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...

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...

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...

Chemical company AlzChem has worked for around five years on a new process that enables the recycling of plastic waste for producing carbide, an important raw material used, for example, in the production of fertilizers. This means that coke and coal from coalmines can now be replaced by secondary raw materials.  more...

"Everyone is talking about the weather... except us!" One competitive advantage for rail transport over road transport is that the former is less dependent on weather conditions. However, running trains and trams in winter still involves a certain amount of effort. Alongside platforms at stations and level-crossings, the numerous sets of points on the rail network also need to be kept free of snow and ice to ensure that services can run safely and smoothly. This is where points heaters, which prevent the moving parts of points from freezing up, come into play.  more...

With a new technology, the efficient use of waste heat flows at temperatures between 200 and 500 degrees Celsius for electricity generation could in future be far more common than has previously been the case. With the support of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, DEVETEC GmbH is developing a system which can be extended in a modular fashion.  more...

Considering its versatility, superconductivity long remained a niche technology. Design and development of second-generation High temperature superconductors established new and broad operational areas, particularly in applications concerning efficiency technologies. However, there is still need for further development to turn the brittle ceramic materials into superconductive wires or bands in the required quality and quantity at acceptable costs.  more...

What role do superconductors currently play in energy technology? Where are they used, what is the research status and what can be achieved in the future? Representatives from industry, science and politics discussed these questions on 16 and 17 March in Bonn at the ZIEHL II Conference on future and innovation in energy technology with high-temperature superconductors.  more...