EFRO Oost Project: Energy Efficient Heat Transfer through Digital Twin Technology

We’re excited to share that Hexwise has been awarded funding under the EFRO Oost 2021-2027 program to further develop our innovative Digital Twin platform for industrial heat exchangers and cooling systems. By combining advanced real-time analytics with smart monitoring, our technology detects and addresses inefficiencies, optimizes the performance of critical cooling assets, and enhances the overall energy efficiency and sustainability of industrial operations.
 
We’re proud to collaborate with Huntsman Corporation and Nobian Industrial Chemicals over the next three years, joining forces to improve energy efficiency in the chemical industry and support the broader energy transition across the eastern Netherlands and beyond.
 

Cooling is one of the most energy-intensive and critical processes in modern industry. From chemical production and power generation to gas transport, food processing, and steel production, efficient heat removal is essential to maintain product quality, process stability, and safety. Across these sectors, air-cooled cooling systems like air-cooled heat exchangers (ACHEs), air-cooled condensers (ACCs), and cooling towers play a critical role in managing industrial heat loads.
 
Unlike traditional water-cooled and refrigerator-cooled systems, air-cooled installations use ambient air as a cooling medium. This makes them more sustainable, easier to integrate, and less dependent on coolants, while reducing environmental impact. However, these systems are inherently sensitive to environmental and operational factors such as wind direction, ambient temperature, fouling, and equipment downtime. Such influences can cause significant reductions in cooling performance, leading to production losses, increased energy consumption and reduced process stability.
 
Many industrial facilities lack the data and insight required to continuously monitor and optimize these systems. Limited instrumentation, fragmented data sources, and a shortage of thermal expertise often mean that inefficiencies remain undetected. As a result, corrective measures are reactive rather than proactive, driving up energy use and operational costs. Globally, inefficient heat transfer in cooling systems is estimated to account for around 2.5% of total CO₂ emissions, a higher share than that of the entire aviation or maritime sectors combined.

Through support from the EFRO Oost 2021–2027 program, Hexwise and its partners Huntsman Holland B.V. and Nobian Industrial Chemicals B.V. are developing an advanced Digital Twin platform designed specifically for air-cooled cooling systems. The platform combines data from sensors, process instrumentation, thermal models, weather stations, and historical trends to provide real-time insight into cooling performance and energy efficiency. Using intelligent algorithms and machine learning, it can detect early-stage performance losses, predict bottlenecks, and recommend targeted interventions.
 

Huntsman is a leading global manufacturer of differentiated and specialty chemical products that serve a wide range of industrial and consumer markets. Across its global footprint, Huntsman continues to seek opportunities to improve both energy efficiency and production reliability. At their Rotterdam-based polyurethanes plant, air-cooled cooling systems, including air-cooled heat exchangers and condensers, are deployed to manage process temperatures in key process applications such as chiller systems and distillation processes. During periods of high ambient temperatures, cooling capacity can become constrained, leading to production bottlenecks, energy efficiency losses and increased use of synthetic coolants. Through the implementation of the Digital Twin platform and insights from this pilot project, Huntsman aims to enhance cooling system performance and increase operational efficiency.
Learn more about Huntsman Corporation
 

Nobian is a European market leader in the production of salt, essential chemicals, and energy solutions, with a strong footprint a cross the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark. At its Hengelo site, Nobian operates one of the world’s largest and most advanced vacuum salt production facilities, where cooling towers are used to manage critical cooling needs within the production process. By applying the Digital Twin platform and the insights generated through this EFRO pilot, Nobian expects to increase cooling capacity and efficiency of its cooling towers, helping to reduce reliance on natural water resources, improve overall energy efficiency in production processes, and lower their energy consumption.
Learn more about Nobian
 

The development of this Digital Twin platform is co-funded by the European Union under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) 2021–2027, through the programme “Smarter, Greener and More Connected East Netherlands”, with support from the Provinces of Gelderland and Overijssel. By digitalizing and optimizing the performance of air-cooled cooling systems, this innovation directly contributes to lower energy consumption, improved operational efficiency, and reduced environmental footprint. The project supports the broader goals of the European Regional Development Fund (EFRO) accelerating the transition toward a cleaner, smarter, and more resilient industrial ecosystem across the Netherlands and Europe.
Learn more about EFRO Oost