Unlocking secrets under the ice
Greenland is dotted with research stations that are trying to establish the history of the Earth's atmosphere. The scientists hope that understanding the past will help to predict the future of our climate.
Stocker, and a hand-picked selection of reliable ABB low-voltage products, joined the crew of the North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling station - NEEM - earlier this year. An international research project was set up at the station in 2007 to retrieve ice cores from the second-to-last warm interglacial period, the Eemian, about 115,000 years ago.
Friends of Stocker at the University of Bern, which is involved with the project, told their 60-year-old colleague that NEEM's electrical installation needed some attention. As one of ABB's senior experts on electrical installation and the head of the company's experimental and testing laboratory for power electronics in Turgi, Switzerland, Stocker leapt at the chance to help out.
NEEM is operational only from mid-April to mid-August. The rest of the year it is simply too dark and cold to work. That means researchers have to make the very best of the time they have at the station, which is reliant on a 125-kW diesel generator for all of its electrical power.
No power, no research
Up to 36 people live and work at the station and, without electricity, nothing can be done: no drilling for core samples, no research and no work. Stocker took unpaid leave from his job at ABB and plunged into planning his trip, ordering equipment and materials that would be needed north of the Arctic Circle. "I was glad I could use ABB products," he said.
The anthropogenic (man-made) greenhouse effect is projected to warm the earth by 1.1 - 6.4°C by the end of this century, depending on the emission scenario chosen by humankind. Studying Greenland's ice to see how various aspects of the Eemian climate developed can help scientists project how our own climate might change in future.
Students, teachers and specialists like Stocker have all volunteered to help drill for core samples of old Eemian ice.
Analysis of the ice cores reveals much about past climate conditions, including temperatures, atmospheric impurities and the concentration of greenhouse gases at the time.
In camp, Stocker set about making the camp's electrical power secure and safe, installing a new fuse box, secure cable connections, circuit breakers, and built a control panel for the drilling machine.
The job was challenging. For example, if a screw went missing, "I just had to think of something," he said. When a co-worker accidentally severed a power cable with a snow blower, there was no spare cable, so Stocker had to splice the wires back together one at a time.
After one-and-a-half hours, the power was back on. Improvising made the job exciting, he said. "I would be happy to go back for a third drilling season next year."
ABB drives bring waterwheel project to life
Pioneered by Italian hydropower company, Ener.Cat.Italia, this new version of the waterwheel is being installed along a 33-kilometer stretch of the Canavese Canal, a small watercourse flowing through Turin, Italy's fourth largest city.
When it is finished, the installation will consist of about 80 waterwheels, each one producing 32 kilowatts (kW) of emission-free hydropower. The wheels will have a combined generating capacity of around 2,650 kW, enough to power 2,500 Italian homes.
To date, 16 wheels have been installed in a 300-meter section of the canal as a pilot project, with orders for commercial installations in other parts of northern Italy already in the pipeline.
The technology that helps make this project possible is based on ABB regenerative drives, which optimizes the system and feeds electricity safely and reliably into the local power grid.
Each wheel is equipped with either one or two generators, depending on the volume and flow of water available at the site in question. The wheel is controlled by an ABB regenerative drive that enables maximum power to be obtained whatever the volume or flow of water. The drive transfers the power generated at the correct values into the power network.
ABB was approached by Ener.Cat early in the project to develop an optimal solution that would help transform the mechanical energy produced by waterwheels into electrical energy that can be transferred into the distribution network.
Working in close collaboration, ABB and Ener.Cat tested different sizes of wheels and various types of generators before finding the best combination that best responds to the often large seasonal variations in water flow.
ABB regenerative drive ACS800-11 is a complete, compact single drive. Unlike drives which require additional external components like line fuses and monitoring relays, ABB regenerative drives come in a factory-tested package with all the necessary and optional components inside the drive, which makes for easy and fast installation and commissioning.
ABB is the world's leading supplier of variable speed drives. In 2008 ABB's installed base of low voltage drives saved an estimated 170 terawatt-hours of electric power, enough to meet the annual needs of 42 million households in the European Union and reduce global carbon dioxide emissions by some 140 million tons a year, equivalent to the yearly emissions of more than 35 million cars.
ABB process makes oily wastewater clean again
Developed on behalf of a leading national oil and gas company, the solution is installed at three oil and gas fields in North Africa where it has achieved some remarkable results and exceeded the customer's targets in terms of the quality of water treated and released as effluent.
Oily wastewater, also known as produced water, is brought to the surface from underground formations during oil and gas production. It is by far the largest source of waste produced by the oil and gas industry, and its management presents considerable challenges and costs to operators.
About seven to ten barrels of produced water are generated for each barrel of oil. The water can be highly toxic and typically contains oil, grease and other hydrocarbons, as well as high levels of salts, metals and trace elements.
Compared to the existing technologies for treating produced water, the ABB solution has proved more effective not only in terms of process results but in critical areas like cost, energy efficiency, footprint, speed of installation and ease of operation.
Developed and patented by ABB, the process has exceeded the customer's specifications for hydrocarbon content and suspended solid concentration in the outlet water by seven and 55 times respectively.
This is a huge improvement in the results of alternative water treatment methods that are currently used by the oil and gas industry, and is thought to be the only treatment method that meets the rigorous requirements of proposed European legislation on produced water.
Other benefits of the solution include compact footprint, the use of chemicals that can easily be produced on site using inexpensive base ingredients, ease of installation (it is built on skids and then transported to the site for installation and commissioning), and ease of operation (it uses standard equipment and requires no complex skills or operator experience).
The solution also saves energy through its compact footprint, minimal use of chemicals and innovative use of gravity.
TU Darmstadt wins Solar Decathalon in Washington
The team from Germany won first place in the competition, winning the architecture, lighting, and engineering contests. The architecture jury said the house pushed the envelope on all levels and is the type of house they came to the Decathlon hoping to see. The engineering jury gave the team the highest innovation score possible, and said no one produced a better integration of the photovoltaic system.
Darmstadt was one of seven teams to score a perfect 100 points in the Energy Balance contest. Long lines of people waited to visit the house during the week.
The Solar Decathlon challenged 20 college and university teams to compete in 10 contests and design, build, and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered home. After two years of preparation and a week of competition, the final scores and standings were announced on October 17.
The TU solar house entry, dubbed "surPLUShome," also showcases ABB's lead in the fields of renewable energy and energy efficient building control.
Professor Thomas Hartkopf, Chair of Regenerative Energies at the Institute for Electric Energy Systems at the TU Darmstadt recently joined Bernd Wagner, Bernd Jung and Christian Chowanietz from ABB in Heidelberg to talk about the project's origins and challenges.
Professor Hartkopf, how did you first react to the idea of participating in this competition?
Hartkopf: My first reaction was positive. Many ideas in the field of renewables exist only on paper, since they can't be tested for commercial projects. The Solar Decathlon is a chance to realize these ideas, to test them and learn from them.
Are the TU's ideas visions, or can they be turned into reality?
Hartkopf: We (TU and ABB) had already been working together in the early stages. Right from the start, ABB contributed its know-how to help realize TU's ideas. It was understood by us very quickly that ABB, with its innovative products, is already prepared for the future.
Wagner: I agree. ABB experts have proven they are prepared for the future, and the Technical University has proven it has innovative power, and also that this innovation can actually be turned into something practical, that people can use.
Innovations and visions are one thing - but who benefits from them?
Hartkopf: In addition to harnessing innovative technology, it was also important to us that people feel comfortable in the Solar Decathlon house. But while it should be a comfortable house, that comfort should not harm the environment.
Wagner: Yes, this was an important aspect. This is about our contribution to a worldwide architectural competition of high-tech houses, but every craftsman should be able to identify with it. Every product we used is mass produced, available at a retailer. So, in this house you don't need to be a master in IT studies to turn on the lights.
What aspect of the project made the greatest impression on you, or was your biggest challenge?
Wagner: A big challenge was definitely to equip the house in such a way that the energy which it needs to operate could be supplied by the house itself. And we wanted to do this with mass produced products, not custom products. And all of these had to be considered, sorted and then integrated in the smallest of spaces.
Jung: I totally agree. But even so, after we had the material we needed to commence building, the architects still came up with some special orders; for instance, a standard two-meter high distribution cabinet suddenly could only be 40 centimeters high, in order to fit under the staircase. Here as we confronted new challenges and mastered them, our expertise was needed. For example, when we ran out of space in another part of the house, we had to find flexible solutions. And because of the structured cable duct we used, we could do a simpler, more orderly installation which is also a benefit for disassembling the house.
Hartkopf: Right. Although everything had to be installed flexibly, so the house could be disassembled for shipping, we found that the ABB technology we used was always extremely reliable.
Will TU and ABB work together in a future project, or in the next Solar Decathlon 2011?
Hartkopf: We make a good team, so we will certainly talk to ABB first regarding the next project of this type, as well as for the next Solar Decathlon competition.
Wagner: I can us working together in the future, too. In particular, because we've seen that our mass produced component portfolio has been able to support such an innovative and visionary project.
ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 120,000 people. ABB has a full range of business activities in China, including R&D, manufacturing, sales and services, with 15,000 employees, 30 joint ventures and wholly owned companies, and an extensive sales and service network across 60 cities.
