With the financial support of the European Structural and Investment Funds, the Institute of Environmental Technologies of VŠB-TU Ostrava is implementing a project called "Modernization of ENREGAT infrastructure" (reg. no. CZ.02.01.01/00/23_015/0008195) in the period 1.1.2024 - 31.12.2026. The project was supported in the call of the Jan Amos Komenský Operational Programme of the Ministry of Education and Science with the amount of 59 964 793 CZK.
The project "Modernization of ENREGAT infrastructure" (Infra-ENREGAT) has the task to contribute to the development of the infrastructure base for research, development and innovation in the Czech Republic through the upgrade and modernization of the large research infrastructure "Energy recovery of waste and gas purification" (VVI ENREGAT) complementarily financed from the special-purpose support of the Ministry of Education and Science (LM2023056). The single-site research infrastructure ENREGAT is operated by the research centre Institute of Environmental Technologies at the host institution VŠB-Technical University Ostrava and offers its services free of charge to the research community under open access since January 2019, when it was included in the Roadmap of Large Research Infrastructures.
ENREGAT offers access to facilities and technological units for comprehensive research on energy recovery of various wastes through incineration, pyrolysis and other thermochemical processes and anaerobic digestion of bio-waste, as well as catalytic, sorption and photocatalytic treatment of waste gases, including comprehensive related analytical services.
Given that a number of equipment has already been acquired more than 10 years ago, new strategic documents are in place at European and national level, and there is a growing interest in the services of the ENREGAT VVI, the project aims to acquire a total of 13 investment functional units/instruments (33 investment items in total), which will allow for the development, expansion and modernisation of the ENREGAT VVI as well as simple refurbishment. The selection of the specific instruments to be procured under the project is based on the identified needs of the target groups and developments in energy and related research areas.
The acquisition of new infrastructure will upgrade one research organisation or one R&D facility. The scientific potential will be strengthened, the research community will benefit significantly by increasing the quality and quantity of services offered and the number of users will increase. It is planned to introduce 26 new services, expand the capacity and improve the quality of the existing services of the LRI ENREGAT. We expect that 270 users from research organisations will use the upgraded infrastructure in open access during the project duration and its sustainability.
The new infrastructure will enhance the transfer of knowledge of ENREGAT R&D staff to the commercial sphere, increase the attractiveness for collaboration with the application sphere, which we expect to lead to innovation and sustainable development in the energy sector and an increase in the volume of collaboration with the application sphere in the form of contract and collaborative research. It will also lead to a strengthening of the international competitiveness of the LRI ENREGAT, increased involvement in international cooperation and improved conditions for practical training for students of all levels of study at the host institution, both in the Czech Republic and outside the Czech Republic.
The planned infrastructure is targeted to meet R&D needs in line with strategic objectives at national and international level (RIS3, Green Deal, FIT55 and others) in the field of sustainable energy, decarbonisation, reduction of air pollution and achieving carbon neutrality by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
