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Energy - Other	Last Update: 17-05-13

Results: 11-18 of 18

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Design for a prototype of an integrated device, combining an HTS superconducting transformer, a cryostat and a complete refrigeration system, as developed by the industrial partners working on the European Ready project (Oxford Instruments, Air Liquide, Schneider), with the participation of the French CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique).

How to turn powder into 'wire'

Changing powder into ‘wire' is the simple yet infuriating puzzle that hundreds of high-tech laboratories worldwide have been grappling with for more than a decade. The non-metallic physical consistency of the new HTS (High Temperature Superconductor) compounds is altogether different to traditionally extruded copper wire. How, then, is it possible to convert them into 'resistance-free' conductors of electric current?

01-02-03

: Discovered in 1933, the diamagnetic properties of superconductors make it possible to obtain a levitation effect. A spectacular application of this is the development of Maglev trains. Shown here is the prototype developed in Germany, which can 'float' above a magnetic 'rail' without any contact and, therefore, no friction. On 31 December 2002, the city of Shanghai in China inaugurated the first commercial Transrapid line, on a 30-km link between the city and the airport, with a top speed of 430 km/hr.

The long and winding road

Until the 1986 milestone discovery of High Temperature Superconductors (HTS), scientific and technological progress on 'low temperature' superconductivity had followed a long and winding road – one that can offer insights into the challenges facing today's researchers.

01-02-03

This Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometer, developed by the US firm Varian, was installed at the Pacific North West National Laboratory (USA) in March 2002. It is fitted with the very latest device from Oxford Instruments, a Wide-Bore 900 MHz/ 21.14 Tesla super-diamond, which beats all records of magnetic power achieved in a commercial application.

Superconductivity: the stakes

What would a world be like where superconductive applications were commonplace?

01-02-03

Heike Kammerlingh Onnes discovered the phenomenon of superconductivity in 1911. He subsequently won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1913 for being the first person to obtain liquid helium by descending to a temperature of 4 K (-279 °C).

A dream about to come true

Discovered in 1911 by the Dutch physicist Heike Kammerlingh Onnes, superconductivity – or the total elimination of resistance to the passage of an electric current in certain materials – is a truly exceptional phenomenon. In a sense, it is the realisation of the age-old human dream of perpetual motion. A current entering a closed superconductor circuit can travel indefinitely, free from the dissipating effect of the Universal Law of Energy Loss.

01-02-03

An example of the operational use of HTS superconductivity at an electrical supply station in Copenhagen. NKT Cables installed three 30KV BSCCO superconducting cables. The new cables carry a current five times that of their traditional counterparts. For the first time, they have been supplying, since May 2001, electricity to 50,000 homes in a reliable, economic and efficient manner.

Europe in the race

Dozens of European academic and industrial laboratories have been working together for more than a decade on the challenges of HTS superconductors. The EU actively supports these joint efforts. Takis P. A. Ageladarakis, who is responsible for superconductive materials at Research DG, explains the thinking behind this choice of priorities.

01-02-03

The optimal operation of modern blast furnaces involves a real-time analysis of a variety of data which goes far beyond what man could do. Cognitive information systems now permit a unified approach to collecting and interpreting data within the alloy production unit, and bring decisive improvements to a centuries-old technology. Pictured here is the steel control room at the Avesta Polarit plant in Sweden. © Avesta Polarit

A marriage of increased productivity and environmental improvements

Images of the large steel-making centres of the last century, shrouded in a thick black pall of toxic smoke, probably remain as the strongest symbol of industrial pollution. The accumulated technological progress of many years of research and innovation has since made such scenes obsolete.

01-10-02

Steel has a tough life

Despite competition from new materials, steel – or perhaps more accurately ‘steels', given the many forms developed to meet different requirements – is and will remain an essential component of our technological environment. Thanks to constant efforts to adapt and innovate within the ECSC, Europe is a world leader on today's steel market. This enviable position requires a continuation of the research effort made over past decades.

01-10-02

The external costs of electricity production in Europe vary from one European country to another depending on technological and demographic differences. In Germany, for example, the external cost per kWh produced by a windmill is 0.05 cents compared with between 5 and 8 cents for electricity produced by an oil-fuelled power station.

Revealing the hidden costs of energy

Europe has made a determined choice towards a policy of sustainable development. To be effective, this must involve a review of economic calculations to include previously ignored costs. If these 'externalities' were to be taken into account in the energy field, the price per kWh of fuel of petroleum origin would double. The ExternE, NewExt and ExternePol projects have developed a remarkable methodology which serves as a reference for this new kind of cost calculation.

01-10-02

Results: 11-18 of 18

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