMET - Competence Centers for Excellent Technologies. The program COMET is managed by the FFG. 

As a link between academic research and industrial technology development, our vision is to develop and demonstrate sustainable and circular biorefinery processes and technologies for producing green gases, green liquid fuels, and green products, all of which will support the transition to a climate-neutral, zero-fossil-carbon economy. Consequently, the resource basis will be extended to include organic residues, wastes, and carbon dioxide. Conversion technologies will be enhanced or redesigned to ensure their efficient and economical operation, and to allow the value cycles based on new feedstocks to be integrated into the system. By using our excellent experimental facilities, ranging from lab to pilot and demonstration scale plants, our goal is to conduct applied research of the highest scientific quality.

We apply advanced digital methods for technology development, and for the basic automation, optimization, and monitoring of the operation of individual technologies and entire plants. With the help of holistic and technology-neutral planning tools, we ensure that biorefineries and energy supply technologies are optimally integrated into a sustainable, renewable energy system.

Due to the increased integration of renewable, mostly volatile energy and the increasing coupling of different sectors (electricity, heat, mobility), there is the need for an integrated energy system in which all components interact efficiently. The Styrian COMET Center BEST - Bioenergy and Sustainable Technologies GmbH researches and develops optimization-based, predictive control strategies for this purpose.

The continuous expansion of (volatile) renewable energy generation and the coupling of different energy sectors, such as heating, cooling and electricity, have significantly increased the complexity of the energy system. Efficient operation is becoming increasingly difficult, which has an impact on the best possible use of renewable energy and thus makes new control strategies essential. This applies to larger systems such as district heating networks as well as to the area of private households. BEST has been researching such control methods for complex energy systems for over ten years.

Impacts and effects

An energy system typically consists of a large number of components; in the simple case of a single-family home, this could include, for example, a biomass furnace, a buffer storage tank, and a solar thermal system or other controllable components. These components are coordinated by a superordinate control strategy, often referred to as an energy management system (EMS). In case of the EMS developed by BEST, this is a higher-level automatic, optimization-based operational control system for all controllable generators, consumers and storage units, which can be used for various applications such as district heating networks, industrial processes and sites or private households. It can predictively and proactively respond to changing conditions, such as the weather or fluctuating energy costs.

The path from research to market readiness

BEST’s energy management system has been developed over years in various research projects and has been extended, tested and validated on a number of widely different demonstrators. Together with the Styrian company KWB Energiesysteme GmbH, these research efforts have recently led to a market-ready product. KWB's software-based solution called Clee (which stands for “Clever Energie einsetzen”) takes control of the energy components installed in a single-family home and fits them together like a mosaic into a cohesive whole. Clee combines energy consumption data with learned user behavior and also includes location-specific weather forecasts to predict when and how much heat will be needed in the house and how much free solar energy will be available at that time.

A methodical approach for many applications

BEST’s overall aim was to create a universally applicable method, a modular software framework, that can be used in many areas of application. The energy management system developed by BEST can therefore be used not only for single-family homes, but also for multi-family and commercially used buildings, neighborhoods, district heating networks or the energy system of industrial sites. A particular focus of current related research activities is also on its application in renewable energy communities.

Partner

• KWB Energiesysteme GmbH, Styria
• TU Graz, Institute of Automation and Control, Styria

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