3.2. Challenges and future adoption of RAS systems
Finally, financial aspects of RAS were the major issue in response to asking about the challenges to wider adoption in the future. This observation was reinforced by the companies, showing that
the financial performance is inadequate in more than 80% of the cases and there is inadequate return on the capital employed, i.e. more than 8 years are needed, on average, to get back the initial investment (Fig. 7). Therefore, there is a need to reduce costs per unit of production capacity and operating costs. The development of new energy sources and the reuse of system’s byproducts are the main ideas for future development (these appear in 85% of the interviewees answers, as possible solutions).