A special purpose project company founded by Fels-Werke GmbH from Goslar in Germany has won the Innovation Award for Climate and Environment for a process that uses lime to produce pure synthesis gas from pollutant-rich waste and biomass. The German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology provided 4.5 million euros of support for this project. Since 2009, this award has been honouring concepts from Germany that contribute to climate and environmental protection and, at the same time, strengthen the country as a business location.  more...

Researchers from the Technical University of Dresden have succeeded in significantly improving the efficiency of chillers that use carbon dioxide as a refrigerant. One possible application of their system is in refrigeration for supermarkets, where cooling is required for equipment ranging from refrigerated display cases right through to large cold storage rooms. The researchers expect average annual energy savings of 10% compared to conventional refrigeration systems, with savings of up to 25% on warm days. The researchers are cooperating with an industrial partner to obtain initial operating experience with these systems.  more...

Anyone generating electricity or operating high-temperature industrial processes produces waste heat. This waste heat is often not utilised, since its economic use does not seem viable. Small plants using the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) promise help here: they make the waste heat usable in the form of electricity, improve the cost-effectiveness and reduce CO2 emissions. Researchers from Saarland have developed an engine that uses low-temperature heat to generate electricity very efficiently for a large range of uses.  more...

While the amount of process heat produced from solar sources is still low, the potential is high. Heating chemical baths, generating solar cooling and using hot air in a drying oven: these are classic examples of process applications. Now a metal finishing plant near Wuppertal has achieved first time worldwide by connecting its own steam network to parabolic trough collectors in which steam is generated directly in the absorber pipe. This simple technology eliminates the need for thermal oil as a heat transfer medium and saves on fossil generated energy.  more...

Copper cables only conduct electricity under resistance, meaning the cable heats up and energy is lost. In contrast, superconductors conduct electricity without loss. Their use in cable and generator projects thus increases the efficiency of the electricity supply infrastructure. With this in mind, the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology is promoting the cost-effective production of superconductive band conductors at the manufacturer Zenergy Power with funding of 3.5 million euros.  more...

Carbide is an important base material for production of fertilisers, manufacturing raw iron und in other products for the chemical industry. A chemical company from Southern Germany has developed a new process which allows plastic waste to be used to produce carbide. The carbon in the plastics is used in the carbide synthesis. That means that part of the black materials coke and coal used for the production can be replaced by the secondary raw material SCS (=synthetic carbon sources).  more...

The meter reader never rings the doorbell anymore. The Smart Meter sends the consumption data to the office by e-mail in real time. This intelligent meter is the starting point for the interactive network. The new standardised devices can do far more than calculate consumption totals. They act as control and information nodes. They allow the latest consumption data to be used to control machinery and electricity generation systems according to the supply of electricity and the grid load. They are essential if variable tariffs are to be used.  more...

The Absorber Box by Watergy, a company from Berlin, Germany, uses humid air as a source of energy. The air conditioning system can heat or cool air, thus controlling the humidity and temperature using a saline solution for intermediate storage, which saves energy. The project, supported by funding from the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, is now in the market for beta-testers.  more...

In future, superconductors will allow extremely efficient, compact and light-weight wind energy generators to be built, with the same performance as corresponding permanent magnet machines but which are only half their size. At the same time they can decrease the use of rare earths significantly for the expansion of wind energy. The "Life Needs Power" energy forum at the Hanover Trade Fair discussed how the pending scarcity of these raw materials could slow the expansion of wind energy. In his presentation, Dr. Michael Bäcker (Zenergy Power GmbH) explained the solutions second-generation superconductors offer.  more...

Food packaging: It should be colourful, lifelike and economic, whereby the inks play a central role. They must be quickly applied to the cardboard and film and be suitable for foodstuffs. A clean solution is to cure the ink using an electron beam within a few tenths of a second. However, flexographic printing requires that new inks, printing plates and machines are precisely matched to the nearest millimetre. Four companies have developed a machine that requires just a sixth of the energy used in previous printing processes.  more...