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TECHNOLOGYSPOTLIGHT

Advances in technology across industry

Intelligent power grids

For two years now, the longest superconducting cable in the world has been operated successfully in the city center of Essen. It has transmitted about 35 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, corresponding to the energy needed by 10,000 households. The AmpaCity project thus demonstrates how power grids can be made fit for the future.

“For the transformation of the energy system, we need intelligent and efficient power grids. Only then will we succeed in optimally and sustainably integrating renewable energies into our energy system,” the President of KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) , Professor Holger Hanselka, says. “For this reason, KIT conducts research into promising superconductor technologies and combines energy research with information technology. The German Award for Innovations Relating to the Climate and Environment that has now been granted to AmpaCity with KIT being the research partner encourages us in our determination to proceed on this way.”

“High-temperature superconductivity, i.e. zero-resistance electricity transport at -200°C instead of -270°C goes back to research conducted by Alex Müller and Johannes Georg Bednorz. For their work, they were granted the Physics Nobel Prize in 1987. Thanks to the properties of the superconducting material, a special ceramic, and its cooling to -200°C, the cable is turned into an ideal electric conductor. Compared to conventional cables, the modern superconducting cable can transmit five times the amount of electricity per cross section. In Essen, the 10,000 volt superconducting cable replaces a conventional 110,000 volt line on a length of one kilometer. Since its commissioning on April 30, 2014, the cable has transmitted about 35 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, which corresponds to the energy needed by 10,000 households. Visit: www.kit.edu/kit/english/p

Smart windows clean themselves

Arevolutionary new type of smart window could cut window-cleaning costs in tall buildings while reducing heating bills and boosting worker productivity.

Developed by UCL (University College London) with support from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), prototype samples confirm that the glass can deliver three key benefits:

Self-cleaning: The window is ultra-resistant to water, so rain hitting the outside forms spherical droplets that roll easily over the surface ñ picking up dirt, dust and other contaminants and carrying them away. This is due to the pencil-like, conical design of nanostructures engraved onto the glass, trapping air and ensuring only a tiny amount of water comes into contact with the surface.

Energy-saving: The glass is coated with a very thin (5-10 nanometre) film of vanadium dioxide which during cold periods stops thermal radiation escaping and so prevents heat loss; during hot periods it prevents infrared radiation from the sun entering the building.

Anti-glare: The design of the nanostructures also gives the windows the same anti-reflective properties found in the eyes of moths and other creatures that have evolved to hide from predators. It cuts the amount of light reflected internally in a room to less than 5 per cent – compared with the 20-30 per cent achieved by other prototype vanadium dioxide coated, energy-saving windows.

“This is the first time that a nanostructure has been combined with a thermochromic coating. The bio-inspired nanostructure amplifies the thermochromics properties of the coating and the net result is a self-cleaning, highly performing smart window,” said Dr Ioannis Papakonstantinou of UCL. Visit: www.epsrc.ac.uk

Transport vehicles of the future

Emissions from the transport sector can be drastically reduced with more streamlined trucks. Researchers at Linköping University have calculated.

Erik Alfredsson, owner of Alfredssons Transport AB in Norrköping, today has 55 both light and heavy vehicles in his fleet; they’ve been running free of fossil fuels for two months. The vehicles run on HVO 100, a synthetic biodiesel that is produced from such things as offal.

For a few years now, he’s also been working intensely with Professor Matts Karlsson and his doctoral student Petter Ekman from the Division for of Applied Thermodynamics & Fluid Mechanics in at the Department of Management and Engineering. The goal is to bring down fuel consumption through reducing air resistance. Using advanced computer calculations at Linköping University’s National Super Computer Centre, they have produced a body profile for a light truck in which air resistance is substantially reduced without decreasing its carrying capacity.

Mr Alfredsson has had the vehicle built. The base is a traditional Mercedes light truck that has been given self-supporting floors and new, lighter material in parts of the body. The forms box has been rounded off; all sharp corners and edges are gone, the wheels have been partially enclosed and the roof has a slight, gentle slope backwards like a wing. Over the 90,000 kilometers the truck has travelled so far, its fuel consumption has decreased by at least 12 percent compared to the same vehicle with a traditional body.

There are certainly vast amounts of fuel to save by reducing air resistance as much as possible. Now Professor Karlsson and Mr Ekman are looking at applying their solution to heavy trucks. Visit: www.liu.se