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Annual Activity Report2010

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CCEM – Annual Activity Report 2010

Published by

Competence Center Energy and Mobility CCEM

Concept by

Philipp Dietrich

Editorial work, design and layout by

Peter Lutz

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Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen

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Competence Center Energy and Mobility CCEMc/o Paul Scherrer Institute5232 Villigen PSI, SwitzerlandPhone: +41 56 310 2111Fax: +41 56 310 2717E-Mail: [email protected]: www.ccem.ch

Copying is welcomed, provided the source is acknowledged and an archive copy sent to CCEM.

CCEM, January 2011

1CCEM – Annual Activity Report 2010

Table of Contents

CCEM welcomes «second generation» projects

MOSUM Mobility Support for Master’s in nuclear engineering

NEADS Next Generation Exhaust Aftertreatment for Diesel Propulsion Systems

CELaDE Clean and Effi cient Large Diesel Engines

hy.muve Hydrogen Driven Municipal Vehicle

NADiP NOx Abatement in Diesels: Process Analysis, Opti-misation and Impact

UFCEV Ultra-Fast Charging of Electric Vehicles

THELMA Technology-Centered Electric Mobility Assessment

Cohyb Customized Hybrid Powertrains

ONEBAT Battery Replacement Using Miniaturized Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

PHiTEM Platform for High Temperature Materials

ThinPV Cost Effi cient Thin Film Photovoltaics for Future Electricity Generation

HydroNet Modern Methodologies for the Design, Manufacturing and Operation of Pumped Storage Power Plants

PINE Platform for Innovative Nuclear Fuels

CARMA Carbon Dioxide Management in Power Generation

ccem-retrofi t Advanced Energy Effi cient Renovation of Buildings

AQUASAR Direct Re-use of Waste Heat from Liquid-Cooled Supercomputers

SuRHiB Sustainable Renovation of Historical Buildings

2ndGeneration New Pathways to Effi cient Use of Biomass for Biogas Power and Transportation

WoodGas-SOFC Integrated Biomass – Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Cogeneration

ARRMAT Attrition Resistant Reactive Bed Materials in Fluidised Beds

SunChem Bio-Synthetic Natural Gas from Microalgae

novatlantis Sustainability at the ETH Domain – Promotion of Transdisciplinary Science

List of Finalized Projects Scientifi c Project Partners and Financing Institutions

Presentations Publications

Patents

Foreword 3

Education 7

Mobility 9

11

14

17

20

23

26

Electricity 31

34

36

39

42

45

Heat 49

and Building 52

55

Fuels 59

62

64

67

Eco-Energy 71

Register 79

81

Appendix 83

90

99

running projects

in 2010 fi nalized projects


CCEM welcomes «second generation» projects

The Competence Center Energy and Mobility (CCEM) established its important role as a bridge-building structure between funda-mental research and industrial development requirements in the fi eld of energy research. CCEM is integrated in the organizational structure of PSI and is interlinked, with many projects, to both energy research departments within PSI and to numerous groups from the ETH Zurich, EPF Lausanne as well as Empa, and groups from several Universities of Applied Sciences. In some projects links to Eawag and WSL have also been established. CCEM has been funded by the ETH Board with a total of CHF 30 Mio dur-ing the period 2006–2010, and was able to attract a total of CHF 40 Mio of public and CHF 27 Mio of private funding (thereof CHF 5.1 Mio of public and 4.9 Mio of private funding in the year 2010).

The crucial relevance of energy as a research area is underlined by the increasing world-wide efforts to boost innovation and com-petitiveness, and to secure access to affordable and clean energy. CCEM strives to accelerate research activities in the fi elds of en-ergy provision, conversion, transmission and use. Among other measures, CCEM in 2010 has further improved is operation to enhance:• transparency and effectiveness of the process to facilitate in-

terdisciplinary projects, emphasizing high standards of scien-tifi c quality;

• implementation of the strategy to allocate research activities in the envisioned fi elds of energy research;

• accessibility of novel cutting-edge infrastructure for energy research within the ETH domain, and continuous upgrading of such infrastructure for the benefi t of facilitating projects also in years to come.

In 2010 an evaluation of the activities of Novatlantis has been conducted on January 18. The experts have assessed the contri-butions of Novatlantis as very signifi cant, but at the same time the Evaluation Committee pointed out an urgent need for greater involvement of the private sector. The ETH Board approved a fur-ther support under the same conditions as for the CCEM, focusing the activities on the two axes of push-pull projects and communi-cation of the research activities.

So far 13 projects supported with CCEM seed funding have been completed. Thereof the investment projects all lead to new infra-structure that is now in place supporting CCEM research projects, but importantly also other activities in the institutions where the infrastructure has been realized. One research project was termi-nated early after reviewing that targets envisioned could not be achieved, specifi cally with the industrial partner involved.

In the last two calls of proposals, seven new projects have been submitted by research teams which have already worked togeth-er since the beginning of the CCEM. This is a lively proof that successful interdisciplinary research within CCEM is a strong lived reality.

Foreword

List of abbreviations

CCEM Competence Center Energy and Mobility

CCES Competence Center Environment and Sustainability

4 CCEM – Annual Activity Report 2010Foreword

CCEM welcomes«second generation» projects

The ETH Board has decided to phase out its seed funding for the CCEM in the period of 2013–2016, while imposing onto CCEM the new challenge of continuing the successful mechanism of collab-orative research in the fi eld of energy. Several possible concepts of acquiring the necessary funding are being investigated, among at least two principle routes already appear promising at present.

On the one hand, discussion with the CCES board revealed poten-tial additional synergies in addressing questions that concern the use of energy and its environmental implications.

The «Masterplan Cleantech», as formulated by two Swiss Fed-eral Departments, provides another opportunity to apply the ap-proach of CCEM to research and technology transfer needs ad-dressed in the Cleantech initiative. One of the key issues to be addressed in this context is a strengthening of the links among the ETH Domain, the Universities, in particular the Universities of Applied Sciences, and industry in order to accelerate the innova-tion cycle between academia, private sector and the customers for the benefi t of our society.

This activity report presents an overview of the ongoing and com-pleted projects, which also benefi tted from the installed and up-graded infrastructure that was realized partly or predominantly with CCEM funding.

Among noteworthy outreach activities, the presentation of proj-ect results from the Heat and Building cluster at the SwissBau Exhibition in Basel January 2010 attracted many visitors. Later in June the Energietagung at the Paul Scherrer Institut was an im-portant event to communicate the scientifi c output of our Center to a broader public.

We look forward to the initiated year 2011 which will bring the launch of new important projects and yield exciting research results. A substantial call for proposal is announced for August 2011, and we hope to be able to communicate new impulses and perspectives for the future of CCEM in one year’s time.

Prof. Dr. Alexander Wokaun Dr. Philipp Dietrich Head of the Steering Committee Managing Director CCEM

EducationEducation


MOSUM Mobility Support for Master’s in Nuclear Engineering

Scope of project

At the start of the academic year 2008/09, EPFL and ETHZ launched the fi rst-ever common degree offered by these universities, viz. the Master of Science in Nuclear Engineering (NE). The fi rst two student batches in this program have followed a 3-semester (90 ECTS-credits) curriculum, which has entailed spending the fi rst semester at Lausanne, the second at Zurich and the third carrying out the Master research project at PSI. Starting with the third batch of students, who joined in Septem-ber 2010, the curriculum has been upgraded to 4 semesters (120 ECTS), making the Swiss program fully compatible with other European universities under the Bologna system.

With mobility imposed as a necessary condition for this multi-campus, energy related Master’s, funding to compensate for the supplementary expenditure incurred by the students in this context has – from the very beginning – been provided by the CCEM project, MObility SUpport for Master’s in nuclear engineering (MOSUM). This is the third annual project report.

Education

Main Investigator

Rakesh Chawla, EPFL

Project Partners

EPFL

ETHZ

PSI


ECTS European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System

NE Nuclear Engineering

Status of project

There are effectively three batches of students to re-port upon currently. Of the 12 students in the fi rst (2008) batch, 10 have either found employment in industry or have embarked upon doctoral research. One student was un-able to clear the compulsory courses and had to leave after 2 semesters, while the twelfth student has been delayed with completion of his Master thesis due to prolonged military ser-vice.

Of the 14 students who started in the 2009 batch, two left the program during the fi rst se-mester. Most of the remaining 12 students have completed their course work, as also their industrial internships, and are currently pursuing their Master research projects at PSI. As for the fi rst batch, the research topics chosen by the students correspond to a wide range of technical interests – from neutron assay of burnt fuel, through temperature devel-opment in waste repositories, to human reliability analysis (HRA) applications. This, of course, also refl ects the large variety of research disciplines

covered by the different labo-ratories of PSI’s Nuclear En-ergy and Safety (NES) depart-ment.

The third (2010) batch has 15 students and is the fi rst one to embark upon the new 4-se-mester curriculum, the struc-ture of the upgraded NE-Mas-ter being indicated separately. The principal measure in place for accommodating the sup-plementary 30 ECTS is an ad-ditional semester, to be spent largely at PSI. This will be de-voted to several new «block» courses and will also allow the formal implementation of the 8-ECTS industrial internship.

Outlook

The advantages of the new NE-Master curriculum have al-ready started to be felt by the students, e.g. the improved sequencing of the compulsory courses during the fi rst semes-ter at EPFL. The improvements are expected to be much more «visible» once the new ad-ditional semester at PSI has been implemented.

Applications have already started coming in for the fourth (2011) batch of stu-dents, the targeted batch size, this time, being 20. Thanks to the recent positive decision of the CCEM Steering Committee, the fi nancial support provided by MOSUM to students of the multi-campus NE-Master is being extended into its fourth year.

Structure of the Upgraded NE-Master

The 120 ECTS-credits of the upgraded EPFL-ETHZ Nuclear Engineering Master are structured as follows:

• compulsory courses (32 ECTS)

• core elective courses (30 ECTS)

• free elective courses (10 ECTS)

• management course (2 ECTS)

• semester project (8 ECTS)

• industrial internship (8 ECTS)

• master’s thesis (30 ECTS).

The teaching language is English.

MobilityMobility


NEADSNext Generation Exhaust Aftertreatment for Diesel Propulsion Systems

Mobility

Main Investigator

Panayotis Dimopoulos Eg-genschwiler, Empa

Project Partners

Empa

ETHZ

PSI

FHNW

Final report

The impact of NEADS in the scientifi c landscape is refl ected by its quite impressive publication list included in this report. NEADS enabled not only some scientifi c work with interesting results for academia, technology and industry. It is not incidental that some of the efforts achieved additional funding as well as industrial interest and have spawned some smaller scaled application projects. In addition a patent has been applied for.

Nevertheless the impact of NEADS has additional components: It provided some educational op-portunities for young academics and technicians, apart from the pressure on the older ones to keep up with newest developments. It provided also a unique platform where scientists of different skills, institutions and interests met and, at least in the beginning, knew they had to fi nd a common lan-guage. This imperative, however, very soon, was replaced by mutual curiosity and interest. This led to collaborations as well as to a fruitful competitive atmosphere.

Main new insights can be sum-marised as• Catalytic performance vari-

ations of a zeolithe are due to the different catalytic activity of monomeric, di-meric, clustered and oligo-meric Fe-sites over exhaust temperature. Thus, pur-poseful zeolithe formula-tion can improve properties over the entire tempera-ture range.

• The Brønsted-acidity of the catalyst is not a crucial fac-tor for high activity, but is necessary to bind and dis-perse the metal ions.

• Main reason for hydro-thermal aging is the Fe migration, which leads to the formation of FeOx

clusters, increasing in size during aging. The stability is thereby rather a ques-tion of the stability of the active iron species in the ion exchange site than of the framework stability it-self.

II: Ceramic foams as exhaust microreactor

The development of a new cat-alyst based on ceramic foam substrates was the scope of project II. The goal was to de-

velop a catalyst with low pre-cious metal requirements and excellent conversion behav-iour.

This included the study of the fl ow fi eld and the mass transfer properties through and inside such a structure. This implied some modeling which extend-ed from the surface character-istics to an analytical solution of the mass transfer perpen-dicular to a cylindrical foam strut and further to a Kelvin cell up to some 1-d numerical simulation. Two promising ap-plications emerged (instead of one as initially anticipated):• Three way catalyst applica-

tion for compressed natural gas (CNG) power trains

• Diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) upstream of the die-sel particulate fi lter (DPF)

Both applications are current-ly under vehicle testing. The DOC application required some additional prestudies aiming in analysing and deep under-standing of the DOC during operation in active and passive regeneration modes as well as understanding soot and ash distribution in the DPF down-stream. Soot micro and nano-structure analysis was per-

Scientifi c results

The scopes of each proj-ect partner, the main break-throughs as well as the major interactions among the part-ners are summarized below.

I: New generation of zeolite SCR catalysts

Project I activities have fo-cussed on the development of zeolithe selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalysts with high activity at low and good stability at high exhaust tem-peratures. While understand-ing low temperature behaviour required detailed description of the underlying processes on the molecular level, high temperature characteristics implied research of the aging mechanisms. The acquired knowledge enabled not only the formulation of a new cata-lyst and the preparation of fi rst prototypes, it provided impor-tant insights on the operational modes of SCR catalysts lead-ing to important parameters for the numerical simulation of such systems for task II of this project consortium. Prototypes are now tested by industrial partner and a product applica-tion is feasible.


CNG Comopressed Natu-ral Gas

DiSC Diffusion Size Clas-sifi er

DOC Diesel Oxidation Catalyst

DPF Diesel Particulate Filter

SCR Selective Catalytic Reduction

10 CCEM – Annual Activity Report 2010

formed in close collaboration with the tasks A and C.

III: Combustion inter-face

Project III has further devel-oped the soot emission model and compared the predictions with in-cylinder and exhaust gas measurements. The capa-bilities of the model are very good for stationary engine op-eration while the accuracy dur-ing transients is also impres-sive. Apart from this, further main achievements can be summarized as follows:• Soot emission quantifi ca-

tion by leading edge mea-surement technology, i.e. micro soot sensor and fi lter smoke number in the ex-haust and two-colour py-rometry in cylinder.

• Prediction and measure-ment of the soot emission of different Diesel fuels.

The success of the model is best underlined by the addi-tional funding that this project received throughout its dura-tion.

Task A: New instru-mentation for particle characterisation

The focus of Task A was the de-velopment of advanced diag-nostic techniques for analysis and quantifi cation of particle emissions and particle behav-iour in the atmosphere.

• Development of a microre-actor exposing individual soot particles to a defi ned environment and usage at the Pollux X-ray scanning transmission microscope beam line of the Swiss Light Source (SLS) at PSI.

• Spectroscopic and micro-scopic characterization of individual particles from a vehicle DPF (Project II of this consortium) and from the smog chamber (Task C of this consortium).

• Successful application of the high resolution time-of-fl ight aerosol mass spectrometer (also called W-ToF-AMS) in test bench, smog chamber and fi eld experiments.

• FHNW has continued to im-prove the developed Mini-DiSC device as a mobile soot quantifi cation device for the low soot emissions in modern exhaust.

Task B: Numerical sim-ulation

Activities in Task B have suc-cessfully developed a nu-merical tool for simulating the momentum, heat and mass transfer as well as wash coat diffusion and chemical reac-tions in one representative channel of an SCR catalyst. The tool was successfully tuned by experimental data from Project I of this consor-tium. Further achievements can be summarized as follows:• Successful simulations with

wide variations of the most relevant operating param-eters like Gas Hourly Space Velocities, temperatures, NO/NO2 feed ratios as well as NH3 feed quantities

• Successful simulation of transient operations

• Fundamental numerical investigation of the urea-water solution injection, droplet formation and evaporation

Task C: Atmospheric interactions

The topic of Task C was the description of primary emis-sions from vehicles at differ-ent operating conditions and with different fuels but also of the traffi c as a whole. Thereby the focus was the mass spec-tral signature of the particu-late matter in the exhaust but also in the air of heavy traffi c tunnels. Based on the prima-ry emission and their behav-iour in the smog chamber the secondary aerosol formation under sun light was a further focus. The main achievements can be summarized:• Emission factor characteri-

sation of different vehicle categories (from trucks to scooters) on various cycles and with different fuels.

• Correlation of vehicle type emission factors with road tunnel air quality measure-ments

• Secondary organic aerosol forming potential of differ-ent vehicle emissions un-der various climatic condi-tions.

Task C had intensive interac-tion with Task A as well as with Project II of this consortium.

The fact that the NEADS con-sortium with only minor varia-tions decided to move on with a new project is the best proof that the involved parties re-gard this platform as inspiring, fruitful and effi cient.

NEADSNext Generation Exhaust Aftertreatment for Diesel Propulsion Systems

Mobility

Figure 1: Vehicle for diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) application on the chas-sis dynamometer with the specifi cally designed ex-haust aftertreatment hous-ing (recognisable behind the right front wheel of the vehicle).

11CCEM – Annual Activity Report 2010 Mobility

CELaDEClean and Effi cient Large Diesel Engines

Final report

The overall project deals with the development, application and validations of both simulation and experimental methods with the aim to support Swiss and interna-tional industry in the realization of future very-low-emission, highly effi cient large diesel engines. As seen from fi gure 1, the involved partners from ETH Domain will work starting from science fundamentals through a transfer level (i.e. making methods useful to industrial partners) to a range of possible industrial applications.

Status and main scientifi c results of workgroups

Main Investigator

Konstantinos Boulouchos, ETHZ

Project Partners

ETHZ

PSI

Empa

Figure 1: Strategic project structure and interdepen-dence between the project partners and tasks.

of data from two generic high pressure high temperature test rigs as well as heavy duty die-sel engine experiments.

Good predictive capabilities have been found for ignition delays, the pressure and heat release rate evolutions. Sen-sitivity is reported concerning the chemical mechanisms em-ployed, the spray models uti-lised as well as (measurement) uncertainties in the initial con-ditions.

Reasonable predictions for NOx emisssions have been demon-strated for a heavy duty die-sel engine for a wide range of operating conditions with different fuel injection pres-sures, start of injection, engine speed and load. The trends with respect to exhaust gas recirculation are also correctly captured. Concerning soot, models developed for single phase sooting fl ames have been incorporated in the CMC code and fi rst results obtained herewith are qualitatively and quantitatively in agreement with data reported in the lit-erature.

Task 1B: Dedicated single-cylinder research engine with partial optical access

The new test facility – based on a MTU 396 engine, with 185

mm bore and 165 mm stroke, (displacement volume roughly 4 liters) is equipped with a compensating shaft. During the progress of this project the compensation system was im-proved and optimised by the LAV staff and the engine was equipped with a common rail injection system.

The test facility is equipped with a steam supply and exter-

The CELaDE project is fi nal-ized. As expected in such ambitious programs some particular challenges need to be further addressed in sub-sequent projects, which have been either already initiated or are in the proposal submission stage (non-CCEM funding).

Of particular importance is the fact that all three major infra-structure modules (single cyl-inder engine test rig at the ETH, LERF facility at PSI and the transient high-torque test bed at Empa) are fully opera-tional, have been widely and successfully used within the individual tasks and are now available for further national and international collabora-tions (EU Hercules, FVV-, BFE- and KTI-Projects are running in parallel).

Interactions among tasks have been established, synergy effects become visible and «know how» and infrastructure have been «glued» together.

Task 1A: Development of improved submodels for in-tegration in CRFD-codes

A high-fi delity 3D computa-tional reactive fl uid dynamic (CRFD) combustion code using conditional moment closure (CMC) has been further devel-oped and validated by means


CMC Conditional Moment Closure

DiSC Diffusion Size Clas-sifi er

CRFD Computational Reactive Fluid Dy-namic

ID Ignition Delay

LIF Laser-Induced Fluo-rescence

OLP Optical Light Probe

PASS Photo Acoustic Soot Sensor

Figures 2: 0D-CMC and 2D-CMC compared to the experiment. upper: pressure traces

together with the fuel injection rate

middle: heat release rateslower: NOx predictions at

50% load


nal charging to condition the temperature and pressure of the intake air. A sophisticated exhaust gas recirculation sys-tem, consisting of an exhaust gas fi lter/cooler and a roots compressor, is also available. This confi guration allows an accurate adjustment of the in-let to outlet pressure ratio.

A powerful electric motor al-lows the combustion engine to be motored up to engine speeds of 1400 revolutions per minute (RPM). For the engine start-up a pneumatic starter, providing high levels of torque, is required to assist the electric motor.

First experiments have been executed on the test facility. From these measurements a series of useful data concern-ing heat release rate, pollut-ant emissions and in particular soot formation and oxidation with high temporal resolution within the cylinder have been obtained (see task 2B).

Task 1C: Laser optical spec-troscopic measurements

The focus of activities in this task was on the de-velopment of measurement techniques for soot and NOx in high pres-sure combus-tion conditions and has prov-en to be even more chal-lenging than anticipated at the beginning of the project.

Nevertheless a certain prog-ress has been made for both – NOx and soot – spe-cies detection and the acquired knowledge forms a valuable basis for future developments.

Both methods were applied (successfully) to elevated pressure conditions but still need to prove their feasibil-ity at real engine conditions (higher pressure, strong tem-perature gradients, interfering light emission from fl ame lu-minosity/droplet fl uorescence/background radiation).

NO LIF for High Pressure Com-bustion:

The status of current capabili-ties for application of NO la-ser induced fl uorescency (LIF) techniques is best represented by fi gure 5, which represents (2-D) gas temperature distri-bution in a channel fl ow reac-tor at various pressure levels.

Even though the precision de-teriorates as the pressure is increasing, the implemented method of thermometry using seeded NO LIF has proven to be accurate and precise within at least 50 K (which is compa-rable to established 1-D meth-ods like CARS). The method is generally applicable to a wide range of fl ame conditions.

Soot formation/oxidation dur-ing fuel injection:

The experience gained with the RAYLIX method will serve as a very valuable basis for future applications of similar laser based techniques such as the one to be followed in the near future within the EU funded Project HERCULES-B in which detection techniques for

vaporized fuel compounds will be investigated at conditions relevant for (marine) diesel engines.

Task 2A: Zero-dimensional, phenomenological models, capable of predicting en-gine behaviour

The main objective of task 2A is the validation and improve-ment of fast phenomenologi-cal combustion and pollutant emission models for direct in-jection diesel engines. These models should be able to pro-vide accurate predictions of heat release rate (HRR) and engine-out NOX emissions for varying inlet charge and injec-tion conditions, during both steady state and transient en-gine operation.

The models developed in this work have been tested us-ing experimental data from the LERF engine facility. Tests showed good results for HRR and NOX prediction at standard engine conditions, but insuffi -cient accuracy for the ignition delay (ID) and NOX prediction at lower (TDC) temperatures, relevant to engines with ad-vanced Miller valve timing. To address the ID prediction defi cit, an extensive ID study was performed, which resulted in a new fi t for a model which can better predict ID using the charge air temperature and pressure during the injection period. For the NOX prediction, a detailed study is ongoing using CRFD-information from task 1A.


Mobility

Figure 3: Mounted gas sampling valve in the MTU-396.

Figure 4 (upper): Com-parison of 4 different soot measurement systems in transient operation.

Figure 5 (lower): Temper-ature of lean diluted meth-ane fl ames at elevated pressures.


Task 2B: Development and application of both optical and non-optical minimal in-vasive methods

The particulate emissions from a diesel engine can be characterized in many differ-ent ways. Mass concentration and particle number are used in exhaust emission legisla-tions. Furthermore, particulate size spectral analysis and op-tical in-cylinder and tail pipe measurement methods can be used to characterize diesel en-gine operation in terms of ex-haust particulate emissions. In this case, a in-cylinder optical light probe (OLP), a diffusion size classifi er (DiSC), a photo-acoustic soot sensor (PASS) and a smoke meter (FSN) were used to characterize the engine operation and compare the measurement instruments in steady state as well as in transient operation of a single cylinder research engine (see task 1B). The OLP measures the soot radiation and crank angle resolved soot density is calculated. The DiSC measures particle numbers and their mean size. The PASS measures the elementary carbon mass fraction from the exhaust gas.

The transient measurement data were obtained during load steps (change in duration

of injection), variation of fuel pressure and changes in start of injection at constant en-gine speed. The steady state and the transient data are presented for all instruments, with a focus on comparability in steady state operation and response time during transient operation. The OLP signal is cycle-resolved from inside the cylinder. In contrast, the ex-haust gas for the other instru-ments is taken after a silencer, where mixing of the exhaust gas from different cycles oc-curs. Dilution systems are mounted between the PASS and the exhaust pipe, as well as between the DiSC and the exhaust pipe.

Qualitative and partly quan-titative agreement was found between the different mea-surement instruments during steady state operation. The response times of the instru-ments in transient operation are between instantaneous (OLP) and a few seconds (PASS, DiSC).

In the progress of this project, a fast sampling valve was de-veloped and is now in a pro-totype state. This sampling valve is meant to take samples directly from the combustion chamber. Gaseous parts will then be analyzed by a fast


mass spectrometer. Particu-lates can be deposited on grids and be analyzed with optical methods or by accumulat-ing and averaging over sev-eral samples with systems like PASS or particle counters.

Task 2C: Development of methods and algorithms to deduce relevant engine op-eration parameters

Cylinder-pressure-measure-ment-based issues concerning clean and effi cient combustion and diagnosis of modern heavy duty diesel engines were ad-dressed in Task 2C.

Clean combustion of diesel and alternative fuels was studied in detail and losses of different combustion strategies were quantifi ed using a pre-series Euro VI engine. Further exper-imental research on combus-tion of different fuels was fi n-ished in October 2010 and will be evaluated and published in 2011. Additionally a novel and robust approach to determine the start of combustion could be found. The new approach is computationally cheap and offers the possibility to be in-tegrated in real-time control algorithms to detect ignition delays and the failure of in-jection components. The ap-proach was applied for patent.

Figure 8: Cylinder pres-sure, heat release rate (HRR) and cumulative heat release rate for differ-ent main injection timings without any pre- and post-injections.

Figure 9: Effi ciencies for variations of the main in-jection timing (BOImain).

Figure 6 (left): Actual pic-ture of the MTU test facil-ity.

Figure 7 (right): Engine with combined DOC/DPF/SOC exhaust gas treat-ment system on the test bench.



FC Fuel Cell

BoL Begin of Life

hy.muveHydrogen Driven Municipal Vehicle

Scope of project

A fuel cell driven street cleaning vehicle is developed in this project. The three main tasks are the de-velopment of a dynamic computer model of such an application, based on the system performance in its practical use. The second task is the integration of a fuel cell / battery electric drive train into a modifi ed Bucher CC2020 street cleaner, including the development of the control strategies needed and the fi eld testing of the vehicle in four different Swiss cities. The third task is the development of a hydrogen fuel market introduction for Switzerland.

Mobility

Main Investigator

Christian Bach, Empa

Project Partners

Empa

PSI

Bucher Schörling

Proton Motor Fuel Cell GmbH

Messer Schweiz AG

Brusa Elektronik AG

Field Testing Partners

City of Basel

City of St. Gallen

SwissAlps3000, City and Canton Berne

at 47 %, while about 40 % of the net power was consumed by the aspirator and another 40 % by the hydraulic drive for the brushes and the power-assisted steering and braking. 20 % was consumed by aux-iliary power systems and the drive train for vehicle move-ment (fi gure 3).

Conventional vehicles with die-sel engines and hydraulic pow-er distribution are consuming

4.5–6.5 l diesel per hour in real operation. A direct compari-son between the hy.muve project vehicle and a conven-tional machine was not pos-sible yet. This will be done within the next months.

However, even if a direct com-parison is not done yet, it can be concluded, that the desired reduction in energetic con-sumption of 50 % is clearly achieved despite the addi-tional weight of the vehicle of about 500 kg. Furthermore, we found that the performance of the vehicle especially at uphill driving is at least equal to that with conventional propulsion motor. The quieter operation of the vehicle is another advan-tage which is appreciated by the drivers very much.

Beside these very pleasing results, the reliability of the vehicle was not satisfactory enough. During the four month fi eld testing, it was possible to operate the vehicle only very few days without failure. Prob-lems happened with the H2 pressure regulator (leak), the air compressor (starting diffi -culties at low ambient temper-atures), several sensors inside the fuel cell system (malfunc-tion, contamination) and the fuel cell system control sys-tem. In addition, the fuel cell system was not really designed for wet cleaning, therefore the daily cleaning procedure was quite time-consuming (cover-ing of delicate components).

For certain reasons, the proj-ect team decided to evaluate a new fuel cell system which was investigated in a fi eld applica-tion before.

Status and main scientifi c results of project

Project vehicle

During test runs at the vehicle fi eld testing from August to October 2009 in Basel, it was found, that the energetic tar-get of the project (50 % en-ergetic fuel consumption re-duction) is clearly achieved. The vehicle consumed about 0.5 kg of hydrogen per hour, corresponding to a diesel fuel equivalent consumption of about 1.7 l per hour. The mean effi ciency of the fuel cell sys-tem during these test runs was

Figures 1 and 2: Fuel cell driven cleaning vehicle.

Figure 3: Energy consumption analysis of the hy.muve fuel cell vehicle during fi eld testing.

15CCEM – Annual Activity Report 2010 15

Finally, a new system with the same power output, much better dynamics and better integration of auxiliary com-ponents could be purchased. After delivery in June 2010, the new system was success-fully tested at PSI on a fuel cell test rig and integrated into the vehicle at Empa, in-cluding adaption of the power electronics, the safety concept and the overall vehicle control system. On 13th of December 2010, the vehicle passed the TÜV certifi cation and is ready now for the re-start of the fi eld testing in Basel.

Sozio economic research

Choice experiments have been widely used in market research for product innovation, and can be benefi cial for eco-inno-vation research, too. Therefore we used this method for an on-line survey to determine users preferred street-sweeper tech-nology in Switzerland (174 re-spondents) and Germany (100 respondents).

Our study extends previous research on consumer prefer-ences for alternatively fueled vehicles in two ways. First, most past research has been conducted about individual consumer (or household) pref-erences. This research focuses on fl eet buyers’ preferences, as fl eet managers are considered as a promising target group for early testing and implementing of new drive train technolo-gies. A sound understanding of fl eet purchase behavior will lead to more effective market-ing and policy strategies. Sec-ond, this study contributes to the few studies that already

exist analyzing the acceptance of hydrogen and hydrogen technologies.

In the choice experiment, the respondent is presented to a number of choice situations and asked to choose the most preferred vehicle. Specifi cally, respondents were provided with descriptions of three street-sweeper types: • conventional diesel vehi-

cles (defi ned as the status quo),

• vehicles which run on com-pressed natural gas/bio-gas, and

• hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles.

The use of different alterna-tives allows for the preference analysis of hydrogen in the context of other competing technologies.

Through expert interviews and a literature review, we identi-fi ed the most relevant attri-butes for road-sweepers. The attributes include • fuel type, • purchase price, • running costs, • refueling distance (i.e. the

time it takes to drive the road-sweeper to the next refueling station),

• polluting emissions, and • noise emissions. In addi-

tion to these six attributes, respondents were told to assume that the street-sweepers are identical in all other aspects (e.g. cruising range and reliability).

By using Hierarchical Bayes estimation we determined customer preferences and the importance of product attri-butes in vehicle choice. This procedure makes it possible to

simulate different market sce-narios based on stated prefer-ences and to answer strategic questions such as communi-cation or prizing strategies. A conceivable scenario is the in-troduction of a H2 small batch into the existing market (the corresponding attribute levels are provided in table 1).

Based on this scenario a sensi-tivity analysis was conducted. This approach can show how much the hydrogen driven street-sweeper’s overall pref-erence can be improved by changing its attribute levels one at a time, while holding all other attributes constant at base case level. In this way, the impact of each attribute level is estimated within the specifi c and appropriate context of the competitive landscape.

Figure 4 shows estimated shares of preference from this type of sensitivity analysis. This means that the results re-fl ect the potential market ac-ceptance given proper promo-tion, distribution and time.

In our H2 small batch scenario the hydrogen driven street-sweeper captured 10 % rela-tive share of preference in Switzerland and 5 % in Germa-ny respectively. Decreasing the purchase price by 10 % (from €221.000 to €195.000 or from CHF 272’000 to CHF 240’000) for example results in a higher relative preference of 16 % in Switzerland and 14 % in Ger-many respectively.

The analysis of a H2 large batch scenario revealed a promising potential market acceptance for the fuel cell road-sweeper of 21 % in Germany and even 34 % in Switzerland.


Mobility


Main achievements in 2010


Mobility

Fuel Cell

Before installation the new fuel cell system in the vehicle, the system was tested for it’s be-gin of life (BoL) characteristics with respect to effi ciency and dynamics on a test-bench at PSI. For a full load profi le from idling to full load the system shows a hysteresis, with the better performance under de-creasing load (fi gure 6). The effi ciency (based on the hydro-gen consumption, lower heat-ing value) reaches a maximum of about 55 % between 10 and 40 % of rated system power.

The system dynamics have also been tested. System power may be increased from idling to full power in approx. 10 s. Results are shown in fi g-ure 7.

In addition to the electrical characterization product wa-ter samples were analyzed for anions at BoL. It is planned to track the anions in the product water during operation as indi-cator for the state of health of the fuel cell.

Figure 5 (left): FC box of the hy.muve project vehicle

Figure 6 (middle): System effi ciency as function of system current (Effi ciency based on lower heating value of hydrogen).

Figure 7 (right): Power in-crease from idling to full load. A transition time of 10 s is reached.

Table 1 (upper): H2 small batch scenario.

Figure 4 (lower): Results of sensitivity analysis

Project vehicle

In 2010, the main achieve-ment is the re-design of the whole power train for the new fuel cell system including me-chanical as well as vehicle and battery control aspects and fuel cell system cooling with installation and initial opera-tion of the new fuel cell sys-tem. Figure 5 shows the new box with the fuel cell system inside.

Socio-economic research

The survey results indicate that the refueling practices in Switzerland and Germany are favourable for an early realiza-tion of hydrogen infrastructure and that a potential market acceptance for hydrogen driv-en street sweepers exists in both countries, whereas Swit-zerland could serve as a lead market.


NADiPNOX Abatement in Diesels

Scope of project

The selective catalytic reduction of NOX with urea is one of the key technologies for nitrous oxide abatement in the fi eld of heavy-duty vehicles and naval engines. The project NADIP focuses on in-creasing the effi ciency of urea selective catalytic reduction (SCR) DeNOx systems by optimization of the urea decomposition upstream the SCR catalyst.

Crucial parameters studied and optimized within this project are fl uid dynamic behaviour of the urea-water solution as well as urea thermolysis and hydrolysis under formation of ammonia. The un-derlying thermolysis and hydrolysis reaction mechanisms will be studied on a model reaction system employing surface science analysis tools. Based on model simulations the fl uid dynamic behaviour will be optimized on an exhaust gas test fl ow rig.

The improved SCR system will be implemented into a heavy-duty diesel engine and a naval engine exhaust gas line to verify its increased effi ciency. The impact of widespread introduction of the im-proved technology on the atmosphere and resulting future air quality will be simulated.

Measuring techniques and pilot fl ow rig by Empa ICEL

A pre-assessment of the mea-suring techniques to apply, lead to shadowgraphy for the spray visualisation and phase doppler anemometry (PDA) for the droplet sizing characteriza-tion. Based on the spatial and optical requirements of these techniques the layout of the pilot fl ow rig was completed (fi gure 1).

In a further step it was decided to equip a new room at Empa in order to have a safe, sepa-rated accommodation of the experiments given the high temperatures and the ammo-nia handling.

Special items, e.g. the spe-cifi cally coated quartz glass windows have been ordered and already delivered, test assemblies have been com-pleted. The next step is the so called black inoxing, where the pilot fl ow rig and all associ-ated parts will be coated with

a black light scattering (anti-refl ex) coating.

The peripheral equipment as well as controlling and safety devices have rendered a new outline of the spatial distribu-tion and positioning of all ex-periment components neces-sary.

Modeling by ETHZ/LAV

ETHZ/LAV has advanced with the simulation techniques. Im-proved results have been com-pared with measurement from the PSI/EGA group. In addi-tion, the mesh preparation for the Empa pilot fl ow rig is well under way.

Preliminary studies for urea spray injection and hydrolysis/thermolysis processes have already been carried out and documented in the NEADS fi nal report. Substantial progress is reported on further improving and validation of the model developed in NEADS which has seen highly successful applica-

tion to a broad range of tran-sient and highly dynamic oper-ating conditions representative for engine operation.

As outlined in the NEADS fi nal report, a 1D+1D model for a single channel of an SCR con-verter has been developed for Fe-zeolite catalyst. The param-eters describing the physical and chemical characteristics of the system have been cali-brated based on an extensive experimental dataset of a commercially available Fe-BEA zeolite catalyst, collected by the Exhaust Gas Aftertreat-ment Laboratory of PSI.

Specifi c experiments have been used in order to validate the model. The main experi-ments describe the perfor-mance of the system under the fast transient operation, called dynamic, which is more

Main Investigator

Panayotis Dimopoulos Eg-genschwiler, Empa

Project Partners

Empa

ETHZ

PSI


FTIR Fourier Transform Infrared Spectros-copy

HNCO Isocyanic Acid

HPLC High-Performance Liquid Chromatog-raphy

PDA Phase Doppler Anemometry

PM Particular Matter

SCR Selective Catalytic Reduction

WRF Weather Report and Forecasting

XPS X-Ray Photoelectric Spectroscopy

Figure 1: Current status of the completed pilot fl ow rig and the supporting equip-ment.


SCR process analysis and optimization



relevant to real engine opera-tion. The validity of the model in dynamic operation is inves-tigated for different velocities (fi gure 2).

NOx reduction is carried out more effi ciently in lower ve-locities due to longer residence time, while the trends of the system response are similar in both velocities. It is discov-ered that the ammonia slip during the dynamic operation is almost zero at low tempera-ture. This fact is explained by the transient behaviour of am-monia adsorption/desorption. When the operating condition is slow enough to reach the steady state at low tempera-ture, 200º C, ammonia sur-face coverage gets the steady value and the slip of ammonia becomes very low. Because of the short residence time in high velocity, the effect of fast transient situations is more visible.

It can be concluded that NOX

reduction improves by increas-ing the temperature, however the highest temperature has less reduction due to ammonia desorption. It can be observed that higher concentration of NO2 enhances the SCR reac-tions at low temperature due to fast SCR, while its effect is

negligible at high temperature when the standard SCR is fast enough.

Advanced analytics by PSI/EGA

The objective of the activities is to fi nd measures to reliably avoid deposits during SCR with AdBlue®, by a better un-derstanding of the thermal decomposition of urea and by the development of applicable urea additives and/or substi-tutes.

An additional issue concerns the prevention of by-product formation by AdBlue® addi-tives. For minimizing deposi-tion of by-products, additives have been developed by the French company TOTAL, which should drastically reduce their formation. The reasons for the reduced deposition formation shall be investigated at PSI.

PSI/EGA has acquired a high-performance liquid chromato-grafy (HPLC) system and has developed a method for the analysis of the main urea de-composition products (urea, biuret, melamine, triuret, am-meline, ammelide, cyanuric acid, isocyanic acid).

For the investigation of urea decomposition a multi-com-ponent high-resolution FTIR spectroscopy method was de-veloped in the past allowing for quantifi cation of all smaller gaseous decomposition prod-ucts in parallel (CO2, CO, NO, NO2, NH3, N2O, HNO3, metha-namide, HCN, HNCO, formic acid, formaldehyde).

Since high molecular gases or aerosols cannot be detected by gas phase FTIR spectroscopy,

an additional HPLC analysis method has been developed for desorption, decomposition of hydrolysis products. In or-der to transfer them into the liquid phase, a buffered ab-sorption solution is used to quench and dissolve these gas phase components.

The urea decomposition chem-istry was revisited and new details of the desorption, de-composition and hydrolysis could be revealed, which were not described in literature be-fore (fi gure 3). In dedicated experiments for the fi rst time, gaseous urea in monomolecu-lar form could be measured by FTIR spectroscopy at atmo-spheric pressure.

Further experiments indicated that TiO2 catalyzes not only the hydrolysis of isocyanic acid (HNCO) but also the di-rect hydrolysis of urea (before isocyanic acid is formed) – a reaction which has not been described in literature before. Moreover, it seems that TiO2 might also catalyze the urea thermolysis to ammonia and HNCO. Beside the direct hy-drolysis of urea, also direct hy-drolysis of biuret, cyanuric acid and melamine was observed on TiO2.

A unique laboratory test appa-ratus has been set up, which allows for dosing very small amounts (1–3 mL/h !) of liquid reducing agents (such as urea solution, ammonium formate solution, etc.) for decomposi-tion, hydrolysis and SCR tests. Analysis is carried out by gas phase FTIR spectroscopy and HPLC analysis.

Mobility

Future requirements for heavy-duty vehicles

It is expected that the fulfi lment of Euro VI will require all heavy-duty ve-hicles to be equipped with additional DeNOx exhaust aftertreatment systems, most likely in the form of urea-SCR. Although this technology is well estab-lished for stationary diesel engines, mobile applica-tions impose additional challenges due to transient operation and space limita-tions, amongst others.

The urea-SCR systems in use nowadays fulfi l the re-quirements but they are far from being optimized and it remains doubtful if they will fulfi l future require-ments. Especially the in-complete urea decomposi-tion to ammonia upstream of the SCR catalyst is of major concern since it can lead to NOX breakthrough, ammonia slip and by-prod-uct formation.

Figure 2: Cumulative NOX (left) and ammonia slip (right) after 20,000 s of the fast tran-sient operation with dif-ferent ratios of NO/NOX at different temperatures and velocities.

0.6

0.8

1.0

1.2

1.4

150 250 350 450

cum

ulat

ive

NO

x(g

)

T (ºC)

0

1

2

3

4

5

0.000

0.005

0.010

0.015

0.020

150 250 350 450

cum

ulat

ive

NH

3sl

ip (%

)

cum

ulat

ive

NH

3sl

ip (g

)

T (ºC)

30000GHSV,num 30000GHSV,exp

50000GHSV,num 50000GHSV,exp


SLS experiment and in situ reaction chamber by PSI/LRC

The overall aim of this subtask will be to develop near-ambi-ent pressure X-ray photoelec-tron spectroscopy (XPS) as a tool for in situ investigations of HNCO thermolysis and hydro-lysis on a catalyst.

The order of a high pressure XPS system is expected to be fi nalized by January 2011. We are optimistic that we should get the instrument at PSI/LRC towards the end of 2011. In April 2011, we have obtained beamtime at a high-pressure XPS instrument at the Advanced Light Source in Berkeley, USA, to do fi rst ex-periments of NO2 adsorption on TiO2, the catalyst envisaged for HNCO hydrolysis in pres-ence of NO2.

Atmospheric Interac-tions

PSI/LAC covers the Atmo-spheric interactions topic. The objective is to estimate the atmospheric changes (ozone, particulate matter, nitrogen oxides) in Europe as well as in Switzerland as a result of opti-mization of SCR processes for mobile heavy-duty diesel and naval engines. The main spe-cies of concern emitted by die-sel engines are NOX, SO2 and particulate matter (PM). Those species act as precursors for the formation of ozone and aerosols such as sulfate, ni-trate, ammonium and organic matter.

The scope of the activities is to simulate air quality in Eu-rope using a chemical trans-

port model (CTM) for the year 2006. The model system to be used is the comprehensive air quality model with exten-sions (CAMx) driven by the weather research and fore-casting (WRF) model. Euro-pean emissions are taken from the database of the monitoring atmospheric composition and climate (MACC) project devel-oped by the Dutch research institute TNO, which includes ship emissions of the oceans surrounding Europe (Black Sea, Mediterranean, North Atlantic, North Sea, Baltic). Those modeling tools enable us to estimate the contribution of various emission scenarios to the concentration of atmo-spheric pollutants in different parts of Europe.

Two model domains covering Europe (coarse) and Switzer-land (fi ne) were defi ned and preparation of gridded emis-sions started. As an example, the annual NOX emissions from off-road traffi c is shown in fi g-ure 4. For water bodies this data includes ship emissions. On the one hand the busy traf-fi c in the English Channel and in the Mediterranean Sea is evident. On the other hand it is obvious that the inventory is a combination of various data sources with different spatial resolutions.

The meteorological model WRF was run for whole year 2006 using a preliminary set of pa-rameters. Depending on the evaluation of results, simula-tions might be repeated with a different parameterization. Figure 5 shows the time se-ries of surface wind speed for January 2006 at Zurich airport. In general fi rst results are en-couraging.

Figure 3: HPLC analysis of urea decomposition/hydro-lysis reaction products.

Mobility


Figure 4: Annual NOX emissions in Europe from SNAP catego-ry 8 «other mobile sources and machinery» Source: MACC emission inventory.

Figure 5: Time series of wind speed at Zurich Airport (Kloten) in January 2006. Green: ECMWF data used for model initialization. Red: WRF simulation. Blue: measurements tak-en at the ANETZ station Zurich Airport (Kloten) of MeteoSwiss.



Main Investigator

Alfred Rufer, EPFL

Project Partners

EPFL

ETHZ

Empa

BFH-TI

Scope of project

Electric vehicles can play a signifi cant role for individual mobility under specifi c mission conditions for the benefi t of specifi c user groups. Even though substantial progress can be expected in the area of embarked energy storage technologies, existing vehicles already feature ranges suitable to fulfi ll well-defi ned missions, thereby contributing to the reduction of CO2 emissions and other pollutions.

One of the main problems with electro-mobility is the need to provide ultra-fast charging of electric vehicles (UFCEV). This project aims to examine both direct connectivity to the distribution grid as well as new storage technologies as a means of enabling ultra-fast charging. In addition, load level-ing methodologies should be studied, including load shifting from day to night. To demonstrate how the developed solutions may be implemented, a transportable charging station for an average-size vehicle will be developed on a small scale, including the interface to a household electricity supply.

Status of project

The fi rst research activities fo-cused on• the study of existing solu-

tions for electric vehicle batteries (in terms of En-ergy density, power den-sity as well as in terms of security and reliability).

• the analysis of the grid to station interface, as well as the implications of the sta-tions on the overall grid.

• an extensive preliminary study and sizing of a pos-sible fl ywheel-based solu-tion for the intermediate storage station.

tens of minutes. In case the user is interested in charging these devices as fast as pos-sible, some tradeoffs are nec-essary regarding the energy density, charge effi ciency, etc.

Like lithium-ion (Li-Ion) bat-teries, lithium-polymer (LiPo) batteries need a well-defi ned charge process, presented on fi gure 1.

Battery as a voltage source

A LiPo battery can be seen as an ideal voltage source with a series connected resistor (fi gure 2). The series resis-tor depends on the chemistry but also on the cell connectors, while the voltage source de-pends only on the chemistry.

Simulation of an accumulator made of 135 series-connect-ed cells showed: the higher the resistance, the poorer the effi ciency. With shorter charge duration, the effi ciency also becomes poorer due to the high charge currents.

Such high currents and high voltage drops across series resistors induce overvoltage across the cells terminals.

WP 1: System Design (EPFL, Empa)

A preliminary analysis on the fast charge of lithium-polymer (LiPo) batteries has been per-formed by EPFL-LEI. This anal-ysis led to several consider-ations about their usage in an ultra-fast charging topology. Empa on its end started study-ing the safety and reliability of the overall system.

Due to the chemical behavior of LiPo batteries, they can nor-mally not be charged within


Li-Ion Lithium-Ion

LiPo Lithium-Polymer

MMC Modular Multilevel Converter

SUNISA Storage Unit and Network Interface with Split Accumu-lation


WP Work Package

First scientifi c results of workgroups

First part of the charging process: the battery is charged with a constant cur-rent (current value is generally less than the current capacity of the battery).

Second part: when the cell voltage reaches the rated voltage of the battery (4.2 V) the voltage of the cell is controlled and thus the current is decreasing.

Figure 1: Regular charge of a LiPo battery.

Mobility


Figure 3 plots the overvoltage that should be applied to each cell in order to provide a fast charge. A further step is to en-sure that such an overvoltage across the cells terminals will not cause any damage.

Computation of the required power on the charger side, shows that for a charge time of one hour, the required pow-er is around 26 kW (25 kWh are stored in the accumulator while 1 kWh is lost in the series resistors). For a charge time of 20 minutes, the required pow-er is around 28 kW (25 kWh stored in the accumulator while more than 3 kWh are lost in the series resistors). For even shorter charge times, the power-need increases expo-nentially.

The frequent connection and disconnection of such high loads on the power electric network may involve problems at the supplier side.

Reliability and Safety

The steps performed during year 2010 can be summarized as:• Defi nition of the methods

for reliability assessment and safety analysis of the system, i.e. the charging station and its main parts (energy system, power electronics, control unit).

• Information was requested to our partners, regard-ing component technology (complexity, materials, and quality), operational con-ditions (voltage, current, cycling profi le) and envi-ronmental conditions (tem-perature, humidity, vibra-tions).

• A search of safety regu-lations and international and national standards has been started.

WP 2: Intermediate energy storage sys-tems (BFH-TI)

Because the required power at charger side is in many cases not directly compatible with the available power at the grid, a concept with intermediate storage has been defi ned. Sev-eral solutions for this interme-diate storage are considered.

Battery systems

The comprehensive compari-son of battery technology was made with focus on the lithium ion battery chemistry.

The preliminary investigation showed that the most suitable chemistry variants are Lithi-um-Phosphate and Lithium-Titanium regarding high power properties and cyclic life time. However the performance of batteries varies depending on working conditions, so further analysis is necessary in order to estimate battery effi ciency for current applications.

Flywheel storage systems using magnetic bearings

The work was focused on de-sign aspects of a fl ywheel stor-age device to estimate its pa-rameters and identify possible construction problems. Review literature and articles of exist-ing fl ywheel systems showed that there are only few sys-tems of such big energy capac-ity as is demanded for charg-ing electric vehicles.

An investigation of mechanical aspects of fl ywheel system de-sign was made regarding suit-able composite materials and the rotor suspension system basing on classical or magnetic bearings. The optimal shape of a fl ywheel rotor was also considered in order to esti-mate and fi nd minimal air fl ow losses.

The general investigations of storage possibilities and limita-tions have showed that gravi-metric energy density of only fl ywheel rotor depends on four factors. • fl ywheel rotor material:

The preferable materials should have high mechani-cal strength to withstand high centrifugal forces and low mass density. At the moment, the best group of material with the highest ratio of strength to mass are carbon fi bres compos-ites.

• shape of fl ywheel: related to the stress distribution in material.

• relative discharge energy factor: value strictly de-pends on relative minimal fl ywheel speed. The higher minimal speed, the less energy is discharged so the energy density is lower.

• safety: decreasing permis-sible stress in material by adding some safety mar-gin.

The effi ciency issue of the system is strongly related to motor type and fl ywheel rotor speed range. The rough esti-mation of an exemplary design shows that charging-discharg-ing cycle effi ciency is about 92%. However, the effi ciency value considering one-day pe-riods depend on the number


Figure 2: Modeling a LiPo battery as a voltage source and a series-connected re-sistor.


of charging-dis-charging cycles. The effi ciency is smaller than 75 % below a number of 3 cy-cles per day. The poor effi ciency is caused by high idle losses of the system.

WP 3: Power electronic converters (ETHZ-EPFL)

Work package 3 deals with the in-vestigation of the power electronic interfaces for the ultra-fast charg-ing system for electric vehicles.

The grid interface (AC-DC convert-

er), the interface between the DC-bus and the intermediate storage (DC-AC or DC-DC con-verter) as well as the intercon-nection to the vehicle will be investigated. The focus is fi rst on deriving the most suitable topology with respect to effi -ciency/power density/cost. In the second step, the converter parameters of the most suit-able topology are optimized based on multi-domain mod-els.

Grid AC-DC Connection

A study of a possible grid AC-DC connection topology, named SUNISA (Storage Unit and Network Interface with Split Accumulation), is being investigated by EPFL-LEI.

The main SUNISA project ob-jective is to study the concept of a fast charging station re-alization, based on a modular multilevel converter (MMC) with split storage capability. The electric vehicle battery is interfaced through parallel-connected isolated DC/DC con-verters, based on the dual ac-tive bridge topology, for safety reasons and the achievement of high-power output current with very low ripple profi le. The considerations are carried out in terms of control system analysis and design as well as component dimensioning re-quirements from the medium voltage grid to the electric ve-hicle battery.

Topology of the modular multi-level converter: Complex sys-tem dynamics and control de-sign degrees of freedom have been investigated, in order to achieve network and converter stability during steady state and transient conditions. The simulations prove the ability to regulate the power exchange of an MMC with the grid, while maintaining the controllability of the inner converter magni-tudes.

Topology of dual active bridge: Control objectives have been (a) to ensure a very stable output voltage of each DC/DC cell for their safe parallel con-nection, and (b) to control the phase-shift between the pri-mary and secondary sides of the medium frequency trans-former, thus to achieve bidi-rectional power fl ow control. The latter implies the ability of vehicle-to-grid applications, which can be further investi-gated.

Practical activities related to the existing MMC laboratory prototypes have focused on the design of a highly versatile setup with future expandability to fulfi ll the additional needs of the SUNISA project. The con-trol hardware platform has been designed and built as well as the respective software is currently under development.

WP 5: Grid integration of fast-charging sta-tions (BFH-TI)

The task in this work package is the simulation of the UFCEV and simulation of the impacts of UFCEVs on the electricity supply grid as there are power quality, congestions, stability, losses, availability and reliabil-ity of supply.

The Elektrizitätswerk Zürich (EWZ) is providing grid infor-mation and support with their experts. The UFCEV project is allowed to use a real medium voltage grid for realistic simu-lations.

WP 7: Project man-agement (EPFL)

The activities can be repre-sented on three axes:• Project coordination: orga-

nization of meetings. • Administration and fi nan-

cial management: agree-ment with Swisselectric Research and additional third-party funding.

• Dissemination: website for the project http://ufcev.epfl .ch., presentation of the UFCEV project at pub-lic events (Energissima, Le Comptoir Suisse...).


Additional Proposals

Empa is preparing a joint CTI-project proposal with Leclanché S.A. It will be submitted to CTI for the fi rst evaluation meeting in 2011. The project will study the reliability and lifetime of Leclanché’s Li-ion cells, focussed on building high performance batteries, for different ap-plications.

Empa has submitted a CCEM investment proposal for a battery test station, to be used for (but not only) the UFCEV project.

Mobility

Figures 3: a) Charge effi ciency of a LiPo accumulator made of 135 cells. b) Overvoltage applied to a LiPo cell for a given charge time and series resistance.c) Power required in order to charge a 25kWh LiPo accumulator made of 135 cells.

a)

b)

c)


THELMA Technology-Centered Electric Mobility Assessment

Status of project

The specifi c goals are:• To assess LCA-based envi-

ronmental performance of electric vehicle technolo-gies (in particular, batteries and fuel cells) in compari-son with combustion op-tions driven by fossil fuels, biofuels, or hydrogen.

• To account for the role of and requirements on the electric grid depending on the various options for electric mobility.

• To carry out case studies on a regional or local level assessing the environmen-tal implications of the ex-pansion of electric mobility and its integration with the energy supply system.

• To assess aggregated en-vironmental and economic vehicle technology attri-butes, thus enabling a cost-benefi t analysis of electric mobility options both on the technology level as well as for alternative scenarios on the national level.

• To evaluate the relative sustainability of the options by combining their perfor-mance on environmental, economic and social crite-ria with stakeholder prefer-ence profi les.

Main scientifi c results of workgroups

power trains using gasoline or diesel fuel.

The two (preliminary) main conclusions which can be drawn are (see fi gures 1 & 2): • the employment of cur-

rent BEV will only lead to a substantial reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, if electricity from renewable or nuclear power generation is used;

• depending on the electric-ity mix used the environ-mental performance of the BEV for further indicators might be worse compared to the ICEV due to burdens from the production pro-cesses in the life cycle of the BEV (the environmen-tal burdens of the Li-Ion battery mainly come from the production of the anode and cathode).

Scope of project

Electric mobility technologies have the potential to contribute to the goals of Swiss energy policy which include assuring a more sustainable supply of energy. A detailed, technology-centered system analysis is a prerequisite for understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the options developed, evaluating trade-offs compared to both conventional and other advanced alternatives, and assess-ing the potential contributions of the technology options to a more sustainable future. The project addresses automobiles, vans and light trucks. Detailed technology evolution is considered until year 2030 with an outlook until year 2050. The drive trains (electrifi ed and baseline internal combustion engines) and energy carriers (batteries and fuels) are to be combined with various vehicle options (e.g. different vehicle classes, down-weighting, etc.) to defi ne a wide range of vehicles (a «virtual fl eet» of designs).

Figure 1: LCA results com-paring the environmental performance of ICEV with two types of BEV:

CHmix = electricity mix Switzerland;

EU27 mix = electricity mix European Union 27;

PM10 = particles of 10 micrometers or less.

Main Investigator

Stefan Hirschberg, PSI

Project Partners

PSI

ETHZ

Empa


BEV Battery Electric Vehicle

GHG Greenhouse GasICEV Internal Combus-

tion Engine VehicleLCA Life Cycle Assess-

mentLCI Life Cycle InventoryMATSim Multi-Agent Trans-

port SimulationMCDA Multi-Criteria Deci-

sion AnalysisPHEV Plug-in Hybrid

VehicleZEBRA Sodium-Nickelchlo-

ride (ZEBRA) Bat-tery

WP 1: Life cycle as-sessment (Empa, PSI)

The work of the fi rst year fo-cused on the establishment of life cycle inventory (LCI) data of current technologies in the e-mobility sector: Life cycle inventories for most compo-nents used in today’s electric vehicles (including batteries of various technologies and chemistry) were compiled by both partners. Empa per-formed an in-depth life cycle assessment (LCA) study com-paring hypothetical battery (Li-Ion) electric passenger cars with internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEV) using fossil fuels and biofuels. PSI compared an existing battery electric vehicle (BEV) with a sodium-nickelchloride (ZEBRA) battery and a hypothetical Li-Ion BEV to the corresponding gasoline fuelled model in a real life application based on mea-surements.

Datasets for vehicles operated with natural gas or biofuels as well as non-exhaust emissions (tire, road and brake wear) and different hydrogen production technologies were adapted in order to improve the com-parability to the more mature

24 CCEM – Annual Activity Report 201024 Mobility

THELMA Technology-Centered Electric MobilitiyAssessment

WP2: Vehicle simula-tion and power train assessment (ETHZ, PSI)

The main objective of WP2 is the calculation of energy-re-lated data for a large range of light duty vehicles using differ-ent power train technologies under a wide range of opera-tion conditions. In particular

the behavior of conventional, hybrid electric (including plug-in hybrids and range extend-ers), fuel cell and battery electric vehicles belonging to separate vehicle classes like sport utility vehicles (SUV’s), sedans, etc. are simulat-ed for assorted driving cycles, representative of Swiss condi-tions.

For this project, a vehicle is considered to be the combina-tion of one of several power trains (differing e.g. in their primary energy carrier or de-

gree of hybridization) with a chassis (characterized by its size, construction, etc.), driven (or modeled) over a driving-cycle (speed vs. time informa-tion). Backward- (and at a later stage possibly forward-) facing MATLAB/Simulink longitudinal vehicle dynamic and power train simulations are used to compute the vehicle’s energy requirements (Figure 3).

ETHZ-LAV is focusing on com-bustion engines, deriving the necessary fuel consumption maps using computer aided engineering software. PSI-LEA on the other hand is analyzing fuel cell and battery electric vehicles. Battery and electric motor models will be selected and applied in close coopera-tion.

The technical trade-offs of power train electrifi cation will be presented in an unbiased manner to allow stakeholders to evaluate the merits of new vehicle propulsion technolo-gies with respect to perfor-mance, environmental, cost and safety criteria.

WP 3: Power system modeling (ETHZ)

ETHZ-PSL focuses on the power sys-tems analysis, spe-cifi cally on the im-pact assessment of electric mobility on distribution and transmission grids as well as the in-vestigation of Ve-hicle to Grid (V2G) schemes.

Research since the project start has targeted an impact assessment of electric mobil-ity on both distribution and transmission grids. Regard-ing distribution grids detailed network models of an exem-plary network (Zurich) have been developed to study the infl uence of plug-in hybrid ve-hicles (PHEV) on line loadings, voltage levels as well as daily and seasonal load profi les. One major idea was to assess and control charging patterns of PHEVs resulting from traf-fi c simulations carried out in MATSim (a multi-agent traf-fi c simulation tool developed by ETHZ-IVT). Results have shown that it is crucial to intel-ligently manage the addition-ally introduced load by electric mobility. In this respect a so-called PHEV-Manager has been developed to implement differ-ent smart-charging strategies based on the individual mobil-ity needs but also taking into account the capabilities of the distribution grid at a certain time of day or year.

Regarding the transmission network a locational-marginal pricing based assessment tool has been developed in order to evaluate the infl uence of electric mobility on the trans-mission level. Preliminary studies using a test network have shown that a higher pen-etration of electric vehicles in conjunction with uncontrolled vehicle charging and even dual-tariff schemes places the network under an undesirable strain. For this reason a smart charging scheme providing an optimal dispatch of vehicles has been proposed. Vehicles are modelled as fl exible loads with adapting demand func-

Figure 3: Framework for vehicle modeling.

Figure 2: LCA results comparing the environ-mental performance of a hypothetical electric VW Golf with a 300 kg Li-Ion battery versus a gasoline fueled Golf VI with Blue-Motion© technology. Eu-ropean electricity mix was used for battery charging.


THELMA Technology-Centered Electric MobilitiyAssessment

tions depending on several parameters (desired and re-quired state of charge, time to departure and charging time).

The presented smart charg-ing scheme contributes con-siderably to the smoothing of the load profi le and prevents vehicle charging during peak hours.

WP 4: Case studies (ETHZ)

In WP4 the agent-based trans-port micro-simulation toolbox MATSim (Multi-Agent Trans-port Simulation) is used to es-timate traffi c demand on the level of households in Swiss municipalities. In a second step, the method of LCA is ap-plied to evaluate the environ-mental impacts related to the households’ mobility needs. The connection between the MATSim and LCA models has been developed and tested.

The current energy demand and supply for housing purpos-es was assessed using LCA for one of the case study munici-palities. In addition, a scenario analysis methodology suitable for the operational use within LCA has been developed. The scenario analysis will be ap-plied to perform prospective LCA of future mobility needs under changing political and socio-economic circumstances.

For the implementation into MATSim a ‹Long Term Invest-ment Decisions Model Frame-work› is being established to describe the development of energy consuming infrastruc-ture over a multiyear period to contribute to the environ-

mental assessment in WP4. The database for this behav-ioral model has been collected through a survey.

WP5: Analysis integra-tion (PSI)

The scope of WP5 includes the primary goals of coordinating, and integrating the THELMA project technical workfl ow.

This covers completing vehicle characterization including es-pecially, • emissions transport and

damages from vehicles, • resource burdens, and • social indicators (risks,

etc.).

These vehicle data are used for evaluation of national trans-portation scenarios, includ-ing particularly new vehicle penetration into the vehicle fl eet and scenario forecasts for transportation demand. The national scenarios require data inputs from WP1, WP2 and WP3, so it is necessary to coordinate the overall project design and data interchanges between the other work pack-ages on both the vehicle and scenario levels, including for example, criterion and indica-tor set design, and combining vehicle effi ciency and transport demand to obtain net grid de-mand by location and time-of-day.

Finally, WP5 has the task of integrating and evaluating the results for both vehicles and scenarios, including • total cost analysis, com-

bining internal & external costs,

• tradeoff analysis of com-peting criteria, and

• multi-criteria decision anal-ysis (MCDA), incorporating individual stakeholder pref-erences to produce vehicle and scenario rankings.

Some of the chief technical methodologies employed in these areas include • emission, transport and

damage simulation, as adapted to distributed, mo-bile sources,

• environmental impact and external cost assessment,

• fl eet and transportation modeling for national sce-narios, and

• MCDA.

The MCDA framework has been established and a set of pre-liminary indicators has been proposed. Coordination with other WPs is ongoing, and the indicator database and envi-ronmental impact assessment are progressing as expected within year 1.

WP6: Project management and coordination (PSI)

The management and coordi-nation of the project are ex-ercised in accordance with the original plans. Apart from two plenary project meetings in the course of 2010 numer-ous bilateral WP meetings were orga-nized foster-ing common understand-ing and es-tablishment of appropri-ate WP-inter-faces.

Figure 5: Historic and prospective average CO2 emissions from the Swiss vehicle fl eet assuming 25% and 50% levels of penetration of hybrid elec-tric (HEV) and electric (EV) vehicles; BAU = Business as Usual; EC = European Commission.



Scope of project

Hybrid-electric vehicles (HEV) will play an important role in the mobility of the next twenty years. They combine the excellent effi ciency of electrical power-trains with the advantages of liquid or gas-eous fuel combustion engines, i.e. easy and fast refueling, excellent travelling range. For historical reasons the components which build a hybrid powertrain are chosen with a focus on availability and not with a previous optimization.

This results in suboptimal confi gurations which cannot exploit the possible potential. The situation with the control strategy is quite similar: Since quite some time operating strategies for hybrid sys-tems are investigated, nevertheless mostly heuristic strategies are in use up to now. Additionally, very few investigations have been done on what hybrid system is the best for a specifi c driving cycle, including topographic profi le and availability of electric power for recharging the battery at certain points of the trip.

Task A: IDSC-ETH

The Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control (IDSC) works on fi nding the optimal confi guration of a HEV for a given demand. As a fi rst step, the maximum energy-saving-potential of an electric hybrid-ization has been investigated which gives an ideal basis to judge and compare different HEV’s. The results show, that there is still a large potential in urban driving conditions, while there is almost none at high-way speeds.

As a next step different confi g-urations are investigated and compared to fi nd the optimal one for a given driving pattern. The sensitivity of the «opti-mal HEV» on changes in the driving pattern will be investi-gated. The infl uence of down-sizing and supercharging on the performance of different HEV’s will be investigated. The knowledge of the importance of part-load operation in HEV’s will give valuable inputs for the research of tasks B and C.

A hybrid electric powertrain for use at the test bench is under

Status of project

The following points have been identifi ed as research areas for the Cohyb project:• Control strategy develop-

ment for specifi c HEV drive trains.

• Development of best suited combustion engine for HEV.

• Use of exhaust enthalpy in thermoelectric converters

• Optimal dimensioning of the various components of a HEV

• Reliability, availability, maintainability and safety (RAMS) analysis for HEV

These points will be investigat-ed in the fi rst part of the Cohyb project. In the second part, a demonstrator drivetrain will be built on the testbench, validat-ing many of the previous test-bench results as well as simu-lations. This demonstrator will have components according to the investigations, neverthe-less availability, cost and time will determine what is possible in short time.

A possible successor project will then mount the demon-strator drivetrain into a vehicle and investigate onroad aspects of the system.

Main Investigator

Lino Guzzella, ETHZ

Project Partners

ETHZ

Empa

Mobility

construction and should be available by June 2011. Exper-imental validation of the simu-lation results will be started as soon as the test bench is avail-able.

Task B: LAV-ETH

Within the subproject, for which the Aerothermochemis-try and combustion laboratory (LAV) is responsible, two parts are identifi ed: • build up and calibrate an

engine simulation model used for the design and

• optimization of the engine parameters and set up of an engine test bench used for the validation of the simulation results.

The Swissauto Wenko 250cc gasoline engine has been se-lected to be used within this project. The test bench is un-der construction. An engine simulation model has been built up in cooperation with the manufacturer. The model is currently being fi ne-tuned by the manufacturer to match the experimental needs. The mod-el is based on the 300cc engine and will need adaptation to the selected 250cc engine.


HEV Hybrid Electric Vehicle

ICE Internal Combus-tion Engine

ECU Engine Control Unit

NEDC New European Driving Cycle

RAMS Reliability, Availabil-ity, Maintainability and Safety

First scientifi c results of workgroups

Joined forces

The following group of labs will join forces in the Cohyb project:• Institute for Dynamic

Systems and Control (IDSC), ETH Zurich

• Aerothermochemistry and Combustion Sys-tems Laboratory (LAV), ETH Zurich

• Internal Combustion En-gines Laboratory (ICE), Empa Dübendorf

• Solid State Chemistry Laboratory (SSC), Empa Dübendorf

• Electronics/Metrology/ Reliability Laboratory, Empa Dübendorf

The team of the Cohyb project has partially a long and successful history of cooperation. The two ETH institutes and the ICE laboratory of Empa join forces in many projects, i.e. Clean Engine Vehicle (CEV), Clean and Effi cient Vehicle Research (Clever), FVV-projects (For schungs-vereinigung Verbrennungs-kraftmaschinen), etc.

The Reliability Laboratory of Empa can bring a very interesting new portfolio of know-how into the project. Due to the combination of conventional combustion engines and high power electric systems complete-ly new questions of safety and reliability arise.



Task C: ICE-Empa

Due to diffi culties to recruit an adequate scientist (who fi nally started as main researcher for this task by November 2010), the scientifi c part of task C has a delay of about six months.

The Internal Combustion En-gines Laboratory (ICE) works on optimal combustion sys-tems for gaseous fuels (meth-ane and hydrogen) in hybrid vehicles. The experimental setup includes a small-sized spark-ignited engine, manu-factured by the Swiss company Swissauto Wenko AG (Burg-dorf). It has a displacement volume of about 250 ccm.

The main goals are high ther-mal effi ciency and low pollut-ant emissions. Furthermore the engine has to guarantee a certain power by which a high power density is required. An AFT Protronic system acts as the engine control unit (ECU).

The new way to inject meth-ane and hydrogen separately has not been investigated yet and gives a new degree of freedom. There are many ex-isting papers about methane/hydrogen blends and also an example where hydrogen was continuously supplied into the intake manifold. In gen-

Figure 1 (left): Fuel con-sumption on different test driving cycle (NEDC).

Figure 2 (right): Potential contributions to fuel con-sumption reduction.

ECE Urban Driving Cycle

EUDC Extra-Urban Driv-ing Cicle

NEDC New European Driving Cycle

eral it can be said that small amounts of hydrogen lead to advantages regarding engine effi ciency and pollutant emis-sions in conventional spark ig-nited engines.

First steps have been made with the AFT Protronic engine control unit system. A model was built to actuate the throt-tle body. From this starting point, the ECU code will now be adapted to the needs of the single cylinder engine with all its sensors and actuators. En-gine and ECU will be built up and running on a test bench in the year 2011.

Figure 3 (left): Fuel con-sumption at constant speed.

Figure 4 (right): Effi ciency at constant speed.

28 CCEM – Annual Activity Report 2010Mobility


Figure 6: Heat exchanger test bench (task D).

Figure 5: Protronic engine control unit setup (task C).

Task D: SSC-Empa

The results show that improve-ments and developments of modules with higher conver-sion effi ciencies allow recover-ing of energy, which would be high enough to meet the elec-trical requirements of a car and thus improve the fuel effi ciency by up to 5 %. The main draw-back of this system is that not all the energy of the exhaust gas can be converted, because of the limited temperature stability of conventional and commercial available modules. Thus, better modules based on sustainable and temperature stable materials are needed to exploit the full potential of this application. Therefore, the pri-mary demonstrator unit with commercial modules and a low temperature heat exchanger has to be improved.

Task E: Reliability and Safe-ty, Empa

Activities have been focused on the state of international standardization in the fi eld of reliability and safety for elec-trical vehicles as well as on the methods and tools for assess-ment and verifi cation of reli-ability and safety goals.

A survey has shown that many standards applicable to hybrid power trains are already avail-able (IEC, ISO, SAE etc.) but also that many relevant stan-dards are still under develop-ment and will be completed in the next two years.

The main tasks as well as methods to analyze, assess, and verify reliability, availabil-ity, maintainability, and safety (RAMS) are defi ned.

Project partners have been in-vited to provide technical in-formation about the projected or already selected compo-nents. As soon as these data are available RAMS activities will provide more tangible re-sults.

Close cooperation with CCEM project UFCEV concerning re-liability and safety of power electronic devices and storage systems has been established.

ElectricityElectricity


ONEBATBattery Replacement Using Miniaturized Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

Electricity

Main Investigator

Anja Bieberle-Hütter, ETHZ

Project Partners

ETHZ (NIM, LTNT)

EPFL

ZHAW

NTB

Final report

The ONEBAT project focuses on the development of a miniaturized solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) sys-tem that might replace conventional batteries in the future (fi gure 1). Advantages over traditional batteries are the high energy density, the possibility of immediate charging, and the independence from the electricity net for charging.

The special focus of the CCEM funding was to carry out research on fuel cell membrane develop-ment and gas processing unit. Main challenges here are the adoption of thin fi lm deposition and microfabrication techniques for ceramic membranes and catalysts as well as their characterization and optimization. The target operating temperature of 550° C is very demanding: it is very low on the one hand for ceramic fuel cell operation and on the other hand for fuel gas conversion to syngas. Both these aspects were the main trigger for the research within the frame of this project.

Fuel cell development

ETHZ-NIM

Main focus in this workpackage was directed towards the fab-rication and characterization of micro-SOFC thin fi lms and membranes. Three feasible membrane designs were devel-oped and processed, whereby very different fabrication steps and materials were used. By this, the limits of micro-SOFC membrane design and fabrica-tion were experienced. Many detailed research on key top-ics for proving the feasibility of a micro-SOFC system was carried out. Examples are the investigation of silicium diffu-sion, substrate selection, ag-glomeration of thin metal elec-trode fi lms, etching behavior of thin fi lms, stress of fi lms and membranes, properties and microfabrication feasibilities of YSZ and LSCF thin fi lms. Sev-eral of these topics currently are of strong interest in the community and refl ect interest in conferences and from invi-tations to conferences. More than 20 papers were published in peer-reviewed journals and about 10 more papers are submitted or are in prepara-

tion. Very good performance of micro-SOFC membranes of up to 240 mW/cm2 at 550° C was achieved.

An example of the new so-called nickel mesh design is il-lustrated in fi gure 2. The main feature here is an ultra-thin self-standing zirconia mem-brane that is processed by wet ceramic processing. Hence, this approach is a transition between a typical micro-elec-

tro-mechanical (MEMS) pro-cessing approach and tradi-tional ceramic processing. It opens the application window for micro-SOFC systems, since it allows the fabrication of larg-er membrane areas with very thin and low resistive electro-lyte membranes.

EPFL

Two generations of fuel cells were developed at EPFL. The


LSCF Lanthanum Stron-tium Cobalt Iron Oxide

LTNT Laboratory of Thermodynamics in Emerging Technolo-gies

NIM Nonmetallic Inor-ganic Materials

OCV Open Circuit Volt-age

PEN Polyethylene Naph-thalate

SOFC Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

YSZ Yttria Stabilized Zirconia

Figure 1: Micro-SOFC sys-tem approach.

Figure 2: Micro-SOFC with integrated nickel mesh and free-standing YSZ electro-lyte tape (NIM).



fi rst generation was a con-tinuation of our earlier nickel grid design (fi gure 3a). In our concept, we grow the nickel grid by a selective electrolytic process on top of the electro-lyte membrane using plati-num lines as seeds. Instead of heading directly towards 5 mm membranes, and taking large risks, we went back to 500 μm diameter membranes. The de-sign of the grid was changed from a hexagonal pattern to a spider net type pattern (fi g-ure 3b). The latter is more compatible with the symmetry of the mechanical stresses.

The obtained structures sur-vived 650° C in air, and showed an open circuit voltage (OCV) of 850 mV. This was a major improvement with respect to the earlier 5 mm large mem-branes. We investigated the interfaces of grid and mem-brane by means of focused ion beam / scanning electron microscopy techniques. As can be seen in fi gure 4, the interfaces showed no cracks,

and witnessed a rather good adhesion on the curved mem-brane. A further improvement was a new sputter process for the YSZ fi lm. We added a sec-ond YSZ layer on top of the columnar YSZ(111) fi lm. This second layer had a (200) tex-ture and much smaller grains (fi gure 5a). The motivation for such bilayer was the assump-tion that grain boundaries go-ing through the fi lm lead to electrical conduction in a re-ducing atmosphere. We have no direct proves. Neverthe-less, the OCV improved. De-spite the large improvement in OCV, we did not measure much of a current. The reason was a bad contact to the backside of the membrane (cathode in this design). At this point we have to mention that in our designs, we contact both sides from the top side of the wafer. This is unique to date, but more dif-fi cult. It offers, however, the possibility to make contacts from one side only, which fa-cilitates integration and mea-surement set up’s. A further problem that we encountered was the recrystallization of po-rous platinum fi lms we intend-ed to use as electrodes. During operation of the cells, these fi lms form meander structures of dense fi lm parts, interrupt-ed by zones without fi lm. The triple phase boundary lines are much reduced by this transfor-mation.

For the further work we de-cided to change some of the strategies. It does not make sense to demonstrate large membranes with nickel grids, when the PEN membranes do not work locally. We then fo-cused on small membranes (200 μm) in a matrix confi gu-ration allowing to access each cell individually (design in fi g-ure 6a, single cell in one of the nodes in fi gure 6b). The idea was also to be able to deposit electrodes of various types af-ter the micromachining work was done. The contact lines are fi nishing at the border of the membrane zone, forming a 10 μm wide ring inside the membrane area. A cathode or anode fi lm deposited onto the device automatically makes a contact to this ring.

Summary fuel cell develop-ment

The results elaborated by the two groups showed strong synergy. Several very different design approaches were fol-lowed by the two groups and could be compared within the project. Each group in addi-tion had its own main focus, such as electrode character-ization, crystallization, impuri-ties versus stress in thin fi lms. This led to detailed exchange of knowledge. In summary, it was found that medium sized membranes (about 200 μm in


Electricity

Figure 4 (left): Details of nickel line on YSZ membrane as revealed by a focused ion beam / scan-ning electron microscopy imaging.

Figure 5 (right): (a) Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) cross section of YSZ layers with platinum top electrode (from Rey-Mermet et al, Thin Solid Films, 2010); (b) top view of platinum top electrode after staying at 500° C in Ar/H2 gas.

Figure 3: (a) Design principle of nickel grid supported PEN structure (from Rey-Mermet et al, MRS Proc. 972, 2007); (b) realization of μ-SOFC membrane of 500 μm di-ameter with nickel grid fol-lowing spider net geometry (from Rey-Mermet et al, Thin Solid Films, 2010).

b)

a)


Info web page

http://www.nonmet.mat.ethz.ch/research/onebat

diameter) are favored with re-spect to stability, processability and gas tightness. Micro-SOFC performance is mainly limited nowadays by the performance of metal electrodes.

Gas processing unit

ETHZ-LTNT

The main goal of this work-package was to study the fuel processing in micro reactors, particularly the production of syngas from hydrocarbons. The study showed that the production of hydrogen- and carbon monoxide-rich syngas was achieved in a very effi cient manner by the use of rhodium doped nanoparticles even for a low temperature of 550° C. By benefi ting from an optimized disk-shaped reactor geometry and a more practicable fabri-cation procedure using a direct sol-gelation method, the po-tential industrial application of a butane processor can be sig-nifi cantly improved as part of an entire SOFC-based micro-powerplant. In specifi c, the degradation due to nanopar-ticles was studied and it was found that a stable catalyst op-eration can be guaranteed up to at least 40 h with no carbon deposition.

Additionally, the start-up time of the system was studied in detail. A hybrid heating – elec-trical heating and burning of butane – was found to be the best solution. Depending on the electrical heating stopping temperature and the catalyst material, up to 79 % of start-up time can be reduced com-pared to simply electrical heat-ing. Similar reductions were found for the exergy. The ef-


Electricity

fects of different parameters on the fi nal temperature of the reformer were also investigat-ed. Finally, the microfabricated reformer was designed and its shape was optimized. Figure 7 shows the evolution of three reformers that have been de-signed for this project.

Outlook

The detailed descriptions from the different groups indicate that many fundamental key questions from this complex system could be answered in the last years within the frame of this project. This is also re-fl ected in the many publica-tions that were published in high impact peer-reviewed journals (total of 34 papers in peer-reviewed journals) with many citations shortly after publishing (up to 42 citations for one paper in 2 years!). Hence, it can be seen that the research carried out in this project is well recognized and has considerable impact on the community.

The CCEM claim of providing seed money is fulfi lled well. Besides their own research all groups were able to fi nd ad-ditional funding sources to in-crease the focus on this topic within the group. This is simi-lar for the associated group from the project, i.e. ZHAW and NTB, which are focusing on thermal simulations and system development. Swiss Electric Research additionally funded the project for 3 years signifi cantly.

New groups became interested in the project. CSEM (Swiss Center for Electronics and Mi-crotechnology) and two groups

from EPFL focusing on thermo-mechanical simulations, mi-crofabrication, packaging and system development joined the consortium recently. A new project was set up and is now funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) as a Sinergia project for 3 years. In addition, collaboration proj-ects with KIST, Korea, and with Risoe/DTU, Denmark, were started in the last years.

Regarding the non-techni-cal side, the consortium has tightened the contacts to fea-sible industrial partners. HILTI funded half a PhD student for 3 years and Mikroglass sup-ported the project with Foturan material. Many companies vis-ited ETH for discussing about the ONEBAT project. Compa-nies, such as EADS, are cur-rently planning closer collabo-ration.

Figure 6: Design (left) and detail (right) of a realized μ-SOFC array. The anode contact lines are below the YSZ membrane coating, while the cathode contact lines are above. The mem-brane diameter amounts to 200 μm.

Figure 7: The evolution of three reformers that have been designed for this project.


PHiTEMPlatform for High Temperature Materials

Final report

The three-years PHiTEM project is aimed at acquiring experimental devices, manpower and compe-tences for allowing multiscale characterization of advanced high-temperature materials, including irradiated, i.e. radioactive ones. With the establishing of the platform a unique facility in Switzerland is generated in the fi eld of development and characterisation of advanced materials for advanced future energy power plants.

Status of project

The PHiTEM project was start-ed in 2006 on the basis of a proposal made by three part-ners: EPFL-CRPP, PSI-NES-LWV, Empa-Thun. All selected devices (a focused ion beam, a nano-indenter, a nano-in-dentation device, and a dual-beam FIB prototype) have been purchased, installed and are now fully operational. R&D activities using the acquired devices have been launched, and a wide number of impor-tant scientifi c results have been already obtained, which gave rise to a large number of publications in peer-reviewed journals.

The milestones of the project had been defi ned as the fol-lowing:• to+12 months: Installation

of all devices completed.• to+24 months: Preliminary

evaluation of candidate procedures for characteriz-ing inactive and radioactive materials using the new in-stalled devices.

• to+36 months: Setting up of optimal procedures for obtaining quantitative cor-relations between micro-structure damage (stress-, temperature-, irradiation- and/or environment-in-duced), and local mechani-

Electricity

Main Investigator

Nadine Baluc, EPFL

Project Partners

EPFL

PSI

Empa

cal response for inactive and radioactive materials with the combined use of a nano-indentor and a FIB.

• to+36 months: First results about the characterization of inactive and radioactive materials of ferritic/mar-tensitic steels (with and/or without dispersoids) with the combined use of a na-no-indentor and a FIB.

All these milestones have been achieved in 2008 already. Ex-amples of recent achievements are presented below. Scientifi c activities will be pursued ex-tensively.

The focused ion beam (FIB) has been installed in the controlled area at PSI. The nano-indenter has been installed in the Hot Laboratory at PSI. These two devices may be used for in-vestigating radioactive as well as inactive specimens. At the Empa in Thun a nano-indenta-tion device for a scanning elec-tron microscope (SEM) as well as a Dual-Beam FIB prototype have been installed, instead of the originally planned nano-indenter stage and ion source items, because additional in-dustry funding through collab-oration with instrument manu-facturers became available. A detailed description of the two instruments, including design and capabilities, was published recently.


FIB Focused Ion Beam

SEM Scanning Electron Microscope

STXM Scanning Transmis-sion X-Ray Micros-copy

SRIM Stopping and Range of Ions in Matter

TEM Transmission Elec-tron Microscopy

UHP Fe Ultra High Purity Iron

Figure 1: Examples of the use of the FIB device at the PSI in 2009 for preparing and characterizing samples from materials other than the ones mentioned below.


Examples of the use of small specimen test technology have been described in the annual report 2009.

Recent scientifi c results

About the use of the FIB device at PSI

The FIB device is being used full time by a wide number of institutional and industrial partners for preparing and characterizing several types of sample, such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM) specimens and micro-pillars, from a variety of materials, in-cluding pure metals, alloys and semi-conductors. Examples of the use of the FIB device in 2009 for preparing and char-acterizing samples from a va-riety of materials are shown in fi gure 1.

Apart of the cases reported in fi gure 1, examples of the use of the FIB device in 2009 for the characterization of a tung-sten-base material and a zirco-nium-base alloy and for the ir-radiation and characterization of ultra-high purity (UHP) Fe are described hereafter.

Tungsten-base material A W-1.7wt.%TiC material for structural and/or functional high-temperature applications in fusion power reactors has been manufactured by con-ventional powder metallurgy methods including mechani-cal alloying of elemental pow-ders in an argon atmosphere for 10 hours and compaction of the powders by hot iso-static pressing at 1350° C for 3 hours under a pressure of 200 MPa. The SEM function of the FIB device has been used

for identifying nano-sized features that are invisible in conventional SEMs. It was ob-served in particular that the W-1.7wt.%TiC material contains some residual porosity and ex-hibits a bimodal grain size dis-tribution (fi gure 2). The mean grain size ranges from 10 to 50 nm. The regions containing smaller grains are richer in TiC particles that appear distrib-uted homogenously inside the tungsten matrix. Larger grains contain a heterogeneous dis-tribution of TiC particles.

Zirconium-base alloyThe FIB device was also used for preparing TEM and X-ray specimens from the metal-ox-ide interface in a Zr–2.5%Nb cladding segment of a fuel rod that has been irradiated in a pressurized water reactor and in a non-irradiated Zr–2.5%Nb tube section that has been oxidized in an autoclave (ref-erence material), as shown in fi gure 3.

Ultra high purity ironMore fundamental studies were also performed using the FIB device. For instance, it was attempted to produce irradi-

PHiTEMPlatform for High Temperature Materials

Electricity

Figure 2: FIB/SEM image of a W-1.7wt.%TiC mate-rial using a magnifi cation of 10’000 times and the QBSD detector.

Figure 3: Electron and X-ray microscopic results for the neutron irradiated (left column) and the non-irradiated autoclaved ref-erence (right column) Zr–2.5%Nb materials: (a, b) SEM images of the sample windows manufac-tured by FIB, and (c, d) corresponding high-res-olution 2D STXM images recorded at the Zr K-edge. The positions within the metal (M or MI, I for irradi-ated) and the oxide (O or OI, I for irradiated) parts of the interface at which micro-XAS investigations (SLS-PSI) have been con-ducted are also shown.

ation-induced defects in UHP Fe by using the Ga ions gen-erated by the FIB device. For this purpose a thin specimen was prepared from UHP Fe by mechanical and electrolytical polishing methods. By using the SRIM software the irra-diation time needed to reach an accumulated damage of 0.3 dpa using a 30 KV and 3 nA Ga ion beam was determined to be 5 min for a region of 20×30 μm2. Then, the speci-men was submitted to the FIB and regions of 20×30 μm2 at the edge of the central hole, which are transparent to elec-trons, were irradiated with Ga ions. The irradiated specimen was then examined using TEM. Figure 4 shows TEM images of UHP Fe before and after Ga ion irradiation to 0.3 dpa. Fol-lowing irradiation black dots can be seen, which could be irradiation-induced nano-sized vacancy clusters and/or dis-location loops. A signifi cant amount of defects decorating the dislocation lines can also be seen. In a further step the interaction of mobile disloca-tions with the irradiation-in-duced defects will be studied by TEM in situ straining.

Figure 4: TEM images of a specimen of UHP Fe, (up-per) before and (lower) after irradiation with Ga ions in the FIB device to 0.3 dpa.


ThinPVCost Effi cient Thin Film Photovoltaics for Future Electricity Generation

Electricity

Main Investigator

Frank Nüesch, Empa

Project Partners

Empa (FP, TFPV)

EPFL (LPI, CRPP, IMT)

ZHAW (ICP)

Final report

ThinPV is an interdisciplinary project focused on the realization of breakthroughs in the fi eld of thin fi lm photovoltaics. It brings together Swiss research groups active in fundamental and applied re-search. Two main directions are promoted. Part A is targeting silicon plasma deposition processes and its infl uence on device performance. Part B is focusing on hybrid solar cells combining dye sensitized solar cells (DSC), Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells (CIGS) as well as polymer solar cells (OPV). Although the clear emphasis is given to these two directions, it is the aim to synergize the research and development activities in photovoltaics taking further advantage of the CCEM framework. In-terdisciplinary collaborations supporting the principal goals of this project were launched. Research groups interested in photovoltaics benefi ted from the thin fi lm PV platform which was established within this project (part C). This platform intends to be a scientifi c discussion platform, and shall attract the interest of younger scientists towards thin fi lm photovoltaics.

Scientifi c challenges of the project

Co-fi nanced by CCEM and swisselectric research

cally stacked tandem cell is achieved.

• Monolithical integration of the hybrid DSC-CIGS tan-dem cell.

• Research and development of solution based device manufacturing processes

• Development of organic so-lar cells active in the red to near infrared domain to be used in tandem solar cells.

• Acquire intellectual prop-erty and promote industrial activities in this fi eld.

Part C• Organize yearly workshops

and conferences.• Seed new research collabo-

rations involving theoreti-cal modelling.

• Generate new funding by common proposal submis-sion.

Status of project

During the regular running time of 3 years, important knowledge was generated and published in refereed jour-nals as well as at conferences. Technological knowhow was transferred to industry and secured in patents. New fund-ing was generated during the project due to joint project submission between partners of ThinPV.


CIGS Cu(In,Ga)Se2 Solar Cells

DSC Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

FTO Fluorine doped Tin Oxide

ITiO Titanium doped Indium Oxide

OPV Organic Photovolta-ics (polymer and small melecule based solar cells)

PECVD Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition

QCL Quantum Cascade Laser

SIMS Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy

XRD X-Ray Diffraction

Part A• Understanding the para-

sitic processes (arcing, powder generation) occur-ring in large area reactors which can limit the process reliability at high injection power and high excitation frequency.

• Development and imple-mentation of in-situ diag-nostic tools.

• Understanding and char-acterizing the changes in plasma conditions when transferring process from small to large PECVD reac-tors.

• Understanding the result-ing changes in the structur-al and electronic properties of the thin fi lm laboratory devices as a function of plasma parameters.

• Achieving devices with properties and techniques suitable for mass-produc-tion (i.e. higher effi ciency devices produced at high deposition rates).

Part B• Optimization of individual

DSC, CIGS and OPV cells in such a way that highest effi ciency of a mechani-

Figure 1: Experimental ar-rangement of the QCL-based absorption spectrometer and the plasma enhanced chemi-cal vapour deposition (PECVD) system. Silane was moni-tored in the reactor volume, the chamber volume, and the pumping line.



• A reduced electrode gap was used on the large area PECVD reactor in order to improve fast deposition of microcrystalline silicon lay-ers and drastically lower powder formation such that microcrystalline deposition regimes can be achieved at higher pressures.

• Intrinsic layers of micro-crystalline silicon have been deposited at 1 nm/s in the large scale research reactor and have been characterized with second-ary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) and x-ray diffrac-tion (XRD) measurements to assess the material quality. 1.2 μm thick solar cells with effi ciencies up to 7.3 % have been obtained.

• First implementation of time-resolved measure-ments of absolute silane concentration in PECVD re-actors and simultaneously in the surrounding cham-ber.

• Under typical process con-ditions, it was shown that – for a given deposition rate – powder can be an indica-tor of favourable process conditions.

• Based on the various di-agnostic tools, a reduction of the transients observed during the initial growth of the devices could be con-trolled by optical emission spectroscopy during depo-sition of microcrystalline cells. The effi ciency of the reference microcrystalline cell could thus be improved from 7.1 to 7.9 %. Based on the fi ndings of this proj-ect a micromorph cell with 11.9 % initial effi ciency at

a deposition rate of 1 nm/s could be realised.

Part B: Hybrid, dye sensitized or polymer solar cells

Regarding the development of hybrid tandem solar cells and cyanine solar cells the follow-ing important results have been achieved during the proj-ect:• Mechanically stacked tan-

dem cells with a record effi ciency of 15.1 % were established in the submis-sion period of the ThinPV workshop.

• Investigation of new or-ganic dyes in a DSC with a view to comply in an op-timal way with the absor-bance characteristics of a CIGS bottom cell. Evalua-tion of novel near infrared dyes to be used for double DSC tandems at a later stage. Band-gap tuning of CIGS cells by varying the stoichiometric composition of the absorber in order to get a matching current from both the CIGS bottom cell and the DSC top cell.

• Replacement of commonly used fl uorine doped tin oxide (FTO) electrodes in DSCs by titanium doped indium oxide (ITiO). By re-placing just the back con-tact of the DSC cell, an in-crease in the transmission by more than 20 % could be achieved in the near in-frared domain.

• Modelling of the absorption in thin fi lm stacks to fi nd the optimized combination of CIGS and DSC cells in the tandem assembly. For


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The history of ThinPV

ThinPV was born dur-ing the fi rst workshop of the freshly founded Swiss Competence Centre for En-ergy and Mobility (CCEM), which was organized by the managing directors of the CCEM at Paul Scherrer Institute in October 2005.

Four Swiss research groups active in thin fi lm photo-voltaics including micro-crystalline and amorphous silicon, cupper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS), dye sensitised solar cells (DSC) as well as organic photovoltaics (OPV) came together.

The world renowned re-search teams included: • Laboratory for Photonics

and Interfaces at EPFL (Prof. M. Grätzel),

• Institute for Microen-gineering at Neuchâtel University (now EPFL, Prof. C. Ballif),

• Thin Film Physics group at ETHZ (now Empa, Prof. A. Tiwari)

• Functional Polymers Laboratory at Empa (Dr. F. Nüesch).

• the Plasma Processing Group at CRPP-EPFL (Dr. C. Hollenstein) joined the project working tightly together with the group of Prof. C. Ballif.

A further partnership was seeded with the Institute of Computational Physics at the University of Ap-plied Science in Winterthur (Prof. B. Ruhstaller) with the aim to start numerical modelling on multilayer de-vice architectures.

The main industrial partner Oerlikon Solar also joined the project, making clear that scientifi c exchange and collaboration as well as innovation were targeted.

After several proposal ap-plication and evaluation rounds, the project was granted and co-fi nanced both by the CCEM and «swisselectric research» in 2007, though, fi rst col-laborations already started during the submission pe-riod. It has to be pointed out that ThinPV is the fi rst project in Switzerland bringing together the main players in thin fi lm photo-voltaic research.

Part A: Silicon technology

The major results regarding the work on silicon deposition processes using plasma en-hanced chemical vapour depo-sition (PECVD) as well as de-vice fabrication include: • The infl uence of non pla-

nar electrode geometries in plasma deposition cham-bers have been investi-gated experimentally and theoretically to model real plasma chambers with screws, showerheads or other geometries. It was found that the presence of sharp edges at holes or cylinders had no signifi cant infl uence on radio frequen-cy electric fi eld breakdown. The breakdown zone, how-ever, depends strongly on the chamber gas pressure.

• Optical emission spec-troscopy for in situ silane depletion and electron temperature fl uctuation measurements were in-stalled.

• In situ and ex situ laser scattering methods for poly-silane and powder de-tection were installed in the research chamber.

• Infrared absorption spec-troscopy was implemented in large area research reac-tor for in situ and ex situ silane depletion measure-ment. Using a quantum cascade laser, it allowed to monitor the silane concen-tration in the reactor vol-ume, the chamber volume, and the pumping line. The system was subsequently developed to measure time dependent phenomena with a resolution of 40 ms.


the thicker layers, incoher-ent optics were used, while for thin layers coherent op-tics were employed. Calcu-lation of the conversion ef-fi ciency.

• A monolithic tandem cell consisting of a DSC top cell and a CIGS bottom cell with 12 % power conversion ef-fi ciency was fabricated

• A power conversion effi -ciency of 2 % was reached in cyanine based solid state organic solar cells by oxi-dative doping of the cya-nine fi lm and by optimizing the charge injecting layers at cathode and anode.

• High power conversion ef-fi ciencies from 3 % to 4 % could be achieved in cya-nine solar cells without re-quiring chemical doping of the cyanine layer by using a high workfunction an-ode. Red to near infrared absorbing squaraine dyes have been successfully implemented in bi-layer or-ganic solar cells.

• Modelling of organic solar cells to help optimizing lay-er thicknesses from the op-tical point of view. Exten-sion of the optical device model by including charge transfer excitons. The in-fl uence of the coherence

length of the incident light irradiation on the interfer-ence phenomena in thin layer organic solar cells has been investigated.

• A photo-CELIV (charge extraction by linearly in-creasing voltage) measure-ment has been installed in order to measure material parameters for modelling purposes such as charge carrier mobility and life-time.

Part C: Exchange platform and educational activities

Several workshops with dif-ferent focuses have been held during the project and even in the submission phase of the project. The average atten-dance was about 60 persons per workshop.• The fi rst workshop «Pho-

tovoltaics of the future» between the partners was held shortly before the sub-mission phase of the pro-posal and for the fi rst time gathered all major players in thin fi lm photovoltaic re-search in Switzerland. (http://www.empa.ch/plugin/tem-

plate/empa/*/32621)

• The second workshop was dedicated to the needs of the thin fi lm photovoltaic industry representing all major solar module manu-facturers and companies offering module produc-tion equipment. (http://www.empa.ch/plugin/tem-

plate/empa/*/64531/---/l=2)

• The third workshop «A look inside solar cells» had an educational purpose and allowed students to inter-act with world renowned experts in the different


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fi elds of thin fi lms pho-tovoltaics and to present posters and seminars. (http://www.empa.ch/plugin/tem-

plate/empa/*/73310/---/l=2)

• The last workshop fo-cused on an emerging and comprehensive topic of the future: «Transpar-ent Conducting Electrodes for Photovoltaics». Sev-eral approaches includ-ing doped oxides, dis-persed carbon nanotubes, thin metal grids as well as fabric electrodes were added. As for the preced-ing events, a panel of high ranking scientists and in-dustrials was invited. (http://www.empa.ch/plugin/tem-

plate/empa/*/88257)

Outlook

In order to continue and extend the exchange and common research activities between Swiss research laboratories in thin fi lm photovoltaics, consid-erable effort has been dedicat-ed in developing and submit-ting common research projects for the coming years. These projects include an NCCR (Na-tional Centre of Competence in Research NCCR, leading house EPFL), a CCEM (Competence Center Energy and Mobility, leading house Empa), as well as other more specifi c projects (Commission for Technology and Innovation CTI, Elektriz-itätswerk der Stadt Zürich EWZ) between the ThinPV partners. A Gebert Rüf founda-tion project between EPFL and ZHAW on combining coherent and incoherent optical model-ling was granted.

Figure 2: Monolithic DSC/CIGS tandem device reaching a power conver-sion effi ciency of 12.2 % at full sunlight.

Figure 3: ThinPV Work-shop «A look inside solar cells», 16.–18.11.2008, Monte Verità, Ascona.


HydroNetModern Methodologies for the Design, Manufactur-

ing and Operation of Pumped Storage Power Plants

Main Investigator

Mohamed Farhat, EPFL

Project Partners

EPFL

Empa

Eawag

HSLU/HTAL

Scope of activities

The HydroNet project aims to improve the design, manufacturing and operation of pumped storage power plants. Thanks to its multidisciplinary consortium, the project involves hydrodynamic, elec-tricity, civil engineering and environmental issues with a focus on a joined strategy for non-intrusive monitoring of pumped storage power plants.

Status of project

A signifi cant progress of the project was achieved in 2010. Three doctoral theses were completed in the areas of vari-able speed pump turbines, hydro acoustics and rotating stall phenomenon. The re-maining PhD theses are close to their end. The implementa-tion of monitoring instrumen-tation is almost completed at the pilot site (Grimsel 2) with the involvement of all part-ners. Online monitoring of a variety of parameters is now operational, which provides unprecedented information for research laboratories involved in the project.

Main scientifi c results

Modeling and simulation of rotor stator interaction in pump turbines

Following a fi rst PhD thesis completed in 2009, the issue of rotor stator interaction in pump turbines is being pur-sued in the frame of another thesis with a focus on off-de-sign conditions involving run-away and «S-shape».

In 2010, a second experimen-tal campaign was performed on a low specifi c speed pump turbine model using state of the art instrumentation. Wall pressure measurements in the stator and also in the rotor have been performed with the

Co-fi nanced by CCEM and swisselectric research

help of miniature piezoresistive sensors and onboard digitiz-ers. Tuft visualization and Par-ticle Image Velocimetry were also performed to identify the fl ow patterns in the rotor/sta-tor interaction zone. The oper-ating conditions were varied in a wide range. The test head, the cavitation number and the wicket gates opening were also varied.

A substantial amount of ex-perimental data was collected and being analyzed to describe the onset and development of fl ow unsteadiness in pump tur-bines at off design conditions. This will be of great help in any attempt to optimize the design of pump turbines with respect to off-design operation.

Fluid structure interaction in pump turbines

The doctoral thesis related to the present task (completed in 2010) is a substantial contri-bution to the physical analysis and numerical simulation of the pressure surges in hydrau-lic machinery and connected conduit systems.

A computational methodology based on two fi elds is proposed to simulate this interaction in the time domain: a 1D hydro acoustic model (HA model) is selected to analyse the entire acoustic fi eld and a 3D incom-pressible hydrodynamic model

(HD model) is used to describe the fl ow in the source region. The case study is a straight pipe connecting two constant pressure tanks. A bluff body is placed at 3/4 of the pipe length and the fl ow instability is given by Karman vortex shedding. Measurements were made for resonant and non-resonant conditions with and without cavitation.

The results allowed identifying the hydrodynamic sources and fair prediction of amplitude and frequency of pressure fl uc-tuation as well as the role of cavitation occurrence.

Fluid Structure Interaction in Pump Turbines

Following a fi rst PhD thesis (completed in 2009), further

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Figure 1: Flow patterns at low discharge, reconstruct-ed in the entire distributor from the processing of high speed fl ow visualization.


Figure 2: Measurements at Grimsel 2 pilot site.

investigations on the key issue of fl uid structure interaction in pump turbines are being pur-sued within another doctoral work. The focus is put on the effect of the trailing edge shape on the roll-up mechanism of Karman vortices and the vibra-tion induced on the mechani-cal structure. The case study is a 2D NACA 0009 hydrofoil placed in the test section of the cavitation tunnel at the Labo-ratory for Hydraulic Machines (EPFL-LMH). Following the re-sults obtained in 2009 with truncated and oblique trailing edge hydrofoils, we have ad-dressed the so called «Don-aldson» truncation, which is known to produce less vibra-tion even though the physics behind it is still missing. The experiments involved surface vibration measurements and velocity survey in the bound-ary layer and the wake. It was confi rmed that fl ow induced vibration on Donaldson trail-ing edge (DTE) hydrofoil is by far less than blunt (BTE) and oblique (OTE) trailing edge hy-drofoils. Moreover, unlike BTE and OTE hydrofoils, no lock-in was observed with DTE hydro-foil. The analysis of Particle Image Velocimetry data, using Proper Orthogonal Decomposi-tion, has clearly shown a phase shift between upper and lower vortices leading to their par-

tial cancellation, as already observed with OTE hydro-foil. Further analy-sis is underway to describe the fl uid structure coupling in case of DTE to better understand why this particular truncation is so ef-fi cient in prevent-ing lock-in.

Numerical simulation of rotating stall in pump tur-bines

A PhD thesis was completed in 2010 at EPFL-LMH laboratory with the collaboration of Sulzer Pumps AG (Switzerland) inves-tigating the so called rotating stall, occurring at part load operation of high energy cen-trifugal pumps.

Both numerical and experi-mental methods were used to better understand the fl ow instabilities and the vibration induced on the mechanical structure as well as to assess the computational methods. Investigations involve un-steady pressure fluctuation measurements in the rotat-ing and stationary elements of the investigated pump stage, performed at different rota-tional speeds and operating points. The measurements at part-load operation unveiled the existence of stationary and rotating instabilities in the dif-fuser of the pump stage. This has a dramatic impact on the mechanical behaviour of the pump stage. On the one hand, it forms the highest contribu-tion to the impeller shroud strain, generating deforma-tions several times higher than the ones generated by rotor-stator interaction pressure fluctuations. The perturbations in the circumferential pressure distribution yield further a ra-dial net force, slowly rotating around the impeller circumfer-ence.

Besides the work performed at LMH, further investigations are being carried out by the team of Prof T. Staubli at HSLU. They will be described in the fi nal re-port.

Control of variable speed pumped storage units

The doctoral thesis related to the present task was com-pleted in 2010 in collabora-tion with Alstom Hydro. The main objective of this work is to propose and develop control strategies and operation pro-cedures for a variable speed pumped storage power plant in order to optimize its effi ciency and to guarantee the stability of the grid. Such a study re-quires three main steps: theo-retical development, modeling and validation through simula-tion results. The power plant considered in this study is fully and in detail modeled, the model including the electrical system and the converters, the hydraulic part and the control equipment. The simplifi cation of the electrical part, and more particularly the replacement of the converters by controlled voltage sources lead to a dras-tic reduction of simulation time. Proposed control strate-gies, which were validated with the help of SIMSEN simulation software, enable the optimal operation of the variable speed group in the case of intercon-nected and isolated grid topol-ogies and for both generating and pumping modes.

The dynamic performances achieved are better than those obtained when considering an equivalent group working at constant speed, even if im-portant electrical faults occur in the grid. Moreover the pro-posed procedures of start-up and synchronization related to the commissioning of the group operating in pumping mode do not require any supplementary equipment and enable to start the group in a short time.

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Figure 3: Experimental model for pressurized steel lined tunnels and shafts.

Figure 4: Experimental setup of a model of pump turbine in EPFL test rig.


Pressurized shafts and tun-nels

In the frame of a thesis, a new theoretical model for Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) with axisymmetrical behavior and longitudinal motion has been introduced. It can detect the compressional water mode and the radial and axial propa-gation modes in the steel liner and in the far fi eld rock zone. The time-dependent stress diagrams, resulting from the FSI problem can be used as input for the deterministic and probabilistic Fracture Mechan-ics models of steel liners. At the same time, an experimen-tal facility was assembled at LMH laboratory to detect the change in a pipe wall stiffness using recorded pressure data generated either by an exter-nal water pressure excitation source or by a rapid change of the fl ow rate that produces water-hammer inside the pipe. The processing of the pressure signals gave promising results. Besides laboratory tests, the remote monitoring procedure in the pilot site (Grimsel 2) was completed and is now be-ing tested.

Prediction methods for sed-imentation in pumped stor-age plants

The present task focuses on the infl uence of alternate pumping/generating activity and the position of intake/out-let structures on the sedimen-tation processes. The method involves prototype measure-ments combined with physical and numerical modeling. We have pursued in 2010 the in-strumentation of the pilot site (Grimsel 2) to monitor the turbidity of the lake. In situ

data recording is already op-erational. The measurement system is now being integrat-ed to HydroNet monitoring plate-form to allow for remote access to measured data on demand. Besides, an experi-mental setup was designed and built to investigate sedi-mentation issues under labo-ratory controlled conditions. It is made of main and second-ary basins connected to each other through a pipe. Water may fl ow in both directions be-tween the basins. Besides tur-bidity and temperature, veloc-ity fi eld is also measured with the help of Ultrasonic Velocity Profi lers. The results are being analyzed. Moreover, numerical simulation of the experimental case study, using ANSYS-CFX solver and appropriate tur-bulence modeling, were also performed. The results will be compared to experimental data.

Downstream ecological ef-fect of particles

In the actual task, the follow-ing issues are investigated: • Particle mass and particle-

size distribution as a func-tion of seasons;

• Change of sedimentation through pump storage op-erations;

• Change of particle prop-erties caused by turbine/pump passages;

• Hydrodynamic modeling.

Data provided by several fi eld campaigns (2008 and 2009 on Grimsel and Oberaar reser-voirs) as well as by the analy-ses of water samples and the collection of Conductivity- Temperature-Depth profi les were summarized in an article, which was submitted to Wa-

ter Resources Research. The main fi nding is that Grimselsee and Oberaarsee have become less and more turbid, respec-tively, since pump-storage op-erations are exchanging water between the two reservoirs. The sediment cores are under investigation. We expect that, as predicted by linear model, sedimentation has slightly decreased in Grimselsee and substantially increased in Oberaarsee.

Non intrusive monitoring of pumped storage power plants

Based on the specifi cations of the monitoring procedure, al-ready drawn by all partners in 2008, we have completed the installation of the hardware and software in the pilot site (Grimsel 2), with the help of Kraftwerk Oberhasli AG per-sonnel. Various sensors are in-stalled with their conditioning electronic and signal record-ers. The turbine and the pump are instrumented with pres-sure and vibration transducers to help following hydrodynamic instabilities and vibration. The follow up of pressurized shaft is done with pressure sensors and hydrophones at different locations. The central server for data storage was installed and the software ensuring data collection is now working. The communication software was also implemented and test-ed. It allows any of HydroNet partners to remotely confi gure its monitoring procedure and collect measured data at any time.

This provides, for the fi rst time, precious fi led measure-ments on demand in secure, remote and non-intrusive way.



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Outlook

Actual research is focusing on the development of post processing tools for data reduction, in collaborative way. The ultimate goal is to carry out reliable monitor-ing with a minimum num-ber of sensors.

The integrated monitoring procedure developed so far, is proposed to other power plants inside and outside Switzerland. We strongly believe that deploying such a method in other power plants will signifi cantly im-prove reliability.


BTE Blunt Trailing Edge

DTE Donaldson Trailing Edge

FSI Fluid-Structure Interaction

OTE Oblique Trailing Edge

UVP Ultrasonic Velocity Profi ler


PINEPlatform for Innovative Nuclear Fuels

Scope of project

PINE stands for Platform for Innovative Nuclear Fuels. It deals with establishing the sphere-pac concept for sodium cooled fast reactors using a carbide matrix. The project is divided into a produc-tion part, a part dealing with the integration into the fuel cycle, the reprocessing of the fuel and a part regarding the neutronics of the fuel concept.

Task 1: Internal gela-tion with microwave heating (Empa, ETHZ, PSI, Universidad Po-litecnica de Valencia)

The internal gelation is a well experienced process at PSI, however, it was mainly devel-oped for nuclear applications within nuclear grade labora-tories. Most of the experience therefore relies on a uranium based feed. For the project a cerium based internal gela-tion is developed, in order to be able to easily exchange samples with the ETHZ and

the Empa (non nuclear labora-tories).

The internal gelation was therefore reviewed and further developed to work with cerium, with and without carbon addi-tion, in order to address oxide or carbide fi nal products. In the process the ratio of hexa-methylenetetramine (HMTA or Hexa) and Urea to metal

content are key parameters. Together with the ETH Zürich a rheology based experiment has been developed to inves-tigate the infl uence of these ratios on the internal gelation dynamics. Figure 1 shows the corresponding results, which are the elastic moduli as a function of the temperature at a constant heating rate. For the given conditions the aver-age gelation temperature of 45°C is detected, depending on the HMTA to metal ratio, a slight shift in this tempera-ture is identifi ed, the threshold temperature being smaller for higher HMTA to metal ratios. The mixture 1.65 did not jel-lify at all or only very slowly. 2.25 was found to be the op-timal mixture, as for higher HMTA contents the formation of a surface fi lm was observed.

Complementary to this study the internal gelation was also investigated at the Empa Thun partially using the equipment and expertise of the Univer-sidad Politecnica de Valencia. The idea of these investiga-tions is the measurement of the dielectric properties as a function of the temperature. Contrary to the rheology based experiment, which is the mea-sure of the macroscopic prop-erty, dielectric measurement directly accesses the micro-scopic features of the reagent. The feed solution was in this case cooled to 0°C and then

Electricity

Main Investigator

M.A. Pouchon, PSI

Project Partners

PSI

Empa

EPFL

ETHZ

Universidad Politecnica de Valencia

Status of project

The sphere-pac concept con-sists of spherical (U,Pu)C fuel kernels which are directly fi lled into the fuel pin. The fuel ker-nels are classically produced by the internal gelation meth-od with a subsequent calcina-tion and sintering.

The production part contains two tasks. Task 1 for the inter-nal gelation, which is further developed by using microwave heating instead of an oil bath, and a task 2 where the batch wise sintering procedure is re-placed by a continuous process using a rotary kiln.

To ensure the fuel cycle, the fuel must be reprocessed. In task 3 a special pre-treatment is regarded, which makes the reprocessing easier.

As the sphere-pac concept is different from the conventional pellet fuel, the different neu-tronics behaviour has to be calculated and adjusted. This is treated in task 4.



HMTA Hexamethylene-tetramine

SFR Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (gen-eration IV reactor system)

XRD X-Ray Diffraction

InVap Inductive Vaporiza-tion Device

GEMS Gibbs Energy Mini-mization Selector

Figure 1 (left): Measure-ment of the feed solution elastic modulus as a func-tion of the temperature for solutions with different HMTA to metal ratios (e.g. Mix 165 represents nHexa/nmetal = 1.65).

Figure 2 (right): Room temperature measurement of the cavity resonance properties, when fi lled with a gelling sample. Exother-mal reaction (tempera-ture of the sample in red), change of the quality fac-tor (blue curve) and shift of the resonant frequency (green curve) can be seen.


exposed to room temperature, while the dielectric properties were measured by the cavity perturbation method. In a later phase two distinct microwave fi elds are going to be used, one to measure the dielectric prop-erties, and another, more pow-erful one, to heat the sample. Figure 2 shows the change in dielectric properties as a func-tion of time.

At PSI the base equipment for the feed solution preparation and the drop generation was developed and installed. This includes a cooling unit with cooled feed containers with a cooled connection to the drop generator. A stirring unit in the feed container provides a homogeneous solution. The entire solution is set under a variable pressure, in order to provide the appropriate driving force for the drop generation. With a set of nozzles and with a variable vibrator frequency, a wide range of drop sizes can be generated. For an illustra-tion of the equipment see fi g-ure 3a.

A challenge is the generation of a focused droplet stream over a distance of more than 25 cm, which corresponds to the travelling path through the microwave cavity. The con-struction has been optimized, in order to fulfi ll this task. With the use of a heavy steel sus-pension of the droplet genera-tor the droplets are acceptable up to a distance of 25 cm (Fig-ure 3b). This picture was tak-en with one second exposure time, at which a single drop in the picture represents 700 drops lightened by the stro-boscope (drop generation at 14 kHz and a reduction of the stroboscope frequency by a

factor of 20). The smearing out of the droplet for the picture at 25 cm distance from the noz-zle is mainly due to small in-stabilities. The lateral variation is however very small.

Task 2: Thermal treat-ment (Empa)

After the planning and the construction of the rotary kiln, which was already described in last years report, the function-ality and performance of the furnace was tested in a second phase.

An important parameter in the rotary kiln is the dwell time of the product in the furnace, as it is a value which on one hand does not result from the simple setting of a timer, but derives from the fl ow dynam-ics through the furnace, and which on the other hand is be-sides the atmosphere and the temperature a key parameter for the sintering process. The fl ow velocity through the fur-nace is given by its inclination angle and the rotation speed. Figure 4a shows a graph with different inclination angles and rotation speeds and the result-ing dwell time.

In another series of tests the sintering of indium hydroxide

powder was tested in oxygen, air, nitro-gen and forming gas 92/8 at different rota-tion speeds and tem-peratures from 600 to 800°C. The resulting powders were inves-tigated by XRD (X-ray diffraction), the BET (Brunauer Em-mett Teller) method, furthermore the grain size distribution was characterized. In another ex-periment the infl uence of the atmosphere was tested on a mixture of corundum and iron powder at temperatures from 700 to 800°C. Figure 4b shows such a test in argon. No oxida-tion is visible, which indicates gas tightness of the furnace. The furnace was tested up to 1000°C and works perfectly in this range.

Next tests will focus on the sin-tering performance for dried gels coming out of the internal gelation process and a com-parison with static sintering.

Task 3: Reprocessing aspects (PSI).

In 2010 a thermochemical test program (up to 2000°C) with an inactive test matrix and with irradiated fuel samples


Electricity

Figure 3: a) New internal gelation unit constructed at PSI, with

(A): the feed container,(B): the vibrator with

the nozzle,(C): the cooling unit,(D): the control unit for

the vibrator,(E): the microwave unit

with the resonant cavity (F) which will be soon delivered to Empa and fi nally transferred to PSI.

b) Stroboscopic picture of hundreds of droplets in a distance of 10 and 25 cm from the nozzle.

a) b)

Figure 4: a) Dwell time depen-dence of the product from the rotation speed and the inclination an-gle of the furnace. b) Thermal treatment of fused alumina with iron powder in Argon at 700–800°C, no visible oxida-tion.

b)a)

44 CCEM – Annual Activity Report 2010Electricity


was performed. As described in last years report, an induc-tive vaporization device (In-Vap) was constructed and built in 2009. The system is in op-eration in the Hot Laboratory since February 2010. Firstly, the basic operation criteria and the performance characteristic of the device were investigated using SIMFUEL, a non-irradiat-ed uranium oxide fuel matrix.

First annealing experiments performed in the InVap sys-tem revealed the transport effi ciency and the signal sta-

bility as issues for further improve-ment of the de-vice. In order to fulfi ll this goal, the InVap system was equipped with a peristaltic pump to moisturize the gas fl ow transport-ing the released fi ssion products/actinides from the heating device to the inductive cou-pled plasma. The increased loading of the plasma re-sulted in a better stability of the sig-nal intensities. The general setup of the improved sys-

tem in operation is shown in fi gure 5a.

The device oper-ates in a range from 200 up to 2300° C in a very reproduc-ible way. It was therefore decided to use only the InVap equipment, and not to use the HeLAC (heated laser abla-

tion cell) device, which was originally foreseen for the low temperature range (also de-scribed in last years report). First tests were also performed with irradiated fuel. In order to limit the amount of activity being introduced in the device and to omit contamination, a special sampling technique was developed, where an im-print of a fuel pellet on a cap-ton tape was sealed with a cel-lulose nitrate fi lter. This sealed imprint was cut into several sub samples.

First test measurements of fi ssion product release from irradiated UO2 fuel were per-formed in 2010. The data clearly indicate a temperature dependence of the individual fi ssion product release. Fur-thermore, it was demonstrated using gamma spectrometry that more than 99.9 % of Cs and about 95 % of the Am ac-tivity was released from the fuel sample during the anneal-ing procedure. The annealing experiments are accompanied by thermodynamic modeling activities. The U and fi ssion product speciation in the sol-id and gaseous phases under equilibrium conditions is as-sessed by use of Gibbs ener-gy minimization selector code (GEMS, designed at PSI, fi g-ure 5b).

Task 4: Neutronics as-pects (PSI, EPFL)

The main purpose of this work package is to demonstrate that from the neutronics point of view the carbide sphere-pac fuel option is an acceptable al-ternative for one of the main Generation IV reactor systems, the sodium-cooled fast reac-tor (SFR). The available SFR designs based on the CEA ox-ide and carbide core concepts were used as a fi rst estimation. However, it was found that the difference between these two core designs is not only based on the diverse fuel material. The carbide core is more com-pact and the residence time is shorter. The fuel has higher Pu content and the smeared den-sity is lower. Consequently, the carbide core acts as a burner.

Based on the previous results, it was concluded, that the property of sphere-pac fuel must be evaluated by means of comparison of two similar core designs. Accordingly, the oxide core was modifi ed for the sphere pac fuel. Several cases with different fuel density and core height were studied and the key performance and safe-ty related parameters as for instance: Doppler constant, void reactivity, breeding gain, and keff were evaluated. Fig-ure 6 shows for example the evolvement of the safety rel-evant Doppler coeffi cient.

The most important fi ndings for the sphere-pac fuel are a higher reactivity, an equal of lower void reactivity, an ac-ceptable breeding gain, lower Pu and actinide load. These are all positive features; a disad-vantage identifi ed in this study is a worse Doppler coeffi cient.

Figure 5: a) Optimized setup of In-Vap device: Implementa-tion of a peristaltic pump and spray chamber to moistur-ize the argon gas stream. b) Chemical speciation of U and fi ssion products in UO2 fuel under equilibrium conditions (modeled with GEMS).

Figure 6: a) Evolving of the safety rel-evant Doppler coeffi cient. b) Explanation of the different core designs, describing the four different core heights, dif-ferent smear densities and total actinide loads.

a)

b)

a)

b)


CarmaCarbon Dioxide Management in Power Generation

Scope of project

Carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and storage (CCS) is a set of technologies for the capture of CO2 from its anthropogenic point sources, its transport to a storage location or treatment plant, and its isola-tion from the atmosphere. This is only one, though very important, option in a portfolio of actions to fi ght the increase of atmospheric CO2 concentration and to mitigate the greenhouse effect and climate change, while at the same time allowing for the continued use of fossil fuels. The CARMA project aims at exploring the potential for and the feasibility of the deployment of CCS in Switzer-land within the framework of future energy scenarios. Moreover, we aim at exploiting the available expertise to develop new CCS technologies and know-how, which might be applied in Switzerland and worldwide.

Electricity

Main Investigator

Marco Mazzotti, ETHZ

Project Partners

EPFL

ETHZ

PSI

University of Bern

FHNW

Geoform Ltd.

Status and scientifi c results of sub-projects

federal offi ce of energy with seven additional natural gas power plants after 2020, point sources of CO2 with annual emissions of around 14 Mt CO2

(corresponding to around 23 % of overall emissions) would be suited for CCS application.

A preliminary economic as-sessment of CCS application for potential point sources of CO2 in Switzerland – being car-ried out in collaboration with EPFL – resulted in costs per ton of CO2 captured of about 75 CHF/ton for cement facto-ries, ~105 CHF/ton for waste incineration, and ~150 CHF/ton for natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) plants. The main driver for these costs turns out

to be the CO2 concentration in the fl ue gas.

The LCA case study analyzed the German lignite power plant «Janschwalde», where ap-plication of both oxyfuel and post combustion CO2 capture is scheduled to be implement-ed in a demonstration plant around 2015. This study will serve as a benchmark refl ect-ing current or near-future CCS technology in the power sector.

The LCA results show a signifi -cant reduction of GHG emis-sions per kWh of electricity due to CCS with CO2 as the domi-nating emission. On the other hand, the overall environmen-tal performance of CCS, also

Environmental and economic assessment

The work on identifi cation of point sources of CO2 in Swit-zerland as well as CO2 sinks in Switzerland and Europe has been performed accord-ing to the revised overall proj-ect schedule by mid 2010. In parallel, the activities on the environmental and economic assessment have been intensi-fi ed by carrying out life cycle assessment (LCA) case stud-ies for application of CCS in the power generation sector as well as estimation of costs of CCS in the industrial and power sector, supplemented by a comprehensive literature re-view. Multi-criteria evaluation of CCS and other options for reduction of CO2 emissions has been started by end of 2010.

Currently 27 point sources – mainly cement factories and waste incineration facilities – with annual emissions higher than 0.1 Mt CO2/year con-tribute around 13 % (6.8 Mt CO2/a) to Swiss annual green-house gas (GHG) emissions (overall: 53 Mt/a).

Following the most GHG in-tensive scenario of the Swiss «Energieperspektiven» of the


CCS Carbon Dioxide Capture and Stor-age

FGR Flue Gas Recircula-tion

GHG Greenhouse Gas

LCA Life Cycle Assess-ment

LIF Laser Induced Fluo-rescence

MARKAL MARKet ALlocation

NGCC Natural Gas Com-bined Cycle

Figure 1: Overview over the concept of carbon di-oxide capture and storage (IPCC, 2005).

Deployment of CCS tech-nologies is expected to be limited in the next 5 to 10 years, but to provide a sig-nifi cant CO2 sink in at best 20 years from now. Cap-ture of CO2 using existing separation techniques can be applied to large point sources, i.e. power plants or industrial plants; CO2 can be easily transported over large distances using pipelines and ships; CO2 storage can be in geologi-cal formations, or by fi xing it as mineral carbonates.

46 CCEM – Annual Activity Report 2010Electricity

CarmaCarbon Dioxide Management in PowerGeneration

taking into account further po-tential environmental burdens, will not be improved by CCS to the same extent; the «energy penalty» due to CO2 capture leads to an increasing amount of fuel required per kWh gen-erated with the associated emissions worsening the envi-ronmental performance.

Accident risks for application of CCS in the power genera-tion chain were subject of ini-tial assessment. They are an essential factor in decision making processes and can also strongly impact public percep-tion and opinion. A simulation of an accidental CO2 release and its consequences was car-ried out for a specifi c site. Fur-thermore, an experts’ survey on CCS risks was conducted.

Energy-economic modeling

An initial set of consistent technology data for CSS and other technologies has been collected for implementation in the Swiss MARKAL model for energy system scenario analy-sis.

It comprises data on likely technology options for NGCC with CCS (post combustion)

and supercritical coal CCS (post-combustion and oxy-fuel). While the deployment of coal-based CCS options in Switzerland is unlikely from the current point of view, these technologies are included in the analysis to facilitate the option to explore a wider range of scenarios, and evaluate pos-sible conditions where such a technology could be cost effec-tive.

Pre-combustion CO2 capture

Analysis of fuel decarbon-ization processes

Thermo-economic models for the different technological op-tions have been developed. The models include the fl ow sheet defi ning, the mass and energy balances, the energy integration computing the po-tential heat recovery and the optimal combined production of H2, heat and power, and the performance evaluation based on the assessment of the cost and environmental impacts.

Except for some CO2 capture technologies, most of the mod-els are now in place and ready for performing optimization to assess the trade-offs of com-peting objectives based on the thermo-economic analyses.

Preliminary performance re-sults for a natural gas fed au-to-thermal reformer confi gura-tion with chemical absorption yield an energy effi ciency of 44 % and CO2 emissions in the order of 31 g/kWh which trans-lates in an emissions decrease around 90 % compared to a conventional NGCC plant with an effi ciency of 57 %.

Combustion of hydrogen-rich fuels

The combustion team of the Institute of Thermo and Fluid Engineering in the FHNW is focused on the experimental investigation of combustion emissions and stability of hy-drogen rich fuels at relevant gas turbine conditions.

In the fi rst year modifi cations to the «Mini-Hoch-Druck» test rig have been carried out to al-low the different planned tests, including fuel delivery for both standard gas turbine and re-heat conditions and different injector designs. An optical access to the mixing tube for standard gas turbine condi-tions (Tox<550° C) was also achieved. For the experiments three different injectors were designed and tested, in order to provide different mixing qualities.

Tests at pressures up to 8 bar and temperatures up to 550° C have been realized, where combustion stability (fl ashback occurrence) and NOX emissions have been analyzed for mix-tures of H2/N2 (pure hydrogen with nitrogen dilution up to 40 % vol.) and H2/N2/CH4 (co-fi ring conditions with nitrogen dilution up to 40 % vol. and >80 % vol. hydrogen content).

It can be observed that as the nitrogen dilution in the fuel increases the NOX emissions decrease for every combina-tion of H2/CH4 composition. This can be explained due to the additional heat capacity of the nitrogen which lowers high peak temperatures in the fl ame caused by unmixedness but mainly because the nitro-gen reduces the local equiva-

Figure 2: Location of top-27 CO2 point sources in Switzerland and their at-tribution to different in-dustrial sectors (Yan et al. 2010).

47CCEM – Annual Activity Report 2010 Electricity

CarmaCarbon Dioxide Management in PowerGeneration

lence ratio which reduces the local fl ame temperature. It can also be observed that the impact of N2 dilution on NOX emissions increases with in-creased hydrogen fuel fraction. This effect appears due to the increase of the injection veloc-ity while changing from a high-er density fuel (methane) to a lower density fuel (hydrogen). The increasing injection veloc-ity leads to greater turbulence in the jet shear layer which en-hanced the mixing.

The Combustion Fundamen-tals Group of PSI is involved in the experimental and nu-merical investigation of the ignition chemistry of hydrogen rich fuels. The gas phase igni-tion chemistry will be assessed with combustion experiments in a channel fl ow catalytic re-actor. Accompanying numeri-cal predictions will be carried out using our in house devel-oped 2D computational fl uid dynamics code, using detailed hetero-/homogeneous chemi-cal reaction schemes. Coat-ing of the channel walls with a catalyst facilitates the forma-tion of stable fl ames. First ex-periments with pure hydrogen and syngas (CO:H2 molar ratio of 2:1) were performed in the catalytic channel. Inlet tem-peratures and pressures of up to 500° C and 15 bars, respec-tively, were reached.

The Lean-Premixed Combus-tion group at PSI is involved in the investigation of turbulent premixed combustion for high hydrogen-content fuel mix-tures. To provide a background of the combustion characteris-tics, the unstretched laminar fl ame speed for several hydro-gen-rich mixtures is numeri-cally evaluated.

Geological storage in Switzerland

The evaluation of the regional potential of Switzerland relies on 9 qualitative and semi-quantitative attributes, includ-ing natural seismicity and the occurrence of faults, derived from analysis of deep drill holes and geological and geophysical data. The weighted combina-tions of these attributes have been ranked on a numerical scale between 0 (negligible po-tential) and 1 (high potential). Application of this scheme al-lows the map of Switzerland to be contoured with respect of CO2 sequestration potential with a resolution of a few km2. Only the sedimentary rocks below the Central locally show moderate to very good poten-tial. An area of ~5000 km2 in the sector Fribourg–Olten–Lu-zern exhibits potentials above 0.6, offering a theoretical stor-age capacity for ~2680 million tons of CO2.

Mineral carbonation

Assessment of mineral carbonation technologies

The many knowledge gaps caused our assessment to be both diffi cult and non ex-haustive. However, our com-parative approache helped to systematically distinguish between unfeasible ideas and processes with the potential for scale up and commercial application.

Dissolution study of activated serpentine

The reproducibility and qual-ity of the obtained data was extraordinary. Regarding the

dissolution dynamics, we found that the formerly ap-plied shrinking particle model used for oliv-ine dissolution proofed to be invalid for the new material.

As serpentine dissolves, a lay-er of silica rich, Mg depleted material (ash) remains on the unreacted surface, such that mass transfer limitations (dif-fusion through the ash layer) start to dominate the kinetics.

Initial model simulations re-vealed preliminary results re-garding the specifi c dissolu-tion rate. According to these, activated serpentine dissolves between two to three orders of magnitude faster at low tem-perature than olivine.

Public perception of CCS

The prevalence and effect of cognitive concepts underlying people’s risk perception and benefi t perception of CCS were examined in a representative survey (N = 654) in Switzer-land.

Results confi rm fi ndings from previous qualitative studies and show a quantifi cation of a variety of widespread intuitive concepts that laypeople hold about storage mechanisms, as well as about leakage and socioeconomic issues, which all appeared to infl uence risk perception and benefi t percep-tion. Implications for risk com-munication and management are discussed.

Website

www.carma.ethz.ch

Figure 3: Map of Switzer-land showing the potential of CO2 sequestration within depth saline aquifers es-timated from data in lit-erature. The areas of high potential (green) do not guarantee the feasibility of CO2 sequestration. Rather they serve as guide to ar-eas that warrant more de-tailed investigation (from Chevalier et al. 2010).

Heat & BuildHeat & Buildingsings


ccem-retrofi tAdvanced Energy Effi cient Renovation of Buildings

Scope of activities

The ccem-retrofi t project is based on national and international research and development proj-ects that are collaborating to promote and improve cost effective low energy renovation of existing buildings. The project focuses on typical apartment blocks representing approximately 40 % of the European dwelling stock. The project is structured in three parts: technology development, system integration as well as market analysis and tools.

Main scientifi c results

2010 was mainly used for doc-umenting and reporting the results of the project. The de-velopment work has been ba-sically been completed already during 2009. However the so-cio-economic studies that are related to the technical devel-opment work have still to be completed. The main achievements of this year are:• Completion and publication

of the Swiss Building Typol-ogy;

• Development of a Retrofi t Strategies Design Guide as part of the international collaboration;

• Completion of 3-D measur-ing technology report;

• Completion of façade and roof module development and documentation, includ-ing integration of ventila-tion and solar systems;

• Publication of fi nal test-version of «Retrofi t-Advi-sor» with simplifi ed inter-face for non-professio nals. Starting of implementation of the Retrofi t-Advisor in an internet-based evalua-tion tool by the Swiss home owners association.

Editing and publication of reports

The reports prepared are ad-dressing 3 levels of interest:• General: wide audience,

information about the con-

cept and the results for building owners, architects and contractors.

• Technical: technical reports for specialists involved in renovation projects.

• National: national reports, mainly for national publica-tion.

Swiss Building Typology

The building typology provides basic data for the evaluation of the renovation potential of the existing building stock, for the defi nition of retrofi t strategies and the envelope characteris-tics of specifi c building types.

Based on the building typology of apartment buildings that has been completed earlier a Retrofi t Strategies Design Guide has been developed by HSLU T&A. General renova-tion strategies are discussed in a fi rst part and specifi c guid-ance for the prefabrication of renovation modules is given in a second part.

The evaluation of the most ap-propriate renovation strategy is done by a questionnaire that covers the seven most impor-tant renovation issues.

If potential for a comprehen-sive building renovation is seen, then a detailed checklist

Main Investigator

Mark Zimmermann, Empa

Project Partners

Empa

EPFL

ETHZ

PSI

FNHW

HSLU T&A

University of Berne

Heat & Buildings

Status of project

2010 was the fourth and last project year and foreseen for completion and documentation of the project. This time plan is also in line with the related CTI-project and the interna-tional collaboration within the framework of IEA ECBCS An-nex 50. Both are also complet-ed by the end of 2010. How-ever, editing and publication of the reports will be done early 2011.

In addition, the realisation of a further demonstration proj-ect is planned, that will dem-onstrate the latest technical developments that have been done in the project.

Figure 1: Publication con-cept of ccem-retrofi t in col-laboration with IEA ECBCS Annex 50.


IEA International En-ergy Agency

ECBCS Energy Conserva-tion in Buildings and Community Systems


tioned earlier. The special fea-ture of the façade modules is that they are relatively small in size and therefore provide a higher degree of standardisa-tion and easier handling.

The prefabrication concept has been developed, tested and documented. Special at-tention was given to building physics, fi re protection and lo-gistics. The results are highly standardised renovation mod-ules that concentrate on the window area as the area with a high density of detailing. All critical details have been con-centrated and solved in this area.

Two 1:1 mock-ups have been built, one for studying the con-struction process, the other for demonstration. The dem-onstration mock-up has been shown at the Swissbau and Blue&Green exhibitions.

Demonstration buildings

Three national demonstration projects were planned, two of them are already completed. Further demonstration proj-ects that are applying prefabri-


Heat & Buildings

cation technologies were done in Austria and the Netherlands, and one is planned in Sweden.

Unfortunately it was not yet possible to renovate a build-ing exactly with the developed Swiss system. A demonstration of the technology was planned with the City of Zürich. A de-tailed project for fi ve apart-ment buildings in the northern suburbs of Zurich was designed by Bauart Architects. However, the City of Zurich decided that the planned refurbishment will be too expensive for the so-cial housing apartments con-cerned. The additional costs were mainly related to addi-tional infrastructure costs (un-derground garage, earthquake safety, enlarged staircases) that had nothing to do with the prefabricated renovation mod-ules. ccem-retrofi t is therefore looking for a new demonstra-tion project that could prove and demonstrate the feasibility of the concept.

The intention is to use avail-able budget reserves from CCEM and CTI for initiating a pilot renovation that is dem-onstrating the developed solu-tions in a real application. The renovation is planned for 2011

National collaboration

The project is building up a strong collaboration between various ETH-Institutions, the National Buildings and Renewable Energies Network of Tech-nology (brenet) and impor-tant Swiss industry part-ners.

International collabora-tion

The mandate by the In-ternational Energy Agency and the Swiss Federal Of-fi ce of Energy to act as Operating Agents for the IEA ECBCS Annex 50 «Pre-fabricated System for Low Energy Renovation of Resi-dential Buildings» is ongo-ing. The project is closely related to the ccem-retrofi t project. The international collaboration allows the coordination of the Swiss activities with similar R&D-work in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden.

is provided in order to develop an advanced renovation con-cept that is applying prefabri-cated renovation modules. The checklist has been developed by the international project partner AEE-Intec in Graz/Austria and covers the follow-ing topics:• Initial situation• Existing building stock• New building envelope• Fire prevention• Sound insulation• Building physics and ecol-

ogy•. Basic module kit• Joint and fi xing techniques• Service module kit• Active module kit

The design requirements for façade and roof modules are described in the Retrofi t Mod-ule Design Guide. Besides the ccem-retrofi t module devel-opment three other develop-ments from Austria, France and Portugal are documented in this publication.

Façade and roof module development

The Swiss module develop-ment is based on the results of the building typology men-

Figure 2 (left): 7 steps ap-proach for the valuation of the most appropriate reno-vation strategy (© CCTP).

Figure 3 (right): Main pa-rameters for building reno-vations are quality of build-ing substance and market potential (© CCTP).


and will need a 12 months ex-tension of the ccem-retrofi t project. At the same time it should be possible to conduct a cost analysis and a fi rst evalu-ation of the energy savings.

Socio-economic studies

Various studies have been done in order to promote ad-vanced energy effi cient build-ing renovations:• The study «Markets and

policies in Switzerland and Europe» by ETH CEPE is investigating the technical application potential for ad-vanced retrofi t strategies. The dissertation «Advances in techno-economic energy modeling» was completed. The simulation of the ap-plication potentials is still ongoing.

• A second study «Analysis of investment decisions for energy-effi cient renova-tions of buildings» is evalu-ating the economic impact of advanced retrofi t strate-gies. ETH CEPE is trying to understand how renovation decisions are made by mul-tifamily house owners. For this purpose, a so-called choice experiment is being conducted with owners of multi-family buildings that could be renovated during the next years. A pre-test with about 100 house own-ers will be done in January 2011 and 10’000 house owners will be addressed in March and April.

• The DeeR-project by PSI and the University of Berne is investigating the diffu-sion processes for energy effi ciency measures. The analysis of actors is com-

pleted and considers a model with four types of building owners, two types of architects, three types of tenants and two types of political actors. The de-cision functions represent-ing the actors’ behavior are based on interview data and scientifi c literature. The PhD work related to this study will be submitted early 2011.

Heat & Buildings


«Retrofi t-Advisor»

To support optimal renovation strategy decisions, Empa has developed an electro nic tool. It allows an economic, environ-mental and social evaluation of different renovation strategies.

Besides 6 renovation strategies also the actual situation, a re-pair only strategy and the de-molition and reconstruction of the building may be analysed. A test version of the tool is available since mid 2010. The tool will also be implemented in the Swiss internet-platform Immogreen.

Figure 4: The three Swiss demonstration projects be-fore and after renovation: multifamily house in Zug, designed by architect Reto Miloni (left), multifamily house in Zurich Höngg by architect Beat Kämpfen, and neighbourhood refur-bishment in Zurich North, planned by Bauart archi-tects (right).

Figure 5: Various renova-tion strategies can be se-lected and analysed with the Retrofi t-Advisor. The tool allows a quick evalua-tion of costs, environmen-tal and social impacts.


AQUASARDirect Re-use of Waste Heat from Liquid-Cooled Supercomputers

Scope of activities

The aim of this project is to build a fi rst working example of a liquid-cooled super computer to show enhanced energy effi ciency through reuse of the waste heat. In comparison to state-of-the-art air cooling systems the energy consumption of a liquid-cooled system is strongly reduced as the en-tering liquid does not need to be cooled down prior to its usage for cooling. Additionally, the waste heat of the liquid coolant can be reused in further applications. An attractive prospect from both an economic and an ecological perspective.

Main Investigator

Dimos Poulikakos, ETHZ

Project Partners

EPFL

ETHZ

IBM

Heat & Buildings

Status of project

ETHZ (LTNT) – Data center facility

The energy recovery system of the AQUASAR-system at ETHZ consists of two closed water loops. The heat removal struc-ture on the electronic compo-nents is supplied with coolant (de-ionized water, 0.1% Ben-zotriazole) by the pumping module of the integrated cool-ing loop of the AQUASAR-sys-tem. Temperature, pressure and fl ow sensors help achieve a close supervision and regula-tion of the system.

The heat captured from the components in the water-cooled blade servers of the AQUASAR is then transferred with the help of a heat ex-changer to the second cooling loop, which uses normal water. A second heat exchanger is then used to transfer the heat to the ETH heating grid. The second cooling loop is neces-sary to implement all the im-

portant safety mechanisms without affecting the water loop used to directly cool the electronic components. The possibility to inject cold water into the second cooling cycle was implemented with a three-way valve as a safety mecha-nism to prevent the supercom-puter from getting overheated.

In a steady-state all the heat captured in the integrated cooling cycle minus minimal thermal losses in the tubing is transferred to the ETH heating grid.

Progress on experiments

An experimental setup was built at IBM-Research to in-vestigate the performance of individual heat sinks. It is de-signed to allow control of fl ow rate, coolant inlet temperature and dissipated heat fl ux. Pres-sure drop across the heat sink, coolant outlet temperature and junction temperatures of

IBM has delivered the AQUA-SAR fi rst-of-a-kind water-cooled supercomputer to the ETH Zurich. The system has been tested and the metrology system has been completed in April 2010. With its inno-vative water-cooling system and direct utilization of waste heat, AQUASAR is now fully-operational at the Department of Mechanical and Process En-gineering at ETH Zurich. The laboratory space hosting the AQUASAR at ETH was upgrad-ed with a water supply system that allows an effi cient energy transfer from AQUASAR to the ETH heating grid.

In addition, systematic steps have been taken towards fun-damental investigations and futuristic cooling technologies conducive to green data cen-ter design. Experimental set-ups and numerical modeling of both single phase and two phase liquid based cooling of chips are under-way. A test set-up and numerical modeling are being developed for single phase cooling. The construc-tion of a versatile test bench for two-phase fl uid based cool-ing was completed in October, 2010, at EPFL.

Moreover, Open Cooling Loop is being used at ETH Zurich to improve the computation per-formance of the AQUASAR.


AMM Advanced Manage-ment Modules

MD Molecular Dynamics

Towards Low Power, High Performance, Zero-Emission Comput-ing and Data Centers

The IT industry accounts for 2 % of global carbon emissions, as much as is released by air traffi c. Having doubled in the past fi ve years the worldwide datacenter electricity con-sumption now equals four-teen large (1 GW) power plants. Up to 50 % percent of the energy consump-tion and carbon footprint of current air cooled data centres is needed for cool-ing with the heat being wasted.

The cooling of data centers represents an estimated annual cost of 1.4 bil-lion dollars in the United States and 3.6 billion dol-lars in the world.

The necessary components for air cooling systems can consume up to half of the electrical power consump-tion of a data center. Largest data centers consume up to 200 MW of electrical power, with all the excess heat produced being dissipated into the environment. At the same time we use gas and oil, for space heating.


Figures 1 and 2: Hot, water-cooled IBM BladeCenter QS22/HS22 cluster.

53CCEM – Annual Activity Report 2010 Heat & Buildings

AQUASARDirect Re-use of Waste Heatfrom Liquid-Cooled Supercomputers

the test chip are collected to investigate performance. We have to determine an opti-mal trade off regime between low thermal resistances and low pressure drops to achieve the best overall performance keeping the safety risks as small as possible. A second set of experiments is focusing on advanced coolants on the base of emulsions.

Progress on modeling

The modeling work has been now extended to understand hydrodynamics of water fl ow through the heat sink. Clearly, the design suffers from non-uniformity of the fl ow distribu-tion. However, the easy and scalable manufacturing pro-cesses are positive aspects for the design. The thermal modeling of the heat sink and potential design improvements in keeping with the heat sink manufacturing process are currently underway.

EPFL (LTCM) –Hybrid two-phase experimental facility

The concept behind the hy-brid two-phase experimental facility is based on an inter-nal report, which investigated fi ve possible cooling cycles. This report concluded that a combination of these cycles, built into one facility, would be developed. This facility is hy-brid because it makes use of a liquid pump and/or a vapour compressor to drive the dif-ferent cycles. The advantage is that either the liquid pump or the vapour compressor, or both, can be operated depend-ing on the desired condensing temperature. In fact, the facil-

ity will have the fl exibility to test and analyse three differ-ent cycle concepts.

Development of controllers

One of the three cycles pro-posed is ready and in opera-tion. This cycle, characterized as a liquid pump cooling cycle, is now undergoing control strategies for the various com-ponents (liquid pumps driving the working fl uid and the sec-ondary fl uids in the condenser and subcooler, and the stepper motor valve). So as not to risk our pseudo-chip/micro-evap-orator test section with its 35 local heaters and temperature sensors, preliminary devel-opment of the controllers are used with a heated section of a tube (a tube wrapped with an electrical heating tape).

Pressure tracking

The fi rst controller developed was to modulate the liquid pump speed in order to main-tain the inlet pressure of the heated section at the set point value. Tracking tests were car-ried out with the experimental apparatus running under the standard operating condition to evaluate the controller’s per-formance. The results showed that the controller is effi cient to track the set point of pres-sure in a short time (~5 min) with a maximum overshoot in the evaporating temperature of only about 0.24° C.

Disturbance rejection

The second controller was de-veloped to control the same inlet pressure, but with the modulation of the stepper-mo-tor-valve aperture. The per-formance of the control strat-

egies regarding disturbance rejections were evaluated by changing the electrical heating power on the heated section. The results show that a very simple controller can be used and implemented to control the working fl uid’s evaporating temperature and, consequent-ly, control the microprocessor’s operating temperature.

ETHZ (CSE Lab) –Power Consumption Analysis

A major challenge in high per-formance computing today is the development of effi cient software that can be deployed effectively on modern com-puter architectures. In order to achieve such a goal, research-ers are investigating different research directions at both hardware and software level.

We identifi ed at least three dif-ferent ways to approach the problem of relating power/en-ergy to software:• A fi rst approach is defi ned

as model-driven, as it tries to tackle the problem start-ing from existing perfor-mance models. Their goal is to provide a speedup model able to predict both performance and power consumption.

• Conversely, one could ana-lyze the effi ciency of soft-ware by using metrology systems installed on the computer.

• A third approach to energy minimization is investi-gated through the use of multi-objective optimiza-tion methods.

Defi ning a general metric that is able to classify a code’s en-ergy effi ciency is diffi cult.

Figure 3: Hybrid two-phase experimental facility.

54 CCEM – Annual Activity Report 2010Heat & Buildings

AQUASARDirect Re-use of Waste Heatfrom Liquid-Cooled Supercomputers

First attempts were undertak-en to perform a hardware-driv-en analysis based upon the ac-tual metrology confi guration. AQUASAR has power meters installed on its Advanced Man-agement Modules (AMM). The AMMs can provide the moving average of the power at the in-let of every blade.

We implemented different kinds of numerical experi-ments, each exerting different pressure on the main compo-nents of the blades, i.e., CPU, memory and network.

A deeper analysis is currently constrained by the space/time limitations imposed by the available metrology. Acquiring the power at the inlet of the blades means assuming the blades as monolithic blocks. In this way, variations at the level of a single component are hidden by the overall con-sumption of the blades. At the same time, a slow probing rate does not allow for fi ne-grained analysis of the different parts of the code.

As enhanced metrology will be confi gured, our goal is to con-tinue our analysis and defi ni-tion of a power consumption model recovering a power es-timate from the temperature.

Since July 2010, a distribution of the OpenCL Development kit

for AQUASAR was made avail-able. OpenCL is currently used for improving the performance of the simulation of heat con-ducting fl ows using particle methods by taking advantage of the several synergistic pro-cessing element (SPE) cores present in the Cell processors.

IBM-Research –Water-cooled super-computer AQUASAR

AQUASAR consumes 40 % less energy than a comparable air-cooled machine. Through the direct use of waste heat for space heating for the univer-sity buildings, it decreases the carbon footprint by up to 85 percent.

To monitor the system status IBM developed a Graphical User Interface in which the electrical, hydraulic, and ther-mal data of AQUASAR is pro-vided in detail.

With the chip-level cooling the thermal resistance between the processor and the water is reduced to the extent that even cooling water temperatures of up to 60° C ensure that the operating temperatures of the processors remain well below the maximally allowed 85° C (table 1). The high input tem-perature of the coolant results in an even higher-grade heat at the output, which in this case is up to 65° C.

The system achieves a per-formance of six Terafl ops and has an energy effi ciency of about 450 Megafl ops per Watt (i.e., 3.2 Terafl op per gram CO2 (electricity generation EU: 0.5 kilogram CO2 per kWh)). In addition, about 80 % of the

power dissipated in the blades is fed as thermal energy into the ETH Zurich’s building heat-ing system. The effective en-ergy effi ciency, when including the directly utilized thermal energy, is about 1.1 Gigafl ops per Watt (i.e., 7.9 Terafl op per gram CO2 (heat generation: 0.5 kilogram CO2 per kWh)).

For comparison: QPACE Cell Clusters and air-cooled QS22 systems have an energy ef-fi ciency of 770 Megafl ops per Watt (Green500, ranks 1 to 3) and 450 Megafl ops per Watt (Green500, ranks 5 to 7), re-spectively. If industry would introduce new metric for Green IT that would include utiliza-tion of waste heat, the hot water-cooled IBM BladeCenter Cluster AQUASAR could lead the fi eld.

Outlook

To trigger a short term impact on carbon dioxide emission reductions of the information technology industry the AQUA-SAR system needs to be scaled up by large factors very fast. IBM is working on maturing the AQUASAR cooling technol-ogy so that systems with 10x and >100x larger size can be built in a timeframe of 1 and 2 years, respectively.

To support such activities the AQUASAR project can pro-vide effi ciency data and help spotting weak points that can be corrected before larger systems are being built. Im-portant contributions are the determination of the system exergy optimum and initial studies on the lifetime of the components under increased thermal stresses.

Figures 4 and 5: Water-cooled IBM BladeCenters QS22 and HS22.

The supercomputer con-sists of special water-cooled IBM BladeCenter Servers, which were de-signed and manufactured by IBM scientists in Zurich and Böblingen, Germany with contributions from sci-entists from ETH and EPFL.

The processors and numer-ous other components in the new high performance computer are cooled with up to 60° C hot water. This is made possible by an innovative cooling sys-tem that comprises mi-cro-channel liquid coolers which are attached directly to the processors, where most heat is generated.

Table 1: Thermal char-acteristics of the water-cooled QS22 cluster.CPU Central Processing UnitDIMM Dual In-Line Memory ModuleRTH Thermal Resistance

Water-Cooled IBM BladeCenter HS22Credit: IBM Research – Zurich

Water-Cooled IBM BladeCenter QS22Credit: IBM Research – Zurich

55CCEM – Annual Activity Report 2010 Heat & Buildings

SuRHiBSustainable Renovation of Historical Buildings

Main Investigator

Jan Carmeliet, ETHZ

Project Partners

Empa

EPFL

ETHZ

BFH

SUPSI

Scope of activities

The CCEM SURHIB project was started on July 2009 and will run 4 years. The aim of this project is to evaluate and to further develop sustainable renovation technologies for historical buildings (end 19th – beginning 20th century). It is obvious that most energy conservation measures that have been developed for new buildings are not as such suitable for historical buildings. Monument preserva-tion needs are requiring new approaches for thermal improvement of the building envelope. Various sub-projects are therefore studying new material options and envelope concepts using the latest advances of simulation tools for improving the energy effi ciency, hygrothermal behaviour and lower-ing the moisture damage risk.

Status and scientifi c results of workgroups

Buildings physics and future climate condi-tions

A lot of damages to historical buildings are moisture dam-ages due to uncontrolled hu-midity and rain exposure. It is obvious that energy saving measures should not increase or even create new damage risks.

Energy saving measures should be used, which avoid potential damages even under

liverables are a localized view and a better understanding of the relevant age-band in Swit-zerland.

Material samples (e.g. brick, plaster) and construction de-tails of walls, ceilings and win-dows, etc. were collected and are forming the basis for ther-mal and long-term moisture simulations. Each reference building is fully documented and presented in its specifi c characteristics and neighbour-hood.


PV Photovoltaics

VIP Vacuum Insulation Panels

Two work packages are inves-tigating the boundary condi-tions which are important for the development of renovation concepts for historical build-ings. One of them is charac-terising the construction of historical buildings and the re-lated renovation problems. The other one tries to improve the knowledge about the future exposure of these buildings to a changing outdoor climate.

Building evaluation and characterisation

From the strategic retrofi tting aspect, it must be considered that the relevant age-band (1850-1919) represents a very heterogeneous and char-acteristic stock. It is there-fore impossible to develop a reasonable typology or just one overall retrofi tting con-cept. The investigation of in-dividual characteristic urban multi-family houses has been started. A two-stage analyti-cal procedure resulted in the selection of several reference buildings. The fi rst step includ-ed techniques of spatial analy-sis and statistics (Top-Down-Analysis). The second step comprises the building survey and research in the archives (Bottom-Up-Analysis). The de-

Figure 1: Spatial probabil-ity of housing stocks (built before 1919), cell size (X, Y): 25m, 25m, r=1000m


more challenging future cli-mate conditions. Therefore a study was done on future cli-matic scenarios that have to be considered in the risk analysis. Relatively good data was found relating to future temperature increases but forecasts on fu-ture precipitation and wind directions are more diffi cult. Data from various research groups using different climate models (European ENSEMBLES project, ETHZ-IAC and Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute) have been used to predict the expected climate change to the year 2050.

This data about future climate and material properties of the collected historic building ma-terials is now used for heat and moisture simulations and risk analysis. During 2010 the work was focused on the mois-ture accumulation in the build-ing façade as a consequence of the application of different types of interior insulation.

In a fi rst step one-dimensional simulations of different types of external walls and different insulation layers were done us-ing BE-HAM (building envelope – heat-air-moisture) models. The simulations using aerogel plaster and vacuum insulation show the following results:• The use of outside renders,

with different capillary ab-sorption coeffi cients, re-sults in very different mois-ture accumulation in the wall. This means that the rainwater take-up of the façade is most important and should be studied be-fore any inside insulation retrofi t;

• The choice of the internal insulation layer has great infl uence on the drying-out process to the inside. Va-pour open insulating aero-gel rendering does hardly change the drying process while the vapour tight vacuum insulation pan-els (VIP) result in a much worse moisture behaviour of the outer wall;

• Drying out to the inside may result in higher rela-tive humidity values in lay-ers sensitive to the mould growth such as gypsum board. Vapour open inside insulation should be used in combination with mois-ture insensitive fi nishes.

Highly insulating light weight plaster

The main technology devel-oped in the project is a highly insulating rendering system that is based on aerogel gran-ulates. The expected proper-ties are: a mineral system with very low thermal conductivity (lower than traditional insula-tion materials), a high vapour permeability combined with a hydrophobic behaviour. These properties would be ideal for internal and external insula-tion of historic brick and stone walls.

Various recipes have been tested and optimized. The fi nal laboratory samples achieved a thermal resistance of 25 mW / (m·K) what was 5 mW lower than originally expected.

First tests have shown that up to 8 cm thick rendering layers can be applied by spray ap-plication. However, it was ob-served that the thermal quality of the rendering was reduced due to the spray process. It

Heat & Buildings


Figure 2 (upper): Precipitation, monthly mean of the 10 years pe-riod: Measured data (1991–2000) and generated data (2051–2060. The «Shifted» data represents the most probable scenario, based on ENSEMBLES yearly data and ETHZ monthly distribution.

Figure 3 (lower): Relative humidity, monthly mean of the 10 years pe-riod: Measured data (1991–2000); generated data (2051–2060); Again the «Shifted» data represents the most probable scenario, based on ENSEMBLES yearly data and ETHZ monthly distribution.

Figure 4 (upper): Expect-ed moisture saturation of a brick wall without insu-lation on the inside, with Aerogel plaster insulation and with vacuum insulation panels.

Figure 5 (lower): Simulat-ed water content of differ-ent construction materials based on capillary pres-sure.


has to be assumed that high pumping pressures are dam-aging the delicate pore struc-ture of the aerogel. Additional laboratory tests are now on-going in order to understand these phenomena.

Internal insulation systems

Parallel research is done for the development of internal in-sulation systems. Suitable sys-tems and test procedures were defi ned and materials proper-ties were measured in collabo-ration with industry partners. An important component for the system optimisation is a highly moisture absorbing ma-terial that has been developed. It absorbs about 5 times more water than clay and is there-fore ideal for moisture control in rooms or at critical construc-tion parts. A European patent has already been granted for this development.

Optimized building operation

The works related to opti-mize building operation have recently been started. They are jointly done by Empa and EPFL and are aiming to defi ne operational parameters that could increase comfort and lower damage risks in histori-cal buildings. In the case of the SuRHiB indoor climate control, another time horizon as for heating control must be considered. Condensation which can take place inside the building structures has to be considered at a much lon-ger time scale, because some condensation is admissible if it does not take place in po-

rous insulation materials or in zones where the temperatures can become lower than the freezing point, and if the water generated during the heating season can dry out during the summer.

Concepts for solar integration

Local heating and temporary air humidity control are inves-tigated as means to avoid or limit critical situations. It is ob-vious that such measures will often cause additional energy needs. The project is therefore also investigating the possi-bilities for covering the energy demand by solar energy. The prejudice against such solar installations is widespread, especially among monument preservation experts. The SuRHiB project wants to in-tensify this discussion and is

preparing a guideline for the architectural integration of so-lar applications. A set of cri-teria (co-planarity, respect of the lines, shape, grouping, and accuracy) and recommenda-tions (cover the constructive surface, multi-functionality, application, aesthetics, sizing) were defi ned and developed. These criteria and recommen-dations are mostly based on the considerations, identifi ed as aspects which are neces-sary to consider when planning a solar installation, listed in the various Cantonal guidelines. The discussion about the ac-ceptability of solar installations within historical environments is still ongoing, also between the SuRHiB energy and monu-ment preservation experts. However, even the Vatican state has demonstrated how solar installations may be well integrated even in most sensi-tive areas (fi gure 8).

Heat & Buildings


Motivation

Historical buildings count for about 20% of the exist-ing building stock. Most of these buildings have been built during the 19th cen-tury and at the beginning of the 20th century. Many of them are not protect-ed buildings but they are characterizing the centres and history of European cities and are part of our cultural heritage. However, these buildings, if normally heated, cause relatively high energy consumption.

Without improving the en-ergy effi ciency of histori-cal buildings, this part of our building stock provid-ing 20 % of heated space would be responsible for about 60 % of the thermal energy demand of the total building stock (assuming, the other buildings will be retrofi tted according ccem-retrofi t).

Figure 6 (left): About 85% nanoporous aerogel granu-late is used as addititive for the light weight plaster.

Figure 8: Large PV installa-tion on the Nervi Audience Hall of Vatican City.

Figure 7 (right): Sample of the highly insulating ren-dering. The pores are fi lled with transparent nanopo-rous aerogel.

FuelsFuels


2ndGenerationBiogasNew Pathways to Effi cient Use of Biomass for Power and Transportation

Fuels

Main Investigator

Samuel Stucki, PSI

Project Partners

PSI

ETHZ

EPFL

Empa

Eawag

WSL

Final report

The project 2nd Generation Biogas was initiated with the following goals:• Demonstrate the technical feasibility of new highly effi cient process paths to methane from a

very broad range of biomass (wood, solid agricultural residues, manure, sludges etc.).• Assess the impact of such technologies in the complex environment of biomass resources, end-

uses and environmental performance, with the ultimate goal to draw a roadmap towards clean and eco-effi cient use of biomass in Switzerland in 2030.

Methane from wood process

The development of the pro-duction of methane from wood had reached the pilot phase when the present project started. In the framework of the EU project Bio-SNG a 1 MW output methanation plant had started. The plant erection was completed in 2008 and suc-cessful demonstration of the whole process from wood chips to compressed natural gas in a fi lling station was achieved in June 2009. The 2nd generation biogas project contributed in various ways to the success of this technology demonstration.

PSI took the opportunity of this collaborative project to develop a suitable way to vali-date the success of the scale-up of the main reactor, i.e. the fl uidized bed methanation reactor. An acoustic measure-ment technique for probing the gas void distribution in a bub-bling fl uidized bed reactor was developed and successfully applied at the 1 MW reactor at Güssing. The measurements confi rmed that the scale-up by a factor of 100 from PSI’s laboratory fl uidized bed reac-tor worked as expected. This technique will be an invaluable tool for further scale-up of the reactor and for operation un-der elevated pressure.

Figure 1: The collaborative project was structured in 5 Tasks covering R&D on the conversion technolo-gies at PSI (tasks 1 and 2), a study of CO2 separation options (task 3, ETHZ), the thermo-economic mod-eling, analysis and optimal conceptual design of the processes and their com-parison with alternative processes for converting biomass to fuels or elec-tricity (task 4, EPFL) and an assessment of the im-pact of the new technolo-gies in the Swiss bioenergy context, covering environ-mental performance, feed-stock availability and policy aspects (task 5, Empa/EAWAG/WSL).

Hydrothermal gasifi ca-tion process

In PSI’s catalytic hydrothermal gasifi cation process a biomass slurry is pumped to a pres-sure of 30 MPa, heated up to a temperature above the critical point of water, where biomass is liquefi ed and dissolved salts precipitate. In a continuously operating separator the salts are removed and the remain-ing fl uid is fed to a pressurized catalytic reactor where conver-sion to methane and CO2 takes place. The essential process steps of this process chain have been demonstrated in a continuous small pilot plant at PSI (proof of concept).

The experiments carried out in the framework of this proj-ect allowed to identify open research challenges, (catalyst poisoning, total removal of sulphur species). In order to be able to process a wide vari-ety of feedstocks and to prove the feasibility of hydrother-mal gasifi cation on a relevant technical scale, a scale-up of the plant is necessary. This task will be the core task for the Hydrothermal AG, a spin-off company who will take the lead in bringing the technology to market maturity.

Gas separation tech-nologies

The methanation of producer gas yields a mixture of gases with the main components CH4 and CO2, H2. In the demonstra-tion plant in Güssing hydrogen is being separated using mem-branes, CO2 by an established amine scrubbing process. The ETHZ group analyzed the vari-ous possibilities to use alterna-tive gas separation techniques to achieve SNG quality fulfi ll-ing the pipeline specifi cations. Membrane separation of CO2 in a multi-stage process was identifi ed as an interesting al-ternative separation process, especially for relatively small methanation processes. This technology could be also of interest to the 1st generation biogas plants. As this task was purely theoretical, a follow-up project with the aim of demon-strating the feasibility of mem-



SNG Synthetic Natural Gas

KEV Kostendeckende Einspeisevergütung

LCA Life Cycle Analysis


formance. In collaboration with task 3 it was shown how membrane separation of CO2 can be integrated optimally into an SNG plant and how CO2 separation can be considered as an option to sequestrate CO2, turning the technology into a carbon-negative process to effectively remove net CO2 from the atmosphere.

Assessment of bio-mass potentials

Biomass is a limited resource, especially if tight sustainability criteria for its exploitation are applied. In an attempt to an-swer the question, how much biomass is effectively available for the production of SNG at given locations in Switzerland, the biomass potentials in Swit-zerland were re-assessed by the partners from Empa and WSL.

It turns out that the most rele-vant biomass resources, which are still available in Switzer-land, are wood and manure. These are in fact the resourc-es, which were targeted when the technology development for SNG production was start-ed almost 10 years ago.

Wood availability for energy applications depends on a number of parameters. On the basis of the Swiss Forestry Inventory, a detailed map of wood resources was drawn. This information is important for the evaluation of the impact of transport on cost and emis-sions for a given plant loca-tion. Even if the local resource potentials can be calculated with available information, the effective availability depends on the individual behaviour of

stakeholders in the wood sup-ply chain (e.g. forest manag-ers). The latter was modeled using an agent-based model.

Socio-economic oppor-tunities

The life cycle assessment for a specifi c site (Energiehub Baden, planned to produce 3.5 MW of SNG and 1.5 MW of heat) gives a positive result for SNG compared to the refer-ence scenario (imported natu-ral gas).

Finally, partner EAWAG ana-lyzed the socio-economic pre-requisites in Switzerland for a technology innovation such as methane from wood to emerge. The analysis shows that the technology innovation is facing a rapidly changing environment with limited op-portunities for the realization. However, the study identifi es opportunities if the right stake-holders team up.

The 2nd generation biogas project was carried out in a time phase, where bioenergy, and especially wood energy went through a tremendous change. This needs to be con-sidered when drawing conclu-sions about the project.

External factors rele-vant for 2ndGeneration Biogas

The boundary conditions in the fi eld of the development of re-newable energies have been changing dramatically over the past years. This is in particu-lar the case for bioenergy. The most important developments in the bioenergy fi eld were:


Fuels

brane separation processes for the upgrading of product gas after methanation was started.

Analysis of process potentials

Based on thermo-economic modeling, the EPFL group sys-tematically analyzed the po-tential of the processes under development in comparison with alternative conversion paths. The most promising candidate technologies and process designs for SNG pro-duction were identifi ed with respect to overall performance by multi-objective optimiza-tion. The analysis reveals that SNG production from biomass is clearly the best option to convert biomass to a second-ary fuel. Furthermore, it was shown that SNG technology has considerable synergy po-tential with other conversion processes for an effi cient fu-ture cascade use (material, fuels, power and heat) of bio-mass in biorefi nery applica-tions.

The complex optimization studies reveal that effi cien-cies for SNG production from biomass in the order of 66 to 75 % should be feasible using the technologies under devel-opment. In any case, cogene-ration of SNG, power and heat is a necessary requirement to tap the full potential of the resource. The route to SNG is thereby approx. 15 percent-age points more effi cient than the best liquid fuel process. It turns out that, at least for large-scale applications, oxy-gen blown pressurized gas-ifi cation will be superior with respect to overall conversion effi ciency and economic per-

Ecological and economic aspects

Bioenergy is one of the most cost-effective op-tions of substituting fos-sil fuels and reducing the net emissions of CO2. The production of biomass as a fuel is, however, limited due to competing and pri-ority uses as food or as raw material for textiles and construction. Among the renewable energy sources biomass is best suited to provide fuels for transpor-tation. Biofuels for trans-portation have become a central topic globally in re-cent years.

The ecological and eco-nomic performances of a biofuel chain depend on the type of primary bio-mass (energy crops from agriculture or forestry, residues and wastes), the effi ciency of the conver-sion process and the per-formance of the product as a fuel.


• The so-called food crisis in early 2008: The growth of biofuels production on ag-ricultural land (1st genera-tion) was blamed at least partially to have caused the sharp global rise in food prices. This has lead to a reassessment of the tradi-tional 1st generation biofuel option as a means of sub-stituting substantial per-centages of automotive fu-els. This development has highlighted the importance of developing 2nd genera-tion technologies to exploit «non-edible» resources.

• Acceptance of SNG as a secondary fuel from bio-mass: At least partially triggered by the success of the technology develop-ment which has been the subject of this project, SNG has become recognized as an interesting option for the utilization of biomass in Europe, both by the Eu-ropean gas industry and by regional energy provid-ers. This fact is refl ected by the good international re-sponse to our Bio-SNG’09 conference in Zürich.

• Electricity from biomass: The decision of the Swiss government to introduce a costcovering feed-in remu-neration in 2009 has trig-gered large investments into power generation from biomass. Multi-MW combined heat and power plants using state-of-the-art biomass fi ring and steam turbine cycles for power production are under construction or have been commissioned and reduce the chances of deploying other wood energy options in the regions of the plant locations. As no such KEV

is available for feeding of SNG into the natural gas grid, this development has reduced the chances of de-ploying SNG plants in Swit-zerland.

Outlook

The integration of the technol-ogy oriented research work at PSI with the competences in the partner institutions of CCEM created the expected added value. The in-depth modeling and optimization analysis of the biomass to methane processes allowed for a better understanding of the process design bottlenecks and their comparison with al-ternative biofuel production processes provided a good benchmarking of the technolo-gies in development. We have been able to confi rm that the chosen routes to 2nd genera-tion biofuels were well chosen in terms of energy effi ciency and ecological performance. Although we have not yet been able to exploit all the optimiza-tion potential which was shown to be available, it is important to know that the potential ex-ists.

The 2nd generation biogas technologies turned out to be optimally suited to exploit the only biomass resources of importance in the Swiss con-text, i.e. manure and woody biomass. This has been con-fi rmed by the in-depth assess-ment of 2nd generation biofu-els that has been carried out by partner Empa and others for TA-Swiss (centre for tech-nology assessment) in parallel with the present project. This study comes to the conclu-sion that none of the biofuels

derived from plants grown on purpose for energy production on agricultural land match the sustainability criteria. The fea-sibility of biofuel imports, be it as biomass, as raw or refi ned biofuel is neither given.

As biomass is a fi nite resource (an estimated 40 PJ/year are still available) and especially wood resources are being used for large combined heat and power (CHP) plants, the win-dow of opportunity for install-ing SNG-from-wood plants is expected to close soon. There are, however, niches for SNG from wood plants at locations with limited heat demand and good availability of raw ma-terial. Such niches should be developed if the technology success is to be brought to the market.

The collaborative project has been able to show that SNG is one of the most interest-ing options for using biomass for energy. We have been able to develop the technology to the point, where it is ready for commercialization. This step still bears considerable risks for investors and therefore still requires a substantial commit-ment of the public sector. The technologies involved in the SNG value chains are of cen-tral importance in a long-term perspective for the use of bio-mass. We have shown that it is worthwhile!


Fuels

1st generation biofuels

Traditional «1st generation biofuels» are produced by converting starch and sug-ars to ethanol, extracting plant oil to produce biodies-el or fermenting the digest-ible part of biomass waste to biogas. These processes normally convert only a fraction of the total fuel en-ergy contained in the plant material, which diminishes the overall energy yield per biomass input. It is gener-ally assumed that tradi-tional biofuel production will be replaced by more effi cient 2nd generation biofuels within the coming 10 years.

2nd generation biofuels

2nd generation biofuels will be based on technolo-gies which can convert the much more abundant ligno-cellulosic fraction of biomass and therefore are expected to achieve sig-nifi cantly higher yields per hectare of land. Conversion technologies are either catalytic and thermal pro-cesses (thermal gasifi ca-tion with subsequent fuel synthesis), or enzymatic hydrolysis of abundant cel-lulose material to ferment-able sugars, extending the biomass base for ethanol production.

Competition of technologies

2nd generation biofuels show much improved envi-ronmental profi les. Wheth-er they can compete with the established 1st gen-eration fuels depends on whether the costs for the more complex process technologies will be out-weighed by the less ex-pensive input biomass. The success of 2nd generation biofuels will depend on the success of the technology developments currently under way worldwide.

In Switzerland, R&D on 2nd generation biofuels has concentrated on the pro-duction of synthetic natural gas (SNG) from biomass via catalytic processes. This development started 10 years ago and was pio-neered by PSI.


WoodGas-SOFCIntegrated Biomass – Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Cogeneration

Final report

The objective in this project was to develop hardware, knowledge and competence through the investigation of a challenging energy conversion system: biomass-to-electricity using wood pellets gasifi cation and a high temperature, solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC).

A central issue is the gas composition: gasifi ed wood contains, besides usual syngas components (H2, CO, N2, H2O, CO2, CH4), higher hydrocarbons (C2–C5, condensable ≥C6 compounds known as tars) and inorganic traces (heavy metals, alkali-elements, S, Cl, …), that can affect the whole sys-tem: downstream catalyst poisoning (foremost the SOFC anode catalyst), cleaning requirement, choice of process steps and temperature levels, best thermal integration of all components.

Fuels

The project has investigated the whole process chain in four parts, with fi ve groups from three ETH Domain partners: the Chemical Processes and Materials (CPM) and Thermal Process Engineering groups (TPE) at PSI, the High Per-formance Ceramics group at Empa, and the Energy System Modeling and Fuel Cell groups at EPFL.

Wood gas analysis

The fi rst part concerned the measurement of trace com-pounds online in woodgas. An ICP-OES measuring system (Inductively coupled plasma – Optical emission spectroscopy) has been developed at CPM including several modifi cations and additions to the basic unit. All relevant elements (except for V) can be detected and traced continuously for hours at typically 90 sec intervals (at best down to 15 sec). Direct gas measurement is possible with up to 3 m sampling line length.

For longer sampling lengths, a liquid quench method (based on a development and input from TPE) was succesfully es-tablished. Its disadvantage is

Main Investigator

Jan Van Herle, EPFL

Project Partners

EPFL

Empa

PSI

Hexis

HTceramix


SOFC Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

CPM Chemical Processes and Mterials Group at PSI

TPE Thermal Process Engineering group at PSI


a potentially long deadtime (up to 30 min); however, short spikes of highly charged gas, that occur at start-up or for important changes in the wood fuel loading, can be monitored.

An example of trace measure-ment for 14 elements (S, Cl and 12 metals) at the wood power station Kleindöttingen is given in fi gure 1 and table 1. It shows in particular the sig-nal stability (cf. the error bars, over several hours of sam-pling) and the difference be-tween regular scrap wood and charged wood (richer in met-als). The table gives the aver-age trace values before and after a fi ltering system at the power station, indicating the latter’s effectiveness and the low achievable detection lim-its by the optimised ICP-OES equipment (μg/m3).

SOFC cell response

A second part of the project looked at the effect of trace poisons on the SOFC Ni-anode catalysts. With input from PSI, Empa built up a reactor allow-ing to charge feed fuels with ppm quantities of selected poi-sons, to the Ni anode of a small SOFC (single cell). Figure 2

Figure 1: On-line mea-surement of trace ele-ments with a liquid quench sampling system and an inductively coupled plas-ma (ICP) spectrometer at a wood power station (Kleindöttingen). Regular scrap wood and metal-loaded wood (EBS). Values in mg/Nm3 raw gas.

Table 1: Selected elements measured in mg/Nm3 at sampling points before and after a contaminant reten-tion fi lter system.

beforefi lter

afterfi lter

Sb 0.08 0.002

Ba 2.0 0.130

Pb 5.6 0.150

Cd 0.09 0.016

Cr 0.12 0.013

K 27.1 2.700

Cu 0.8 0.033

Na 10.7 0.650

Zn 13.7 0.070

Sn 0.17 0.009


shows the effect of 25 ppm HCl (ca. 40 mg/Nm3, see fi gure 1) in H2 on one hand, and in syn-thetic woodgas on the other hand, on the total resistance of the small SOFC. The cata-lyst does not break down; the resistance increase is on the order of 10 % in 250 h and believed to be due to morpho-logical changes in the anode, evidenced by scanning elec-tron micorscope (SEM) obser-vation, as a consequence of Ni attack by the corrosive acid gas.

Optimization of wood-to-electricity system

A third study part in the project was dedicated to the system layout for a wood-to-electricity plant including hot gas clean-ing and optimal integration of the various processes: gas-ifi cation, cleaning, reforming, tar/sulphur cracking, metha-nation, fuel cell, combustor, bottoming cycles. The EPFL Systems group developed the possible layouts of complete plants, optimised for highest electrical effi ciency and low-est cost. Figure 3 illustrates results for a stand-alone fuel cell (FC) solution, considering cases of a Viking-type gasifi er (VK) and a fast internally cir-culated fl uidised bed gasifi er (FB), with steam reforming (STR) or autothermal reform-ing (ATR). Effi ciencies >40 % lower heating value (LHV) can be obtained, well above con-ventional existing biomass-to-electricity plants (<30 %), to be sure for yet too high cost, especially due to the SOFC. When adding a gas turbine to the system, exceptional effi -ciencies up to 70 % have re-sulted.

Demonstration of real SOFC running on real woodgas

In the fourth and fi nal project part, PSI-TPE is operating a complete pilot demonstration unit consisting of a wood pel-let gasifi er, cleaning and moni-toring equipment, further fuel treatment components (tar cracker, fuel methanator), gas outlets for fuel cell test beds (Siemens-Westinghouse tubu-lar cell, operated for 1200 h on woodgas, 5-cell stacks, 1 kW stack). Current focus is on the methanator unit, a fuel proces-sor that reenriches the cleaned fuel in methane (after the gasifi er) for the fuel cell feed, so as to reduce the latter’s cooling requirements. Fig-ure 4 shows the possible gain (3–5 % of stack output power) if gasifi ed wood is remethana-ted before the fuel cell.

WoodGas-SOFCIntegrated Biomass – Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Cogeneration

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Figure 2: Total resistance (from impedance spectros-copy) with time of SOFC small cell in different gas environments with 25 ppm of HCl as catalyst poison.

Figure 3: Result of ther-mo-economic optimiza-tion for different system confi gurations – 20 kg/h WOOD pellets (Investment cost vs system electrical effi ciency)

Figure 4: High methane content in producer gas from (coal and) biomass provides a benefi t in fuel cell systems with integrat-ed gasifi cation.


ARRMATAttrition Resistant Reactive Bed Materials in Fluidised Beds

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Scope of activities

The project deals with the manufacturing of attrition resistant reactive bed materials (ARRMAT) with desired properties for the application in fl uidised beds, with the experimental testing of these mate-rials to identify optimal operation conditions as well as with in situ investigation of such materials to derive from such investigations design rules for improved bed materials.

Aim of the project is to contribute to signifi cant improvements along the process chain in the pro-duction of synthetic natural gas (SNG) from dry biomass, the «SNG-from-wood» process which has been investigated within the CCEM project «2ndGenerationBiogas». Other applications of attrition resistant reactive bed materials in chemical looping combustion (CLC) process are in discussion.

The process from wood to SNG includes four major process steps. Wood has to be gasifi ed; the producer gas from the gas-ifi er then needs to be cleaned to remove dust, impurities and potential poisons to the cata-lyst that is applied in the third step, the methane synthesis (methanation). The raw-SNG from the methanation needs to be conditioned, i.e. water, car-bon dioxide and unreacted hy-drogen have to be removed to meet the gas quality required for feeding into the natural gas grid.

For the SNG-from-wood pro-cess fl uidised bed reactors, where the catalyst particles move like a fl uid, are applied for the gasifi cation step as well as for the methanation step. It has been shown that the moving of the methanation catalyst particles inside the fl uidised bed reactor can en-hance the internal «regenera-tion» of catalyst particles thus lowering the rate of deactiva-tion considerably. Promising results for the SNG-from-wood process have been published for chemical looping reform-ing (CLR) and chemical looping desulfurization (CLD), where also attrition resistant reactive bed materials are required. If

Main Investigator

Serge Biollaz, PSI

Project Partners

Empa

PSI

reactive bed materials are ap-plied in fl uidised bed reactors, they have to fulfi l certain re-quirements to avoid failure of the process step. • The materials have to be

mechanically stable, i.e. attrition resistant, as the particles are always mov-ing.

• The active species of the material must not be sepa-rated from the carrier to avoid selective transport out of the reactor into the fi lter. As in the fl uidised bed, the gas phase is changing along the travel of the particles, the state of the catalyst or the reactive bed material might change as well and therefore the chemical stability.

• Depending on the reaction rates and the particle di-ameters, a macro-porous carrier material might be favourable to avoid limita-tions due to long diffusion length from the gas phase into the middle of the par-ticle.

ARRMAT is organised in fi ve workpackages (WP):• WP1 deals with the devel-

opment and manufactur-ing of attrition resistant reactive bed materials.

This workpackage is lead by Empa. Impregnation of catalyst supports produced by Empa with active com-ponents is performed by PSI. Active components foreseen are Ni and Ru.

• WP2 and WP3 deal with the application of these materials in fl uidised beds and testing under realistic conditions on small scale (WP2) and bench scale (WP3). These activities are coordinated by PSI.

• WP4 and WP5 deal with in situ investigations in order to elucidate mechanism i.e. verify and falsify hypothe-sis and are led by PSI. In WP4 DRIFTS technique are applied and in WP5 XAS techniqes are applied.

The up-stream processes and the operation conditions such as pressure, temperature, de-gree of mixing (hydrodynam-ics) in the process step have to be chosen such that catalyst deactivation by poisoning or fouling are minimised.


ARI Attrition Resistance Index

CLC Chemical Looping Combustion

CLD Chemical Looping Desulfurization

CLR Chemical Looping Reforming

MFC Mass Flow Control-ler


XAS X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy Status of project



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Manufacturing of attri-tion resistant reactive bed materials (WP 1)

Highly porous granulates (68 to 73 %) can be achieved by using clay as an inorganic binder system. Using boehm-ite as an inorganic binder system, porosity between 45 and 48 % can be achieved. By using clay or boehmite as an inorganic binder component, porosity and pore size will be signifi cantly changed. An in-crease in diatomite content leads to a decrease in attrition resistance. By using the «new» attrition resistance index (ARI) method, better comparison between different materials can be achieved.

In situ determination of material status and structure (WP 5)

X-ray absorption spectroscopy allows the determination of the oxidation state and the atomic structure of supported nano-sized metal catalysts under reaction conditions. Following the dynamic changes of a cata-lyst under fl uidized bed condi-tions, where the catalyst ma-terial moves through a reactor and, as a consequence, sees different gas conditions, pro-vides a real challenge for static XAS experiments. A solution for such dynamic experiments was proposed in the ARRMAT project where one optimally uses the unique fast scanning capabilities of the SuperXAS beamline at the Swiss Light Source to follow the dynamic changes of the catalyst with a sub second time resolution. Here the catalyst is mounted

in a plug fl ow reactor and gas composition is changed dy-namically to mimic conditions in a fl uidized bed, the so called ‹moving observer› approach, while the catalyst is constantly measured with XAS.

XAS is a bulk technique, since X-rays penetrate the whole sample. Therefore the result-ing XAS spectrum is a convo-lution of the catalyst’s surface and its bulk atoms. The cata-lytic activity is often infl uenced by changes of only a small fraction of atoms on the sur-face of the catalyst particle, which subsequently can not be detected. In the fl uidized bed reactor this can be poisoning of the catalyst with sulfur, where only a few atoms on the cata-lyst surface form strong chem-ical bonds with the poison. In order to detect surface reac-tions, modulation XAS spec-troscopy will be developed. In modulation spectroscopy, the system is excited periodi-cally (recurring gas pulses for example) and the measured system response (here the XAS spectrum) is fi ltered with the excitation frequency. This procedure will fi lter out all the parts of the spectrum that do not follow the excitation fre-quency and thus, theoretically, only leave the XAS spectrum of the active catalyst atoms.

Developing and validating the moving observer ap-proach

A model of fl uidized bed methanation was constructed to understand how the gas concentration around a parti-cle changes with time (Kopys-cinski, 2009). It is based on a

modifi ed two phase model, in which the bed is divided into a dense phase and a bubble phase. The dense phase con-tains the catalyst particles and interstitial gas (methana-tion and water-gas-shift reac-tions occur), and in the bubble phase the gas fed to the reac-tor by-passes the catalytic bed (no reaction occurs) as it rises in the form of bubbles. Mass transport between the bubble and the gas phase is also con-sidered. A catalyst bed with 0.052 m diameter and 0.16 m height was modeled, contain-ing Ni/Al2O3 (same one used by Kopyscinski (2009)), fed with H2:CO:N2 proportion 3:1:1 and a total fl ow of 10 ln/min.

Figure 1 shows the calculated gas composition, as calculated using this model, seen by a particle as it moves in the fl uid-ized bed. At time zero the par-ticle is located at the bottom of the reactor and it only moves upwards in the wake of a gas bubble. The ideal cycle can be represented by pulses of reac-tants every 8 seconds (with duration of about 1–2 sec-onds) intercalated by relatively stable gas concentrations last-

Figure 1: Calculated se-lected gases for two con-secutive cycles of particle movement in fl uidized bed reactor. Continuous lines: change in gas composi-tion around the particles. Dashed line: position in the catalyst bed. Dots are set points of the feed gas derived from the calculated model (lines) of particle movement in fl uidized bed.




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ing for about 7 seconds. The peak in H2 and CO is a result of the particle travelling in the wakes (that is considered to have the same concentration as the bubble phase) and the high concentration of reactants found at the bottom of the bed.

A setup (moving observer) has been constructed which allows to change the gas composition dynamically in the plug fl ow reactor and to monitor the gas composition with a quadrupole mass spectrometer (fi gure 2). A switching valve is used to feed the pulses of gas contain-ing high concentration of reac-tants (H2, CO, C2H4). A set of mass fl ow controllers (MFCs) is used to permanently feed the gas the rest of the time.

Following the setpoints de-picted in fi gure 1, the mov-ing observer setup produced the shape of the gas composi-tion at the gas inlet as shown in fi gure 3. These tests show that when the pulses are long enough (larger as 2 seconds) the moving observer setup can be used to mimic a cata-lyst particle in a fl uidised bed setup.

Modulation XAS spec-troscopy at the SuperXAS beamline

When the catalyst in the fl u-idized bed reactor behaves as expected, carbon deposits are periodically removed in the oxidizing part of the reactor or sulfur poisoned catalyst is re-generated in the hydrogen rich part. All in all the reaction is reproducible and thus allows the application of modulation spectroscopy to pick up small changes in the spectra which belong to the ‹active› surface atoms of the catalyst.

Up to now, modulation XAS spectroscopy was only used to ‹fi ngerprint› points in the spectrum that change with the modulation frequency. This could for example be the fea-ture at 21.15 keV of the spec-tra shown in the upper part of Figure 4, where simple partial oxidation-reduction experi-

ments were performed on the Ru catalyst used in the AR-RMAT project.

When applying the demodu-lation formula, spectra are obtained which look like dif-ference spectra, where only the two extremes are real and represent the partial oxi-dized and reduced states. We have developed a method for a quantitative XAS analysis of such demodulated spectra in order to extract small changes in structural parameters when changing reaction conditions.

These subtle structural chang-es are below the uncertainty limits of the «classical» XAS analysis and therefore can not be properly resolved. The sen-sitivity of XAS can therefore be pushed to lower limits by the application of the modulated excitation technique and the proposed data treatment. Our data analysis approach, where the demodulated spectra are fi tted on the basis of full, av-eraged spectra, is simple and robust. This enables us now to study sulfur resistant metha-nation on a supported Ru catalyst under fl uidized bed conditions and optimize the operation parameters for a fl u-idized bed reactor accordingly, based on a thorough under-standing of the chemistry of the system.

Figure 2: Schematic dia-gram of the moving ob-server experimental setup.

Figure 3 (left): Shape of the gas pulses at the re-actor inlet. Shown are in-tensities (not concentra-tions) of mass 15 (CH4, orange), mass 2 (H2, red) and mass 28 (here CO, light blue). Measurements of several cycles are dis-played together over one period length of 8 seconds.

Figure 4 (right): Top: overplotted full XAS spectra (1 second time resolution) during the switch from reduction to partial oxidation. Bottom: comparison be-tween averaged full spec-tra, difference spectrum and demodulated spectra for selected phase angles.

67CCEM – Annual Activity Report 2010 Fuels

SunCHemBio-Synthetic Natural Gas from Microalgae

Scope of activities

There is consensus that bio-energy is one of the most cost-effective options of substituting fossil fuels and reducing the net emissions of CO2. However, its naturally available potential is limited and cultivating plants for energy use has recently been criticized because its production is competing with resources needed for the food production. Critical resources are a) valuable agricultural soils, b) fertilizers, such as phosphorus, and c) in some regions water for irrigation.

We propose a novel process based on (micro)algae cultivation using the conversion of the algal biomass through a catalytic hydrothermal gasifi cation process (SunCHem process). The process is a closed-loop system with respect to nutrients and CO2, which are recycled and reused for the growth of microalgae. Water which is not used as make up water is also reused. A sketch of the process is shown in fi gure 1.

Figure 1: Integrated pro-duction of methane from algae. The production chain shows important pro-cess steps with closed nu-trient cycle, effi cient water management, and options for the production of high value chemicals and CO2 sequestration.


was performed. Two publica-tions and a patent application resulted from this very early stage.

Microalgae Production

WP1 is dedicated to the pro-duction of algae. Goal is to provide suitable algae for the hydrothermal gasifi cation. Fur-ther this WP aims at testing the recovery of the nutrients from hydrothermal gasifi cation.

In the preparation phase David Pauli started his master thesis in the frame of this WP. The aim of the Master project was to study the effect of different CO2 concentrations on growth and lipids content of three dif-ferent species of microalgae, in order to determine which al-gae is the most interesting for the production of biofuels. In his work, the effect of differ-ent CO2 concentrations in the gas phase (1, 2 and 5 %) on the production of biomass and lipid in Chlorella sorokiniana, Scenedesmus obliquus and Scenedesmus vacuolatus was investigated.

Presently, the team is studying the cultivation of Spirulina pla-tensis in a photobioreactor and the infl uence of different pa-rameters, mostly the CO2 con-centration on its growth under batch, fed-batch and continu-ous conditions.

A research proposal (Advances in microalgae cultivation for sustainable production of bio-fuels and biochemicals) has been submitted in the frame-work of COST Action CM0903 (Utilisation of biomass for sustainable fuels and chemi-cals), aiming to develop a sound, effi cient and sustain-able strategy to cultivate mi-croalgae for the production of

Main Investigator

Christian Ludwig, PSI/EPFL

Project Partners

PSI

EPFL

Empa

HSR


COST European Coopera-tion in the Field of Scientifi c and Tech-nical Research


This project aims• to demonstrate the techni-

cal-economical feasibility,• to assess the ecological

performance of the pro-cess, and

• to compare it with optional bio-fuel production path-ways.

• to do preparatory work nec-essary for the later demon-stration in form of an entire plant (algae production and further processing to fuel) at pilot or even large scale.

Since the pre kick-off meeting on March 31st, 2010 prelimi-nary work for this project was performed. The project formal-ly started October 1st and with the offi cial kick-off meeting on December 3rd all partners have now started their activities.

This project is organized in four work packages (WP1–WP4).

Main achievements of the year 2010

Project and the team forma-tion activities have started. First preliminary results were presented at conferences and workshops. A master thesis


biofuels and added-value bio-chemicals.

The secondary objectives de-riving from the above goal do include:• The selection of suitable

microalgae strains and of their optimal cultivation methods. This includes screening, testing and evaluation of several algae strains, and determination of the main controlling fac-tors and of the optimal pa-rameters affording a maxi-mum, stable, cost-effi cient algae production, as well as a high lipids and valu-able chemicals productiv-ity.

• The identifi cation of opera-tional parameters for opti-mal and sustainable growth of selected microalgae (nu-trients concentration, addi-tion of CO2, light intensity and quality, temperature, pH, batch, fed-batch or continuous cultivation, ad-vanced photobioreactors versus single-use plastic bags, etc.) through litera-ture search and experi-mental assessment.

The aim of the proposed re-search project is to defi ne optimal cultivation conditions of several microalgal species, chosen for their potential to produce biofuels and/or add-ed-value compounds (e.g. pig-ments). On the basis of results already obtained, three Chlo-rophytes (eukaryotic green al-gae) will be studied: Chlorella sorokiniana, Scenedesmus obliquus and Scenedesmus vacuolatus, as well as two Cy-anobacteria species (prokary-otic blue-green algae), namely Spirulina (Arthrospira) platen-sis and Synechococcus leo-

poliensis. At any stage of the project, the number of species under investigation can be re-stricted or extended, depend-ing on the results obtained during the experimentation. The proposed project does nei-ther include the transesterifi -cation of triglycerides nor the extraction/purifi cation process of the pigments, but this could be developed by other part-ners of COST CM0903.

To approach the optimal cul-tivation conditions, and to re-duce as much as possible the production costs, the follow-ing factors will be investigated during the project:• Chemical composition of

the medium,• infl uence of CO2 level,• effect of light intensity and

quality,• effect of temperature,• set-up of the photobioreac-

tor,• batch, fed-batch and con-

tinuous culture conditions.

The infl uence of these factors on the production of biomass, the quantity and the quality of the lipids produced, the pro-ductivity of lipids and of add-ed-value chemicals (pigments like phycocyanin and phyco-eyrhrin) will be established for the appropriate microalgal species mentioned above. Re-sults obtained during this proj-ect will be useful to design the scaling-up of the process, to be eventually tested at a fa-zenda in the semi-arid zone of the north-east of Brazil.

Besides EPFL-LBE the team at HSR-UMTEC (Hochschule für Technik Rapperswil) has now started to set up the core team to start their activities concerning the dewatering

of algae slurries. An intensi-fi ed review of state-of-the-art dewatering technologies pre-sented in a matrix was started recently.

Hydrothermal Conver-sion of Algae to Meth-ane

WP 2 deals with the hydro-thermal conversion of the al-gal biomass to a methane-rich gas. In this work package, the main activities were per-formed within Task 2.5, regen-eration of deactivated ruthe-nium catalysts, by a postdoc (M. Schubert) with PSI-CPE. Several tests have been car-ried out with a continuous catalyst test rig to deactivate and regenerate ruthenium catalysts. Some progress was made with an oxidative regen-eration method, however, opti-mization of regeneration con-ditions is ongoing.

All other tasks can only be started once a PhD student has been hired. Evaluation of sev-eral candidates is underway, but signifi cant work progress in these tasks is not expected before the 3rd quarter 2011.

Engineering, Optimiza-tion and Assessment

WP3 is concerned about the analysis and optimization of system design and integra-tion of the different processes. Further to optimization of the entire process the amelioration via bio-refi nery concepts will be studied and a comparison of the ecological performance of the different pathways will be performed. Methanation will be compared with production of


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Why Microalgae?

The production of liquid biofuels from food crops such as corn, soya, and sugarcane are in direct competition with food production for human consumption. In contrast, microalgae grown in photobioreactors, offer the following advantages:• Microalgae are the most

productive photosyn-thetic organisms on earth and grow several times faster than other energy crops (30-55 t/ha/yr).

• They can grow in reac-tors on non-fertile land, thus not competing with food production.

• They require less water for growth than land crops.

• They can directly convert industrial CO2 emissions into organic matter.

Why Bio-Synthetic Natural Gas?

Wet biomass feedstocks can effi ciently be con-verted into Bio-Synthetic Natural Gas (Bio-SNG) through catalytic hydro-thermal gasifi cation in supercritical water (SCW) as reaction medium. The major advantages are:• Bio-SNG can be used in

the existing infrastruc-ture (natural gas grid).

• It can be sold as clean transportation fuel in the form of compressed natural gas (CNG).

• Technology with high effi ciency for power production is available (CHP).

• No biomass drying or product distillation steps are necessary.

• Nearly full conversion through hydrothermal gasifi cation.

• Nutrient separation & recovery possible due to low solubility of salts in SCW.


other biofuels from microalgae and the SunCHem process will be compared with other solar technologies.

Preceding the offi cial project kick-off in December 2010, several important develop-ments and analyses concern-ing the optimal design of hy-drothermal gasifi cation plants for the conversion of, among others, microalgae have been conducted. In close collabo-ration with PSI-CPE (WP2), a process model for the poly-generation of SNG, heat and power by catalytic hydrother-mal gasifi cation in supercritical water has been developed. For this purpose, thermodynamic property models and thermo-economic process models for hydrolysis, salt separation, gasifi cation and the separation of CH4, CO2, H2 and H2O at high pressure have been validated with experimental data. Differ-ent strategies for an integrated separation of the crude prod-uct, heat supply and energy recovery are elaborated and assembled in a general super-structure. Based on this work,

a detailed design study for selected substrates has been conducted. Using multi-objec-tive optimisation techniques, the thermodynamic and ther-mo-economic performances of all candidate confi gurations from the general process su-perstructure are optimised with respect to SNG and elec-tricity cogeneration and its associated costs (fi gure 2). This has demonstrated how the optimal system confi gura-tion, its operating conditions and performances depend on the available technology, cata-lyst lifetime, process scale and the characteristics of the pro-cessed substrate.

As an additional outcome, this work has led to the submission of a patent on the integrated separation and energy recov-ery from the crude product. With an energy effi ciency in the order of 70 % in terms of equivalent SNG-production from biomass, microalgae have thereby proven as a suitable substrate. For the overall de-sign of the SunCHem-process, algae properties such as low

inert (ash) fraction, its ability to be pumped at low dilution in water and the infl uence of trace elements on catalyst de-activation have emerged to be of particular importance.

The current focus of the work is directed towards the evalu-ation and modeling of al-gae growth in open ponds and bioreactors. Related to the work in the frame of the CCEM SunCHem project, re-cent contacts with the Centre for Process Systems Engineer-ing (CPSE) at Imperial College London have been initiated.

Outreach

WP4 is dedicated to the out-reach of the entire project. Preparatory work for the later demonstration and imple-mentation of the proposed SunCHem process will be performed. WP4 has already established new contacts to potentialy interesting algae producers. However, the major activities of this WP will start in a later phase of the project.

Figure 2: Optimal perfor-mances of hydrothermal biomass gasifi cation for se-lected substrates.

Left: Optimal thermody-namic trade-off between SNG and electricity yields.

Right: Optimal thermo-economic trade-off be-tween overall process effi -ciency (as SNG-equivalent) and costs at a scale of 20 MWth,in.

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Eco-Energy InitiaEco-Energy Initiativestives


novatlantisSustainability at the ETH Domain – Promotion of Transdisciplinary Science

Eco-Energy Initiatives

Managing Director

Roland J. Stulz, c/o PSI

Project Partners

ETHZ

EPFL

PSI

Empa

Eawag

WSL

Pilot Region Basel

Partner Region Zurich

Partner Region Geneva

Scope of activities

Novatlantis applies the latest results from research conducted at ETH institutions to help secure the sustainable development of large urban centers and to provide models of how to implement the long-term vision of the 2000 Watt society (with the 1-ton CO2 aim). Interdisciplinary projects are initiated together with researchers and scientists of the ETH domain and practical examples are used to show what a sustainable future might look like.

To accomplish this, Novatlantis has established partnerships with Zurich, Basel and Geneva that pro-vide a context for supporting these cities in matters of implementation. Novatlantis brings research and application together in various events, develops projects, shares knowledge and has founded a worldwide network of colleges and universities.

Summary

Novatlantis sees itself as a platform to promote the ex-change of research results and technological innovations between the various institutes of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) and rep-resentatives of both the public sector and private enterprises. Its core mission is to initiate and organize interdisciplinary projects, particularly in the various partner regions.

One of the most important milestones reached in the year 2010 was the formation of the Agency for the 2000 Watt so-ciety. In contrast to the work of Novatlantis, this Agency is dedicated to the task of bring-ing about general implementa-tion of the 2000 Watt society, with the goal of reducing annu-al per capita carbon emissions to around 1 ton.

Also of special signifi cance in 2010 was the transfer of or-ganizational responsibility for the International Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN) to the ETH universities in Zurich and Lausanne and the sign-ing of the ISCN Charter and Guidelines by around 30 of the world’s leading universities.

The following projects linked to Novatlantis were completed during the past year:

The scientifi c foundation for a 2000 Watt society• How rich is the 2000 Watt

society?• 7 milestones, impact anal-

ysis based on the building park model

Mobility• «The Future of Urban Mo-

bility» project• Experience Space Mobility:

◦ Fleet manager survey 2010

◦ «Innovation and Diffu-sion of Alternative Ve-hicles and Fuels» (Local Policy Roadmap 2030 – The Benefi ts and Feasi-bility of Sustainable Mo-bility)

◦ Comparative study of the cost-effectiveness of gas and diesel-powered bus-es in Basel

◦ Research project: near Zero Emission Vehicle (nZEV)

◦ Brochure: «Sustainable Fleet Management»

◦ hy.muve test implemen-tation in the Basel pilot region

◦ Basel Mobility Forum

Push/pull projects

Push-pull activities were re-duced to a minimum dur-ing the year owing to various structural changes at Novat-lantis, including its relocation to the Competence Center for Energy and Mobility at the Paul Scherer Institute (PSI). Push-pull projects can be described as follows: Ideas for push projects arise in the research community and ideas for pull projects in the public sector. Novatlantis then looks for suit-able partners in the research community or in the public or private sectors.

This means that after success-ful initiation of projects, their further management is then left to the partners. No other new major projects were ini-tiated that could not also be completed during the current year.


GULF Global University Leaders Forum

ISCN International Sus-tainable Campus Network

NaQu Sustainable Urban Development (Nachhaltige Quar-tierentwicklung)

nZEV near Zero Emission Vehicle

SIA Swiss Engineers and Architects As-sociation

WEF World Economic Forum


◦ Consulting: «Exemplary Fleets of the Administra-tions of the Cantons of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft»

Construction sector• Zurich building park model• SIA Energy Effi ciency Path

2040• 2000 Watt District Methods

and the Green Charta• Strategic goals of the 2000

Watt society for the «Forest City Bremer» model project

• Technology transfer for sustainable development with the Prague-based Charles University and ENVI organization

• Development of an evalu-ation and decision-making software tool to assess the sustainability of urban de-velopment projects (NaQu)

• Development of a decision-making tool for sustainable neighborhood rating (2000 Watt society Areal Rating)

Land and resources• Sustainable development

on the periphery of the city of Basel

• Sustainability criteria for potential residential devel-opment projects (e.g. For-est City Bremer)

Energy supply• Energy-pass city of Basel

(Renewable Energies Po-tential)

• Development of an energy-supply concept for the city of Zurich that is compat-ible with the agenda of the 2000 Watt society

novatlantisSustainability at the ETH Domain –Promotion of Transdisciplinary Science


In addition to the successful mediation of project partners, partners or fi nancing options have not (yet) been identifi ed for the following projects:• Development of a per-

formance instrument for monitoring the progress of energy cities that have set off on the path to the 2000 Watt society (clear inter-est, but a lack of fi nancing)

• Smart grid implementation (projects are to be imple-mented at the CCEM)

• Lifestyle models for the 2000 Watt society (lack of fi nancing)

• Working paper on updat-ing the foundations for the 2000 Watt and the 1 ton carbon emissions Society (project application sub-mitted)

In addition to these projects, the following activities were carried out in the framework of the push-pull initiatives:• Creation of a database for

all projects accompanied by Novatlantis that contrib-ute to attaining the 2000 Watt society

• Publication of the most im-portant push-pull projects on the Novatlantis website

• Drafting of a preliminary strategy for future imple-mentation of future push-pull activities at the CCEM.

The function of the push-pull projects will in future be de-fi ned by the CCEM. The proj-ects can therefore be expected to benefi t from more direct ac-cess to the research commu-nity.

Figure 1: Brochure «Sus-tainable Fleet Manage-ment»

Pilot and partner regions

Basel pilot region – engaged in promising projects

Cooperation with the Canton of Basel-Stadt, the University of Applied Sciences Northwest Switzerland and the Univer-sity of Basel has developed very favorably. The pilot region helps to secure the transfer of knowledge from the research community to practical appli-cations and offers the research community valuable experi-ence in the application of sus-tainable technologies. The pilot region sees itself as a «testing ground for sustainability» in the areas of construction, mo-bility and the use of land and resources.

The «P+D Building Program» has successfully enabled the

construction of pilot and dem-onstration buildings since 2005. Program participants receive a contribution to help cover the non-amortizable ad-ditional costs. In 2010, sup-port was offered for complete projects as well as individual components or materials as a stimulus for building renova-tions.

A second modernization com-petition for residential and commercial buildings was an-nounced at the Construction Forum 2010. The renovations entered for the contest must be examples of sustainable archi-tecture and building manage-ment, while at the same time exhibiting the highest possible level of comfort. The organiz-ers of the contest hope that it will inspire other specialists in




the planning and construction sector to turn their attention to comprehensive renovations.

The Basel pilot region has also conducted initial talks with representatives of the 10 year project «International Building Exhibition (IBA) Basel 2020» on the possibility of a joint venture. The IBA was launched in October 2010.

Initiation of the project «Study of the Potential for Renewable Energies» also underlines the commitment on the part of the Canton of Basel-Stadt to work towards the 2000 Watt society. Having gathered the relevant data, the project group is now at work on the task of drafting recommendations for action. These will then be presented to members of the city govern-ment, private enterprises and the relevant agencies.

Regarding land and resources, the Dreispitz district was se-lected as one of four pilot dis-tricts for the sustainable urban development project NaQu, sponsored jointly by the Swiss Federal Offi ces for Energy and Spatial Development. Novat-lantis has joined SwissEnergy for Communities and Equi-terre as a partner in this proj-ect and is currently at work on the development of a tool for evaluating the sustainabil-ity of urban renewal projects. Furthermore, a call to tender is to be issued for a land and resources research project de-signed to ascertain the social implications of sustainable de-velopment for the communities on the periphery of the city of Basel. Novatlantis has worked out the relevant social issues for the call to tender.

Zurich partner region

The government of the city of Zurich issued a fi nal report in 2010 on its major agenda item «Sustainable City of Zurich – On the path to the 2000 Watt society». The inclusion of the aims of the 2000 Watt society in its Municipal Code will en-sure that the city of Zurich will continue to reconcile its deci-sions with the objectives of the 2000 Watt society. It will be important in the coming four years to fi rmly anchor these objectives in established struc-tures and platforms and to en-sure their implementation.

In cooperation with the city of Zurich and SwissEnergy for Communities, Novatlantis be-gan work in 2010 on a broader application of the instruments developed by the city govern-ment while addressing this legislative item:• Work on the drafting of a

2000 Watt rating system was begun using data and experience gathered in the context of two urban devel-opment projects (Greencity Sihl Manegg and Richti Ar-eal in Wallisellen).

• The methodology paper published in 2009 is to be adapted for broader, na-tionwide application.

• Originally held in Zurich in the fall of 2009, the exhi-bition «2000 Watt Society – Current Status» is cur-rently on show as a trav-eling exhibition at various other locations in Europe and the United States. No-vatlantis brought the exhi-bition to Leipzig in Septem-ber 2010 on the occasion of the conference «My Sus-tainable World». It has also

appeared in Luxembourg, Berne and Lucerne.

Launching new projects for im-plementation of the 2000 Watt society will remain an impor-tant focus.

The urban district renewal in-strument was tested in the case of the Bullinger District, one of four pilot districts se-lected for participation in the Sustainable Urban Develop-ment project sponsored by the Swiss Federal Offi ces for En-ergy and Spatial Development.

The city of Zurich has request-ed Novatlantis to submit a pro-posal for organization of an international association with the working title «Champions League of Sustainable Cities». The aim of this organization is to facilitate the exchange of information among cities ac-tively engaged in the process of achieving sustainability.

Novatlantis is a coinitiator of a project known as «The Fu-ture of Urban Mobility» that was recently launched by the city of Zurich. The project con-sists of eight discussion forums that are to be held from 2011 to 2012 involving the partici-pation of various institutions and private enterprises. One of the objectives of the forums is to examine mobil-ity needs in urban environments. Novatlantis will support this pro-cess by providing expertise, helping to fi nd innovative solutions and de-vising possible pi-lot projects.

Figure 2: near Zero Emis-sion Vehicle, IWB


the model of a public-private partnership.

Practical support for ve-hicle fl eet operators – bro-chure «Sustainable Fleet Management»

Small and medium-sized com-panies often are not in a posi-tion to examine all alternatives that would make their vehicle fl eets more energy effi cient. Indeed, it is no easy task to provide answers to questions concerning the types of vehi-cles and fl eet compositions that would best allow fl eet operators to meet their own needs and at the same time incorporate environmental concerns.

In cooperation with the can-tons of Basel-Stadt and Ba-sel-Landschaft as well as the chambers of commerce of both Basel cantons, Novatlantis has therefore published a guideline that offers small and medium-sized companies an overview of the advantages of an envi-ronmentally friendly and cost-effective vehicle fl eet. The brochure «Sustainable Fleet Management – a Guideline for Companies» includes much valuable information in the sense of a neutral transfer of knowledge from the PSI and the Swiss Federal Laborato-ries for Materials Science and Technology (Empa). The bro-chure also includes a decision-making aid that allows com-panies to determine the types of engines that best suit their needs.

Exemplary fl eets of the cantonal administrations – fl eet strategy with model character

The cantonal administrations of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Land-schaft, encouraged by admin-istrations and politicians, are committed to establishing ex-emplary vehicle fl eets, based on the aims of the respective cantonal climate policies and guidelines for exemplary be-havior on the part of the can-tonal administrators. In the framework of the Experience Space Mobility project, No-vatlantis is assisting the two cantons of Basel-Stadt and Ba-sel-Landschaft with respect to their energy and carbon emis-sions balance sheet, as well as the evaluation of environ-mental factors, based on cur-rent data of the environmental balance sheet. This analysis is the basis for elaborating strat-egies and measures to imple-ment the vision of exemplary vehicle fl eets.

Near zero emission vehicle project (nZEV) – speeding towards the zero emissions border

The core of the «near Zero Emission Vehicle» (nZEV) proj-ect is a turbulent fl ow catalytic converter carrier developed at Empa. The aim here is to re-duce the expensive precious metal content of catalytic con-verters without limiting the ex-cellent emissions performance of vehicles powered by natural gas.

In general, it is necessary to take a different approach to treating the exhaust emit-ted by gas-powered vehicles on account of its higher con-



Geneva partner region

The Geneva partner region is organized under the auspices of the association «Genève à 2000 Watts» whose members include the Canton of Geneva, research institutes, the local Geneva power company, No-vatlantis and private organiza-tions.

The association’s activi-ties in 2010 focused primar-ily on updating its website:www.geneve2000watts.ch.

Experience Space Mo-bility

Experience Space Mobility in the Basel Pilot Region, a testing ground for sustain-able mobility

Sustainable mobility is one of the main areas of focus at No-vatlantis and in the 2000 Watt society pilot region of Basel.

Current activities in the Basel pilot region include attempts to increase the energy effi cien-cy of motorized traffi c and re-duce its environmental impact. In the context of the «Experi-ence Space Mobility» project, Novatlantis, Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft and vari-ous private partners support fl eet operators by providing information and testing for in-novative vehicle technologies and the establishment and operation of low-impact ve-hicle fl eets. The main focus is to present the latest research projects conducted within the ETH domain to the public, to make new technologies ac-cessible and to help implement projects together with private and public organizations using




centration of methane (CH4), because methane is more chemically stable than the hydrocarbon compounds of gasoline-powered vehicles. Today, this is achieved using a differently composed, but catalytically effective, precious metal coating in the cata-lytic converter. Unfortunately, this coating tends to be more expensive than that used in gasoline-powered vehicles. The nZEV project is therefore aimed at determining whether the catalytic converter coating of gas-powered vehicles can be reduced by using a newly turbulent fl ow catalytic con-verter carrier. This innovation would have the effect of low-ering costs without limiting its excellent conversion capacity.

Together with the chambers of commerce of both the Basel cantons, Novatlantis has car-ried out a vehicle testing cam-paign in which members of the chambers of commerce were given an opportunity to test drive nZEV project vehicles (Caddy Maxi EcoFuel vehicles manufactured by VW) for a pe-riod of six months.

Agency for the 2000 Watt society

Novatlantis is standing at a crossroads with respect to its vision of a 2000 Watt society. The organization’s original af-fi liation with the ETH no longer leaves the latitude it needs to directly address the subject matter. This is why a decision was made last year to join forces with SwissEnergy for Communities and create a spe-cial Agency for the 2000 Watt society with more practical ori-entation.

This collaboration will cre-ate direct access to cities and other municipalities which are important multipliers for the concept of the 2000 Watt soci-ety. The agency will therefore enjoy close ties to municipali-ties, companies, science and research.

The goal for the year 2010 was to establish a foundation that will enable the agency to fulfi ll its mission. The agency is to be headed jointly by the manag-ing director of Novatlantis and the director of the program SwissEnergy for Communities. Its activities will focus on the following areas:• Networking:

A network of 2000 Watt consultants and experts was established to coordi-nate projects. These mul-tipliers are responsible for developing methodology and implementing projects. Prospective candidates were informed about the agency at two events and invited to apply as consul-tants. Familiarization and further training of these consultants of the 2000 Watt society will be one of the agency’s central tasks in the year to come.

• Branch offi ces: One partner in the Ger-man-speaking part of Swit-zerland and one partner in the French-speaking part of Switzerland have been recruited to provide con-tact support. This permits the provision of information and initial consulting ser-vices at a local level. The existing Novatlantis infra-structure was available for use in the German-speak-ing part of Switzerland.

• Information/events: The agency’s new website

is www.2000watt.ch. The website offers informa-tion on the concept of the 2000 Watt society, in-depth material for download-ing and information about current affairs relating to the 2000 Watt society. In the interest of providing information to cities and municipalities, the agency organized a symposium for cities on December 3, 2010 in Berne. The sym-posium included numerous presentations on the aims of the 2000 Watt society.

• Methodological founda-tions:

With the help of various experts, a path to energy reduction was defi ned for regions, cities and munici-palities. An extensive pre-sentation containing 100 slides on the foundations of the 2000 Watt society was given for the consultants.

• Projects: In cooperation with experts and companies, various instruments (e.g. relat-ing to sustainable district development and lifestyle models for the 2000 Watt society) were developed and applied in the context of specifi c projects.

The cooperation with Swiss-Energy for Communities has shown that this partnership can help the agency to expand the outreach. The agency has positioned itself as a com-petent stakeholder that uses existing structures and coordi-nates and stimulates activities. In addition to training for the 2000 Watt consultants, next year further projects will be launched.


to cover the charter report-ing requirements. A number of charter signatories have in-dicated that they will be able to draft their fi rst ISCN-GULF charter report before the Janu-ary 2011 Davos meeting, and an overview summary of these reports will be made available for dissemination at the GULF/WEF session.

Evaluation

The ETH Board passed a reso-lution in May 2008 to secure the fi nancing of the Novatlan-tis administrative offi ce to the year 2011. In order to plan for the period from 2012 to 2016, the ETH Board has ordered an evaluation of Novatlantis’ operations for the years 2008 and 2009. This evaluation took place in January 2010. While the work of Novatlantis was assessed as very good, the committee pointed out an ur-gent need for greater involve-ment of the commercial sector.

After acknowledging the re-sults of the evaluation the ETH Board passed a resolution to continue its support for Novat-lantis operations based at the CCEM and focus on push-pull projects and the communica-tion of research results. Man-agement responsibility for the ISCN is to be transferred to the Presidents of the ETH in Zurich and the EPF in Lausanne.



planners, building engineers, and offi cials from the Chinese ministries for construction and higher education – seized this opportunity to meet and ex-change best-practice concepts.

ISCN-GULF Sustainable Campus Charter – prepar-ing for Davos/WEF 2011

The ISCN-GULF Sustainable Campus Charter commits sig-natory organizations to con-tinuous improvement through learning and innovation on all aspects of sustainability on campus. Organizations endors-ing the charter commit them-selves to meet their own spe-cifi c targets in relation to three shared charter principles, and to report transparently and regularly on their progress to-wards these targets.

Development and endorse-ment of the charter was shared between the ISCN and GULF, the Global Universities Lead-ers Forum convened by the World Economic Forum (WEF), which currently consists of 25 heads of leading universities from 9 different countries. Af-ter most GULF members had signed the charter at the 2010 Davos meeting, and some fur-ther ISCN members had also become early charter signa-tories, the next major step is to publish their fi rst charter reports. To support these ef-forts, the ISCN secretariat has developed a Charter Report-ing Guideline document, which draws on established sustain-ability reporting frameworks such as GRI (Global Report-ing Initiative) and spells out in detail how these can be used

The ISCN – expanding into Asia at the 2010 World Expo

The Shanghai ISCN Sympo-sium 2010 at the World Expo in July was a key event – and the fi rst major event held out-side of Switzerland – in the development of the Interna-tional Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN). The ISCN was founded on the premise that sustainable campuses can be conceived as «living laboratories» for the develop-ment of environmentally and socially responsible infrastruc-ture so that the campus com-munity can better relate to in its own everyday experiences as well as in its external part-nerships. The 2010 World Expo in Shanghai with its theme «Better City, Better Life» pre-sented a unique opportunity to explore mutual learning at the campus-city interface, and to open the door to extend the reach of this international platform into Asia, where ma-jor infrastructure projects are underway that will infl uence the overall sustainability of our global environment.

Together with the ISCN Sec-retariat, the symposium was co-organized by the University of Luxembourg and hosted by the Luxembourg government in the Luxembourg Pavilion, as well as by Tongji Univer-sity, which provided its cam-pus as a venue for the second day. Over 80 participants from Asia, North and South Ameri-ca, Australia, North Africa and Europe – scientists and ad-ministrators of well-known in-ternational universities, urban

ISCN-GULF Charter partners

The charter has been signed by the Presidents or Vice-Chancellors of

• Brown University• Carnegie Mellon Univer-

sity• Columbia University• EPF Lausanne• ETH Zurich• Georgetown University• Harvard University• Hong Kong University• Indian Institute of

Technology Madras• INSEAD• John Hopkins University• Keio University• KTH Stockholm• London School of

Economics and Political Science

• MIT• Monterrey IT• National University of

Singapore• Beijing University• PCU Peru• Princeton University• Stanford University• The University of Tokyo• Tsinghua University• University of Cambridge• University of Gothen-

burg• University of Luxem-

bourg• University of Oxford • University of Pennsyl-

vania• Yale University

ISCN Working Group co-chairing partners:

• Cornell University (Ying Hua)

• Clark University (Nancy Budwig)

• Danish University and Property Agency (Mikala Holme Samsøe)

• National University of Australia (Bart Meeham)

• Kogakuin University (Noamichi Kurata)

• University of Luxem-bourg (Ariane König)

• University of Zagreb (Bojan Baletic)

Figure 3: The group on Tongji Campus

ISCN – International Sustainable Campus Network


Figure 4: Brochure «Smarter Living – Moving Forward to a Sustainable Energy Future with the 2000 Watt Society», July 2010

Communication

Novatlantis uses various in-struments of communication when initiating projects and informing the public about its activities and those of the Agency for the 2000 Watt soci-ety relating to a future-orient-ed supply and use of energy.

What follows is a summary of the most important means of communication:• Websites:

www.novatlantis.ch www.isc-network.org www.2000watt.ch

• Newsletter: The CCEM No-vatlantis Newsletter offers regular information on the latest events, projects and results.

• The latest edition of the Smarter Living brochure was published in 2010. In addition to offering an out-line of the lifestyle that is necessary for a 2000 Watt society, it offers a look at projects relating to the 2000 Watt society. The bro-chure has been translated into English, French and Italian.

• Specialist Workshop «For-est City Bremer as an Ex-ample of the Feasibility of the 2000 Watt society» on February 16, 2010 in Berne

• ISCN / GULF Symposium, July 28, 2010 in Shanghai

• The congress «My Sustain-able World» took place on September 23–24, 2010 in Leipzig (with Novatlantis as a member of the advisory committee). Roland Stulz and Prof. Dr. Hans-Björn Püttgen of the ETH Laus-anne gave presentations on the energy-related chal-lenges that we face in the 21st century.

• A mobility forum entitled «Fleet Management in Times of Climate Discus-sions» was held in Basel on October 19, 2010. Around 50 individuals from the ve-hicle services sector (ga-rages and leasing fi rms), private companies (fl eet managers and technology division managers), the mobility services sector, the public sector and vari-ous NGOs took part. Those attending the forum were offered a comprehensive range of expert presenta-tions and lively discussions on the following subjects: engine technology re-search, practical methods and instruments for mea-suring carbon footprints associated with company mobility, common indus-try practice and exemplary strategies.

• In November 2010, Novat-lantis invited various rep-resentatives to participate in a Construction Forum entitled «Building Reno-vation – Fit for the 2000 Watt Society». The forum was well attend-ed and met with an enthu-siastic response. Topics of discussion included: «How can our existing buildings, which consume around 50 % of the total energy consume in Switzerland, be effectively renovated and modernized?» and «How can we achieve the goals of the 2000 Watt society?» The Construction Forum is of special interest to archi-tects, planners, construc-tion companies, pension funds and those responsi-ble for the real estate port-folios of private and institu-tional investors.

• Symposium for Cities: De-cember 3, 2010 in Berne

• Features on Novatlantis and the 2000 Watt society have appeared in the fol-lowing national and inter-national media: ◦ TEC 21 ◦ The Swiss daily newspa-

per Neue Zürcher Zei-tung

◦ The Swiss daily newspa-per Tages-Anzeiger

◦ The culture magazine ZüriTipp

◦ Smart Media ◦ Leipzig press ◦ The German construction

newspaper db Deutsche Bauzeitung

◦ The German weekly magazine Der Spiegel

Outlook

Special attention in the year 2011 will be devoted at Novat-lantis to the defi nitive trans-fer of the ISCN to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technol-ogy Zurich and Lausanne, the independent operation of the Agency of the 2000 Watt so-ciety, the selection of a suc-cessor for Roland Stulz as the managing director of Novat-lantis, and the launch of new push-pull projects.

Figure 5: Construction Fo-rum in Basel, November 2010

Websites

Further collaborative proj-ects between Novatlantis, research institutions, universities and the three pilot regions are published on the websiteswww.novatlantis.ch

www.isc-network.org

www.2000watt.ch



79CCEM – Annual Activity Report 2010 Register

CELaDE Clean and Effi cient Large Diesel Engines

CEMTEC Computational Engineering of Multi-Scale Transport in Small-Scale Surface Based Energy Conversion

HY_Change Transition to Hydrogen Based Transportation– Challenges and Opportunities

LERF Large Engine Research Facility

NEADS Next Generation Exhaust Aftertreatment for Diesel Propulsion Systems

TransEngTesting Transient Heavy Duty Engine Facility for Engine up to 4000 Nm Peak Torque

GTCO2 Technologies for Gas Turbine Power Genera-tion with CO2 Mitigation

ONEBAT Battery Replacement Using Miniaturized Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

PHiTEM Platform for High Temperature Materials

ThinPV Cost Effi cient Thin Film Photovoltaics for Future Electricity Generation

ccem-house2000 Innovative Building Technologies for the 2000 Watt Society

2ndGeneration New Pathways to Effi cient Use of Biomass for Biogas Power and Transportation

WoodGas-SOFC Integrated Biomass – Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Cogeneration

List of Finalized Projects

Mobility 2006–2010

2006–2009

2006–2009

2006–2009

2006–2010

2006–2009

Electricity 2006–2009

2006–2010

2006–2010

2006–2010

Heat 2006–2009and Building

Fuels 2007–2010

2007–2010


Research institutes of the ETH Domain

• ETH Zurich (ETHZ) • EPF Lausanne (EPFL)• Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI)• Materials Science and Technology (Empa)• Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Re-

search (WSL)• Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology

(Eawag)

Universities and other research institutions

• University of Bern• University of Neuchâtel• Federal Offi ce of Meteorology and Climatology (MeteoSwiss)• Universidad Politecnica de Valencia• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Universities of applied sciences (UAS)

• Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz (FHNW)• Hochschule Luzern – Technik und Architektur (HSLU)• Hochschule für Technik Rapperswil (HSR)• Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften (ZHAW)• Berner Fachhochschule Technik und Informatik (BFH-TI)

Financing institutions

• Swiss Confederation’s Innovation Promotion Agency (CTI) / Förderagentur für Innovation des Bundes (KTI)

• Swiss Federal Offi ce of Energy (SFOE) / Bundesamt für Ener-gie (BFE)

• swisselectric research (a section of swisselectric, an organiza-tion of Swiss electricity grid companies)

Scientifi c Project Partnersand Financing Institutions

Register

AppendixAppendix

83CCEM – Annual Activity Report 2010 Appendix

Presentations

CCEM – Competence Center for Energy and Mobility

• Dietrich P., «How are we affected by the Cleantech-Debate? Energy-economic analysis of possible changes in

the transportation sector and the MEM-industry induced by climate policies». Bühler AG, Uzwil, August 30,

2010.

• Dietrich P., «Ökobilanz der Elektromobilität: EKZ e-Twingo». Labor für Energiesystem-Analysen, EKZ Di-

etikon, December 16, 2010.

• Dietrich P., «Stärken und Schwächen des Elektroantriebes im Vergleich zum Verbrennungsmotor- und Hyb-

ridantrieb». Jahrestagung e-mobile 2010, Sion, August 25, 2010.

• Dietrich P., «Effi zienzpotenziale und ihr Einfl uss auf das Schweizer Energiesystem – Erkenntnisse aus dem

Energie Trialog Schweiz».

– WWF Aargau, March 25, 2010.

– PSI-Impuls, Villigen, April 15, 2010.

• Dietrich P., «Energy research and Cleantech at Paul Scherrer Institut PSI».

– Visit Alberta Delegation, PSI Villigen, June 10, 2010.

– DIREC 2010, New Dehli, India, October 27, 2010.

• Dietrich P., «Das moderne Gebäude – mehr als eine Behausung». ScienceCity Talk, ETH Zürich, April 25,

2010.

• Dietrich P., «The Potential of H2-O2 Fuel Cells in the Transportation Sector». WHEC2010, Essen, Germany,

April 29, 2010.

• Dietrich P., «Alternative Automotive Technologies & Fuels in Carbon restricted Economies». EVS 25, Sustain-

able Mobility Revolution, Shenzhen, China, November 5–9, 2010.

• Dietrich P., «Innovative Technologien in der Energiewirtschaft». Euroforum, Zürich, November 10, 2010.

NEADS – Next Generation Exhaust Aftertreatment for Diesel Propulsion Systems

• Prévôt, A.S.H., «Aging of diesel and wood burning emissions in smogchamber experiments». EGU General

Assembly, Vienna, Austria, May 2–7, 2010.

• Prévôt, A.S.H., «Evolution of organics in the atmosphere: Dependence on technology of diesel vehicles and

wood burning facility». Oral presentation, 11th Science Conference of the International Global Atmosphere

Chemistry (IGAC) Project, Halifax, Canada, July 11–16, 2010.

• Prévôt, A.S.H., «Primary emission and secondary formation of organic aerosol from vehicles». Oral presenta-

tion, 14th ETH-Conference on Combustion Generated Nanoparticles, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, August 1–4,

2010.

• Tritscher T., «Transformation from hydrophobic to hygroscopic diesel soot particles by photochemical aging».

Oral presentation, 14th ETH-Conference on Combustion Generated Nanoparticles, ETH Zurich, Switzerland,

August 1–4, 2010.

hy.muve – Hydrogen Driven Municipal Vehicle

• Schlienger P., «Elektrische Antriebe und Brennstoffzellen – Eigenschaften und Potenzial im Vergleich zu Hy-

draulik und Mechanik». Agrartechniktage, Agroscope; Tänikon 10. Mai 2010.

• Ulli-Beer S., «Sozio-technische Herausforderungen der Elektromobilität». 1. Schweizer Forum Elektromobil-

ität, Luzern, 26./27. Januar 2010.

• Ulli-Beer S., «Modeling sozio-technical change: Opportunities and Challenges». 8th Latin American Confer-

ence on SD, November 17–19, 2010, Medellin, Colombia (invited key note speaker), 2010.

CELaDE – Clean and Effi cient Large Diesel Engines

• Tschanz F., Barro C., «Concepts for on-line simulation and feedback control of pollutant emissions from Die-

sel engines». F. Tschanz, C.Barro Stuttgarter Motorensymposium 2011 (accepted).

• Wright Y.M., Bolla M., Boulouchos K., Borghesi G., Mastorakos E., «Conditional Moment Closure For Two-

Phase Flows – A Review Of Recent Developments And Application To Various Spray Combustion Confi gura-

84 CCEM – Annual Activity Report 2010Appendix

tions». 8th International Conference of Computational Methods in Sciences and Engineering, Kos, Greece,

October 3–8, 2010.

THELMA – Technology-Centered Electric Mobility Assessment

• Althaus H.J., Gauch M. «Vergleichende Ökobilanz individueller Mobilität: Elektromobilität versus konventio-

nelle Mobilität mit Bio- und fossilen Treibstoffen». Empa, Dübendorf, 2011.

• Simons A., Bauer C., «LiION’s and ZEBRA’s: An LCA of their use in electric vehicles». Poster at «Tage der

Technik 2010, Nachhaltige Mobilität – Quo vadis Automobil?». Duebendorf, Switzerland, October 27, 2010.

(Online: http://www.tag-der-technik.ch/default.asp).

• Notter D., Gauch M., Widmer R., Wäger P., Stamp A., Zah R., Althaus H.J., «Ökobilanz einer Li-Ion Batterie».

Poster at «Tage der Technik 2010, Nachhaltige Mobilität – Quo vadis Automobil?». Duebendorf, Switzerland,

October 27, 2010. (Online: http://www.tag-der-technik.ch/default.asp).

• Gauch M., «Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Li-Ion batteries for electric vehicles». Talk at the Battery Testing

for Electric Mobility Conference, Berlin, Germany, May 6–7, 2010.

• Gauch M., «Formen zukünftiger Mobilität und ihr Umwelteinfl uss». Talk at the Energiekongress Blue-Tech,

Winterthur, Switzerland, 12–16 September, 2010.

• Gauch M., «Future Mobility – Environmental Impact Assessment of Electric Vehicles». Talk at the Electric

Vehicles and Intelligent Battery Applications Conference, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, September 22–24,

2010.

• Gauch M., «Contribution of Li-Ion Batteries to the Environmental Impact of Electric Vehicles». Talk at the

Batteries 2010 Conference, Cannes, France, September 29 – October 1, 2010.

• Althaus H.J., «Environmental Impact, Energy Consumption, and LCA of Li-Ion Battery Production». Talk at

the Joint EC / EPoSS / ERTRAC Expert Workshop 2010 «Electric Vehicle Batteries Made in Europe», Brussels,

Belgium, November 30, 2010.

• Althaus H.J., Notter D., Gauch M., «Umweltauswirkungen von Elektromobilität». Poster at «Tage der Technik

2010, Nachhaltige Mobilität – Quo vadis Automobil?». Dübendorf, Switzerland, October 27, 2010. (Online:

http://www.tag-der-technik.ch/default.asp).

• Wilhelm E., «Reducing the Weight of Light-duty Vehicles Today and in 2035 using Advanced Materials».

(Poster) Empa Tag der Technik, Empa, Dübendorf, Switzerland, October 26, 2010.

Cohyb – Customized Hybrid Powertrains

• Trottmann M., «Thermoelectric system for waste heat recovery in Cars». MRS 2010.

• Weidenkaff A., «Demonstration eines thermoelektrischen Systems für die Abwärmerückgewinnung». IAV

Berlin, poster, 2010.

• Populoh S., «Half-Heusler thin fi lm supperlatices for thermoelectrics, Discovering and tailoring materials for

all-oxide thermoelectric module, Thermoelectric oxide modules (TOMs) used in a solar cavity receiver». ICT

Shanghai, poster, 2010.

• Populoh S., Trottmann M., Brunko O., «Thermoelectric system for waste heat recovery in Cars, Cohyb». IAV

Berlin, poster, 2010.

• Populoh S., Trottmann M., «Verstromung von Abgaswärme». Tage der Technik 2010 zum Thema «Nach-

haltige Mobilität». poster, 2010.

CARMA – Carbon Dioxide Management in Power Generation

• Pieber S., «Carbon capture & storage systems in power production. Assessment of accident risks within the

main components of the CCS system: carbon dioxide capture, transmission, injection & (long-term) storage

in geological formations». Paul Scherrer Institut, Switzerland, 2010.

• Yan J., Bauer C., Schenler W., Hirschberg S., «Integrated Assessment of Carbon Capture and Storage in Swit-

zerland». Poster at the CCES Latsis Symposium, ETHZ, November 17–19, 2010.

• Tock L., Maréchal M., Arpentinier P., Metzger C., «Process Integration Analysis of an Industrial Hydrogen

Production Process». (Oral presentation) in Proceedings of the 18th World Hydrogen Energy Conference 2010

(WHEC), Essen, Germany, May 16–21, 2010.

Presentations


• Tock L., Maréchal F., «Thermo-economic modeling of fuel decarbonization processes». (Poster presentation)

CCES Latsis Symposium «Research in Environment and Sustainability – Insights and Conclusions», Zurich,

Switzerland, November 15–17, 2010.

• Chevalier G., Diamond L.W., Leu W., «Potential for deep geological sequestration of CO2 in Switzerland: a

fi rst appraisal». Swiss Geoscience Meeting, Fribourg, 2010.

• Diamond L. W., Chevalier G., Leu W., Deichmann N., Zappone A., Evans K., Wiemer S., Almqvist B.S.G., «CO2

sequestration in the deep subsurface of Switzerland: Geological and geo-physical aspects». CCES, Latsis

Symposium, Zurich 2010.

• Almqvist B.S.G., Zappone A., Bruijn R., Diamond L., Ramseyer K., Burg J.-P., «Physical and mechanical

characterization of potential reservoir and cap rocks for geological storage of carbon dioxide in Switzerland».

Swiss Geoscience Meeting, Fribourg, 2010.

• Werner M., Mazzotti M., «Direct Flue Gas CO2 Mineralization using Activated Serpentine: Exploring the Reac-

tion Kinetics by Experiments and Population Balance Modeling». Oral presentation at ACEME10, 3rd Interna-

tional Conference on Accelerated Carbonation for Environmental and Materials Engineering, Turku, Finland,

November 29 – December 1, 2010.

• Werner M., Verduyn M., van Mossel G., Mazzotti M., «Direct Flue Gas CO2 Mineralization using Activated

Serpentine: Exploring the Reaction Kinetics by Experiments and Population Balance Modeling». Poster pre-

sentation at GHGT10, 10th Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies Conference, Amsterdam, The Netherlands,

September 19–23, 2010.

• Prigiobbe V., Werner M., Mazzotti M., «Enhanced Olivine Dissolution using Organic Salts». Oral presentation

at GHGT10, 10th Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies Conference, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, September

19–23, 2010.

• Werner M., Delgado M., Mazzotti M., «Assessing the Mineral Carbonation Science and Technology». Oral pre-

sentation at iSUP2010 – Innovation for Sustainable Production, Bruges, Belgium, April 18–21, 2010.

• Bauer C., «Ökologische und ökonomische Bewertung künftiger fossiler Technologien der Energieerzeugung».

Symposium «Ambivalenzen von Technologien – Chancen, Gefahren, Missbrauch», Berlin, Germany, Novem-

ber 12, 2010.

• Wallquist L., L’Orange S., Dohle S., Visschers V.H.M., Siegrist M. «Tailoring communication to the public’s in-

tuitive understanding of CCS». Presentation at the 2nd IEA GHG Social Science Research Meeting, Yokohama,

Japan, November, 17–18 2010.

• Wallquist L., Visschers V.H.M., Siegrist M. «Antecedents of risk and benefi t perception of CCS». Presentation

at GHGT10, 10th Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies Conference, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, September

19–23 2010.

• Wallquist L. «Public perception and attitudes towards CCS – a literature review». Presentation at the IU SPEA

Workshop on Formation of Public Attitudes Towards Carbon Capture and Storage, Chicago, USA, April 29–30,

2010.

PINE – Platform for Innovative Nuclear Fuels

• Svedkauskaite-Le Gore J., Kivel N., Günther-Leopold I., «A high temperature heating device for the study of

fi ssion product release». Oral presentation at the First ACSEPT International Workshop, Lisbon, March 31 –

April 2, 2010.

• Pouchon M.A., «Conversion processes: Internal Gelation and the Sphere-pac concept». 1st ACSEPT interna-

tional workshop, Lisbon, (invited talk) March 31 – April 2, 2010.

• Shcherbina N.S., Svedkauskaite-Le Gore J., Kivel N., Günther-Leopold I., Kulik D.A., «Thermodynamic model-

ing of fi ssion product release during thermal treatment of spent oxide fuel». Poster at the EMRS 2010 Spring

Meeting, Strasbourg, June 7–11, 2010.

• Pouchon M.A., Cozzo C., Vaucher S., Ishizaki K., Graule Th., Holzer L., Günther-Leopold I., Křepel J., Mikityuk

K., «PINE – Platform for innovative nuclear fuel». Energietagung, PSI, June 11, 2010.

• Pouchon M.A., «Advanced Internal Gelation for the Spherepac Concept». IAEA Technical Meeting on «Manu-

facturing Methods for Advanced Nuclear Fuels». Vienna, May 18–21, 2010.

• Cozzo C., Catalá Civera J., Ishizaki K., Megias Alguacil D., Nicula R., Pouchon M.A., Stir M., Vaucher S.,

«Internal gelation of cerium based solution by microwave heating». Oral presentation at the 9th International

Workshop on Subsecond Thermophysics in Graz, 2010.

Appendix

Presentations


HydroNet – Modern Methodologies for the Design, Manufacturing and Operation of Pumped Storage

Power Plants

• Zobeiri A., Avellan F., Farhat M., «The effect of hydrofoil trailing edge geometry on vortex shedding». IUTAM

Symposium on Bluff Body Wakes and Vortex-Induced Vibrations, Italy, June 22–25, 2010.

• Pannatier Y., Kawkabani B., Sari G., Simond J.-J., «Stability Studies of a Mixed Islanded Power Network with

Varspeed Units using Simplifi ed Models of the Converters». IEEE ECCE 2010, Atlanta, Georgia, September

2010.

• Pannatier Y., Kawkabani B., Nicolet C., Schwery A., Simond J.-J., «Start-up and Synchronization of a Variable

Speed Pump-Turbine Unit in Pumping Mode». ICEM 2010, Rome, Italy, September 2010.

• Bonalumi M., «Effects of pump storage operations on reservoir characteristics: present, future and far fu-

ture», PhD Summer School, Kastanienbaum, 2010.

ONEBAT – Battery Replacement Using Miniaturized Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

• Bieberle-Hütter A., Reinhard P., Rupp J.L.M., Gauckler L.J., «The Effect of Etching during Microfabrication on

the Microstructure and the Electrical Conductivity of CGO». Thin Films European Fuel Cell Forum, Lucerne,

Switzerland, June 29 – July 2, 2010.

• Yan Y., Conde J., Muralt P., «Electrolyte and Cathode Studies for Micro-Solid Oxide Fuel Cell». MRS Proceed-

ings Spring meeting 2010, Vol 1256, 1256-N16-50, 2010.

• Bieberle-Hütter A., Evans A., Galinski H., Plonczak P., Reinhard P., Rupp J.M.L., Ryll T., Scherrer B., Schlupp

M., Gauckler L.J. (invited), «Nanoionics: From Thin Metal/Metaloxide Films to Devices»., X International

Conference on Nanostructured Materials, Roma, Italy, September 2010.

• Bieberle-Hütter A., Rupp L.J.M., Gauckler L.J., «The Effect of Etching During Microfabrication on the Micro-

structure and the Electrical Conductivity of CGO and YSZ Thin Films». European Fuel Cell Forum, Lucerne,

Switzerland, July 2010.

• Rupp J.L.M., Bieberle-Hütter A., Scherrer B., Tölke R., Martynczuk J., Harvey A., Gauckler L.J., «Crystalliza-

tion and Grain Growth of Amorphous Metal Oxide Thin Films: TTT Diagrams a Proposal for Thermal Engineer-

ing for MEMS Devices». 17th International Symposium on Metastable, Amorphous and Nanostructured Materi-

als (ISMANAM 2010), Zurich, Switzerland, July 2010.

• Rupp J.L.M., Martyncuk J., Bieberle-Hütter A., Gauckler L.J., «Microstrain and Oxygen Ion Conductivity of

Thin Films”». Electroceramics XII, Trondheim, Norway, June 2010.

• Evans A., Bonderer L.J., Chen P.W., Bieberle-Hütter A., Rupp J.L.M., Stuckenholz S., Gauckler L.J., «Low-tem-

perature micro-solid oxide fuel cells with a free-standing ultrathin yttria-stabilized-zirconia foil electrolyte».

Electroceramics XII, Trondheim, Norway, June 2010.

• Schlupp M., Rupp J.L.M., Bieberle-Hütter A., Gauckler L.J., «Thin fi lm deposition by ultrasonic aerosol as-

sisted chemical vapor deposition (UAA-CVD): Thin fi lm growth and microstructure». Electroceramics XII,

Trondheim, Norway, June 2010.

• Bieberle-Hütter A., Rupp J.L.M., Bonderer L., Evans A., Scherrer B., Schlupp M., Tölke R., Gauckler J.L. (invit-

ed), «YSZ and CGO Films and Their Application in Micro-SOFC Platforms». EMRS Spring Meeting, Strasbourg,

France, June 2010.

• Rupp J.L.M., Bieberle-Hütter A., Scherrer B., Harvey A., Tölke R., Evans A., Martynczuk J., Ryll T., Galinski

H., Gauckler L.J., «Engineering Disorder in Nano-Scaled Metal Oxide Thin Films». MRS Spring Meeting, San

Francisco, USA, April 2010.

• Galinski H., Ryll T., Schlagenhauf L., Reuteler J., Rupp J.L.M., Bieberle-Hütter A., Gauckler L.J., «Agglomera-

tion kinetics and Pattern Formation of Pt Thin Films». DPF Frühjahrstagung, Regensburg, Germany, March

2010.

• Bieberle-Hütter A., Rupp J.L.M., Bonderer L.J., Evans A., Ryll T., Scherrer B., Gauckler L.J. (invited), «From

Thin Metal Oxide Films to Micro-Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Systems». International Hydrogen Energy Development

Forum 2010, Fukuoka, Japan, February 2010.

• Bieberle-Hütter A., Rupp J.l.M., Gauckler L.J. (invited), «Nanoionics: From Thin Metal Oxide Films to

Devices». The Second Symposium on Academic Exchange and Collaborative Research between Hokkaido

University, Japan, and ETH Zurich, Switzerland, February 2010.

Presentations

Appendix


• Bieberle-Hütter A. (invited), «Nanoionics: From Thin Metal Oxide Films to Devices». Seminar (Prof. Shimizu),

Nagasaki University, Japan, February 2010.

ThinPV – Cost Effi cient Thin Film Photovoltaics for Future Electricity Generation

• Heier J., Benmansour H., Fan B., Castro F.A., Nagel M., Hany R., Tutis E., Nüesch F., «Counterion effects in

thin cationic dye fi lms and photo-voltaic devices». QUANTSOL 2010 Winter workshop, Brigels (Breil), March

7–13, 2010.

ccem-retrofi t – Advanced Energy Effi cient Renovation of Buildings

• Zimmermann M., «Energy Effi cient Technologies for Government Buildings – New and Retrofi ts». Orlando,

USA, January 21–23, 2010.

• Zimmermann M., «Sustainable Construction: Overview of Swiss Approaches». Estonian-Swiss Contact Semi-

nar, Tallinn, Estland, February 5, 2010.

• Zimmermann M., «Retrofi t Advisor: Ein Werkzeug für strategische Entscheidungen in der Bauerneuerung».

Symposium «Holzbaulösungen für die Gebäudemodernisierung», München, 27. April 2010.

• Zimmermann M., IEA ECBCS Annex 50 «Prefabricated Systems for Low Energy Renovation of Residential

Buildings». ECBCS Technical Workshop, Copenhagen, DK, June 16, 2010.

• Zimmermann M., «Innovative Konzepte für die ». Energie Apéro, Luzern, 6. September 2010.


Buildings». ECBCS Technical Workshop, Tokyo, Japan, November 10, 2010.

• Zimmermann M; Fischer, R., IQ Samhällbyggnad-Workshop on «Industrial methods for the renovation of

apartment buildings». Stockholm, December 1, 2010.

• Müller M.O., Ulli-Beer S., «How can the diffusion of energy-effi cient renovations be accelerated?». Poster

präsentiert an der Poster Session des Berner Umweltforschungstags, Schweiz, April 4, 2010.

• Müller M.O., Ulli-Beer S., «How can the diffusion of energy-effi cient renovations be accelerated?». Poster

presented at the poster session of the 11th Swiss Global Change Day, Berne, Switzerland, April 20, 2010.

• Müller M.O., «Wie kann die Verbreitung energie-effi zienter Gebäuderenovationen beschleunigt werden?».

Präsentation am 11. Berner Umweltforschungstag 2010, Universität Bern, Schweiz, May 4, 2010.

• Müller M.O., «Policy analysis for the transformation of Switzerland’s stock of buildings. A small model ap-

proach». Presentation at the 28th System Dynamics Conference in Seoul, Korea, July 26, 2010.

• Müller M.O., «How can the diffusion of energy-effi cient renovations of buildings be accelerated? A system

dynamics approach». Presentation at Ecotopia Science Institute, Nagoya University, Japan, August 10, 2010.

• Müller M.O., «System Dynamics in den Sozialwissenschaften – Einblicke in die Diffusionsdynamik energie-

effi zienter Gebäuderenovationen». Referat am Kolloquium Empirie des Instituts für Soziologie, Universität

Bern, Schweiz, October 19, 2010.

• Ulli-Beer S., «Modelling socio-technical change: Opportunities and Challenges». Presentation as invited

keynote speaker at the 8th Latin American Conference on System Dynamics, Medellin, Colombia, November

17–19, 2010.

ccem-house2000 – Innovative Building Technologies for the 2000 Watt Society

• Gyalistras, D., «Der energetische ‹Performance Bound› – eine rechnerische Messlatte für die Gebäudere-

gelung». Presentation, 6. Planerseminar Hochschule Luzern – Technik & Architektur, Horw, Switzerland,

23. März 2010.

• Gyalistras, D., «Use of MPC for building control». Presentation, Short Course on Model Predictive Control,

ETH Zurich, Switzerland, March 4, 2010.

• Swissbau + Plattform Zukunft Bau, fi rst presentation of SELF, Basel, January 12–16, 2010.

• Immomesse St. Gallen, presentation of SELF, St. Gallen, March 19–21, 2010

• Zurich University of Arts, Design workshop, March 23 – April 2, 2010.

• SF1 Einstein-telecast, April 8, 2010

Appendix

Presentations


AQUASAR – Direct Re-use of Waste Heat from Liquid-Cooled Supercomputers

• Marcinichen J.B., Thome J.R., «Refrigerated Cooling of Micro-processors with Micro-Evaporation – New Novel

Two-Phase Cooling Cycles: A Green Steady-State Simulation Code». 13th Brazilian Congress of Thermal Sci-

ences and Engineering – EN-CIT2010, Uberlandia, Brazil, December 5–10, 2010.

• Olivier J.A., Thome J.R. «Comparison of New Refrigerants R1234yf and R1234ze versus R134a for Two-phase

Cooling of Microprocessors». ASME-ATI-UIT Conference on Thermal and Environmental Issues in Energy

Systems, Sorrento, Italy, May 16–19, 2010.

• Olivier J.A., Marcinichen J.B., Thome J.R., «Two-phase Cooling of Datacenters: Reduction in Energy Costs and

Improved Effi ciencies». 13th Brazilian Congress of Thermal Sciences and Engineering – ENCIT2010, Uber-

landia, Brazil, December 5–10, 2010.

SuRHiB – Sustainable Renovation of Historical Buildings

• Zanetti I., «SuRHiB Sustainable Renovation of Historical Buildings, Concepts for solar integration». Energy

Forum 2010, Bressanone, 2010.

• Stahl Th., «Energie und Denkmal». Workshop, Kantonale Denkmalpfl eger, August 19, 2010.


Forum 2010, Bressanone.

• Carmeliet J., «Integrated new technology approach for sustainable buildings and cities». Seminar «Zero

Energy Buildings: challenges and opportunities». DOW, Horgen, October 19, 2010.

• Carmeliet J., «Prefabricated Systems for Low Energy Renovation of Residential Buildings». IEA-Annex 55

Workshop «Reliability of Energy Effi cient Building Retrofi tting – Probability Assessment of Performance and

Cost (RAP-RETRO)». Holzkirchen, Germany, April 15–16, 2010.

• Carmeliet J., «Sustainable retrofi tting of buildings and cities». Lecture at Think Swiss Study Tour on Energy,

Zurich, May 7, 2010.

2ndGenerationBiogas – New Pathways to Effi cient Use of Biomass for Power and Transportation

• Gerber L., Gassner M., Maréchal F., «Environomic optimization of SNG production from lignocellulosic bio-

mass using Life Cycle Assessment». In: Submitted to the 23th International conference on effi ciency, cost,

optimization, simulation and environmental impact of energy systems (ECOS), 2010.

• Tock L., Gassner M., Maréchal F., «Thermo-economic evaluation of the thermochemical production of liquid

fuels from biomass». In: Submitted to the 23th International conference on effi ciency, cost, optimization,

simulation and environmental impact of energy systems (ECOS), 2010.

WoodGas-SOFC – Integrated Biomass – Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Cogeneration

• 7th Fuel Cell Modeling and Validation symposium, Morges (CH), organised by EPFL, with presentations by

Amelio S. (WT3.1) and Giacomini S. (WT3.2). Poster and draft paper are annexed, March 2010.

novatlantis – Sustainability at the ETH Domain – Promotion of Transdisciplinary Science

• Alvarez R., Schlienger P., Weilenmann M., «Effect of Battery Performance on Determining CO2 Emissions of

Hybrid Electric Vehicles under Real-World Conditions». 18th International Symposium Transport and Air Pollu-

tion, Dübendorf, 2010.

• Dos Santos Pinto M., «Projekt Nachhaltige Quartierentwicklung». Forum Energie Zürich, 6. April 2010.

• Dos Santos Pinto M., «Nachhaltige Quartierentwicklung». Blue and Green Fair, Zürich-Oerlikon, 17. Juni

2010.

• Dos Santos Pinto M., «Nachhaltige Quartierentwicklung». Bündner Planerkreis, Chur, 16. Oktober 2010.

• Dos Santos Pinto M., Tagungsleitung, Novatlantis Bauforum, Basel, 8. November 2010.

• Egger K., «Workshop Energiestadt Wald», Gemeinde Wald, 15. Juli 2010.

• Egger K., «Energiestadt und die 2000-Watt-Gesellschaft». Informationsveranstaltung für Energiestadt-Bera-

ter zur Fachstelle 2000-Watt-Gesellschaft, Zürich, 24. August 2010.

Presentations

Appendix


• Egger K., «Von der Vision zur Realität. Mit 1 Tonnen CO2 in die 2000-Watt-Gesellschaft». EVP-Fraktion des

Stadtrats Dietikon, Gossau SG, 1. September 2010.

• Egger K., «Energiestadt und die 2000-Watt-Gesellschaft». Informationsveranstaltung für Energiestadt-Bera-

ter zur Fachstelle 2000-Watt-Gesellschaft, Yverdon, 5. Oktober 2010.

• Egger K., «2000-Watt-Gesellschaft – wie, bis wann und warum?». AVES Herbstevent, Zürich, 29. November

2010.

• Schlienger P., «Elektrische Antriebe und Brennstoffzellen – Eigenschaften und Potenzial im Vergleich zu Hy-

draulik und Mechanik». Agrartechniktage, Agroscope, Tänikon, 2010.

• Schmausser E., «2000 Watt Society». Finnish Delegation of Demos Helsinki, Basel, 3. März 2010.

• Schmausser E., «Nachhaltige Quartierentwicklung». VLP-ASPAN Tagung, Aarau, 19. März 2010.

• Schmausser E., «2000-Watt-Gesellschaft». Usitawi Club Zürich, 22. April 2010.

• Schmausser E., «2000 Watt Society», Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra, Zurich, June 13, 2010.

• Stähler-Matthys M., «2000-Watt-Gesellschaft in der Küchenbranche», Veriset Küchenbauer, Root LU, 3. Mai,

2010.

• Stulz R. diverse Referate zu Novatlantis und 2000-Watt-Gesellschaft an folgenden Anlässen, 2010:

− Swissbau, January 13, Basel.

− Etanova, January 20, Weinfelden.

− Grüne Nidwalden, January 26, Stans.

− ZBV – Zürcher Studiengesellschaft für Bau- und Verkehrsfragen, February 8, Zurich.

− SP Schweiz, February 12, Bern.

− IG 2000-Watt-Region Solothurn, March 13, Solothurn.

− Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, March 22, Zurich.

− betonsuisse Lenkungsausschuss, March 23, Bern.

− Interessengemeinschaft 2000-Watt-Gesellschaft Zug, April 7, Zug.

− Rotary Club Dietikon, May 20, Weiningen.

− Kantonale Energiefachstellenkonferenz, June 23, Zurich.

− Energiestadt Schwyz, July 9, Steinerberg.

− Informationsveranstaltung für Energiestadt-Berater zur Fachstelle 2000-Watt-Gesellschaft, August 24,

Zurich.

− HESO Solothurn, September 29, Solothurn.

− Bauvernetzungstreffen Luzern, September 30, Luzern.

− Informationsveranstaltung für Energiestadt-Berater zur Fachstelle 2000-Watt-Gesellschaft, October 5,

Yverdon.

− Clean Tech Unternehmer Workshop SP Schweiz, October 11, Bern.

− EBS Schwyz, October 25, Schwyz.

− Baukongress, November 9, Luzern.

− Passarelle – Weiterbildungsprogramm des BFE und sia, November 12, Zürich.

− Diplomfeier Universität Basel Master of Sustainable Development, November 29, Basel.

− Tag der Städte, December 3, Bern.

− ECIU – European Consortium of Innovative Universities, December 7, Dübendorf.

− Richti Areal, December 7, Wallisellen.

• Stulz R., Participant at panel discussion. Blue and Green Fair Zurich-Oerlikon, Zurich, June 15, 2010.

• Ulli-Beer S., «Sozio-technische Herausforderungen der Elektromobilität». 1. Schweizer Forum Elektromobili-

tät, Luzern, 26.–27. Januar 2010.

• Ulli-Beer S., Kasemir B., Lienin S., Wokaun A., «How can regions develop ‹robust› technology change

strategies towards sustainable road transportation? A case analysis of the novatlantis pilot region Basel in

Switzerland». Proceedings of the 3rd International Advanced Mobility Forum, Palexpo Geneva, Switzerland,

March 9–10, 2010.

• Alvarez R., Weilenmann M., Bach Ch., «Potential of Natural Gas Powered Vehicles in Reducing CO2 and Pollut-

ant Emissions under Real-World Driving Conditions». FISITA World Congress, Budapest, 2010.

• Dos Santos Pinto M., «Expertenworkshop Nachhaltige Quartierentwicklung». Energieinstitut Vorarlberg,

Dornbirn, 3. Dezember 2010.

• Kasemir B., Conference lead, ISCN Conference, Shanghai, July 27–28, 2010.

Appendix

Presentations


• Soltic P., Bach Ch., «Catalytic piston coating in gas engines». 5th Conference Gas Powered Vehicles, Berlin,

2010.

• Stulz R., «2000 Watt society and cleantech». Swiss Embassy, London, June 17, 2010.

• Stulz R., «Von der Vision zur Realität. Mit 1 Tonne CO2 in die 2000-Watt-Gesellschaft». My Sustainable World

conference, Leipzig, 23. September 2010.

• Stulz R., «Von der Vision zur Realität. Mit 1 Tonne CO2 in die 2000-Watt-Gesellschaft», TU Karlsruhe, 20.

Oktober 2010.

• Stulz R., «Novatlantis and the 2000 Watt society», ISCN Conference, Shanghai, July 27, 2010.

• Ulli-Beer S., «Modeling sozio-technical change: Opportunities and Challenges». 8th Latin American Confer-

ence on SD, Medellin, Colombia, November 17–19, 2010.

• Walter S., Ulli-Beer S., Wokaun A., «Assessing consumer preferences for hydrogen driven road sweepers».

Proceedings of the 18th World Hydrogen Energy Conference, Essen, Germany, May 16–21, 2010.

• Müller M., Ulli-Beer S., «A small model for the analysis of transformation policies in Switzerland’s stock of

buildings». Proceedings of the 28th International System Dynamics Conference, Seoul, Korea, July 25–29,

2010.

Presentations

Appendix

91CCEM – Annual Activity Report 2010 Appendix


• Liati A., Dimopoulos Eggenschwiler P., «Characterisation of particulate matter deposited in diesel particu-

late fi lters: visual and analytical approach in macro-, micro- and nano-scales». Combustion and Flame, 157

1658–1670, 2010.

• Weimer S., Richter R., Mohr C., Schreiber D., Prevot A.S.H., Mohr M., Dimopoulos Eggenschwiler P., «Particles

emitted by 2- and 4-stroke engines: Aspects from chasing and test bench experiments». Proceedings of the

18th International Symposium Transport and Air Pollution, Switzerland, 62–67, 2010.

• Karpf A., Schreiber D., Dimopoulos Eggenschwiler P., Wachter R., «Passive and active regeneration modes

and their characteristics on a modern diesel Particulate fi lter system». Proceedings of the 18th International

Symposium Transport and Air Pollution, Switzerland, 2010.

• Dimopoulos Eggenschwiler P., Liati A., Winkler A., «Soot layer evolution, as well as ash accumulation phe-

nomena in Diesel Particulate Filters». Proceedings of the 10th Stuttgart International Symposium, Automo-

tive and Engine Technology, 373–385, 2010.

• Dimopoulos Eggenschwiler P., Liati A., «Soot and Ash Layer Characteristics in Ceramic Diesel Particulate

Filters». Proceedings of the 12th International Ceramics Congress, CIMTEC, including invited lecture, 2010.

• Vogt U.F., Wagner G., Broenstrup A., Dimopoulos Eggenschwiler P., Gorbar M., Colombo P., «Improving the

Properties of Ceramic Foams by a Vacuum Infi ltration Process». Journal European Ceramic Society, J. Eur.

Ceram. Soc. doi:10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2010.06.003, 2010.

• Sharifi an L., Wright Y.M., Boulouchos K., Elsener M., Kröcher O., «Simulation of NOx reduction in an Ammo-

nia-SCR system with a Fe-Zeolite catalyst and calibration of related parameters». Submitted for publication

in ASME Conference, paper no. IMECE2010–40431, 2010.

• Baltensperger U., Chirico R., DeCarlo P.F., Dommen J., Gaeggeler K., Heringa M.F., Li M.L., Prevot A.S.H.,

Alfarra M.R., Gross D.S., Kalberer M., «Recent developments in the mass spectrometry of atmospheric aero-

sols, European Journal of Mass Spectrometry, 16(3), 389–395, 2010.

• Chirico R., DeCarlo P.F., Heringa M.F., Tritscher T., Richter R., Prevot A.S.H., Dommen J., Weingartner E.,

Wehrle G., Gysel M., Laborde M., Baltensperger U., «Impact of aftertreatment devices on primary emissions

and secondary organic aerosol formation potential from in-use diesel vehicles: results from smog chamber

experiments». Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 10, 16055–16109, 2010.

• Giechaskiel B., Chirico R., DeCarlo P.F., Clairotte M., Adam T., Martini G., Heringa M.F., Richter R., Prevot

A.S.H., Baltensperger U., Astorga C., «Evaluation of the particle measurement programme (PMP) protocol to

remove the vehicles’ exhaust aerosol volatile phase». Science Total Environ., accepted, 2010.

• Weimer S., Mohr C., Good C., Lanz V., DeCarlo P., Richter R., Mohr M., Prevot A.S.H., Baltensperger U.,

«Organic aerosol source apportionment using mass spectra of mobile laboratory data». To be submitted to

Environ. Sci. Technol, 2010.

hy.muve – Hydrogen Driven Municipal Vehicle

• Ulli-Beer S., Bosshardt M., Wokaun A. «Fleet dynamics». In. Wokaun A. et al (Ed), «Transition to Hydrogen».

Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK (2010 submitted).

• Ulli-Beer S., Wokaun A., «Towards a methodical synthesis of innovation system modelling». In. Pickl S.,

Siegle M. (Ed), «Mastering complexity» Post-conference proceedings of the International Conference of Op-

eration Research, Munich, September 1–3, 2010. Springer Dordrecht, Heidelberg, London, New York, (2010

submitted).

• Ulli-Beer S., Gassmann F., Wokaun A., «Generic Structure to Simulate Acceptance Dynamics». System Dy-

namics Review, 2010.

• Bosshardt M., Ulli-Beer S., Gassmann F., Wokaun A., «Tipping point and technological lock-in: Effects from a

social behavioral norm building process». Technological Forecasting and Social Change (resubmitted 2010).

• Müller M., Ulli-Beer S., Grösser S., «Identifi cation of Important Agents in Fragmented, Complex Social Sys-

tems». European Journal of the Operations Research Society (resubmitted 2010).

• Ruiz de Castañeda Fleischmann C., «Public-Private Partnership as an instrument for the implementation

of hydrogen powered municipal vehicles». Masterthesis submitted to the University Fribourg, Switzerland,

2010.

Publications


• Walter S., Ruiz de Castaneda C., Ulli-Beer S., Bach Ch., «Buchers Brennstoffzellen-Kehrmaschine als sozio-

technische Lernplattform: Die CityCat H2, ein wasserstoffbetriebenes Kompaktkehrfahrzeug im Alltagstest».

Kommunalmagazin, Januar/Februar 2010.

• Walter S., Ulli-Beer S., Wokaun A., «Assessing consumer preferences for hydrogen driven road sweepers».

Proceedings of the 18th World Hydrogen Energy Conference, May 16–21, 2010, Essen, Germany, 2010.

• Ulli-Beer S., Kasemir B., Lienin S., Wokaun A., «How can regions develop ‹robust› technology change strate-

gies towards sustainable road transportation? A case analysis of the novatlantis pilot region Basel in Swit-

zerland». Proceedings of the 3rd International Advanced Mobility Forum, March 9–10, 2010, Palexpo Geneva,

Switzerland, 2010.

• Schlienger P., «Wasserstoffantrieb – erste Zwischenbilanz». UmweltPerspektiven Februar 2010.

HY_Change – Transition to Hydrogen Based Trans portation – Challenges and Opportunities

• Ulli-Beer S., Kasemir B., Lienin S., Wokaun A., «How can regions develop robust technology change strate-

gies towards sustainable road transportation?». A case analysis of the novatlantis pilot region Basel in Swit-

zerland. Technovation (submitted 2010).


social behavioural norm building process». Technological Forecasting and Social Change (submitted 2010).


namics Review, in press, 2010.


• Thurnheer T., Edenhauser D., Soltic P., Schreiber D., Kirchen P., Sankowski A., «Experimental investigation on

different injection strategies in a heavy-duty diesel engine: Emissions and loss analysis». Energy Conversion

and Management 52, 457–467, 2011.

• Tschanz F., Barro C., «Russgeregelter Dieselmotor». Band Nr. R551, pp.195–218, FVV Herbsttagung 2010.

NADiP – NOX Abatement in Diesels: Process Analysis, Optimisation and Impact

• Sharifi an L., Wright Y.M., Boulouchos K., Elsener M., Kröcher O., «Transient simula-tion of NOx reduction

in an NH3-SCR system over Fe-Zeolite catalyst and study of the performance under different operating

conditions». 2011 JSAE/SAE International Powertrains, Fuels & Lubricants Meeting, JSAE Paper offer No.

20119195, in preparation.

• Sharifi an L., Wright Y.M., Boulouchos K., Elsener M., Kröcher O., «Calibration of an NH3-SCR system includ-

ing NO oxidation and simulation of NOx reduction over Fe-Zeolite catalyst in highly transient conditions».

International Journal of Engine Research, in preparation.

• Sharifi an L., Wright Y.M., Boulouchos K., Elsener M., Kröcher O., «Simulation of NOx reduction in an Ammo-

nia-SCR system with a Fe-Zeolite catalyst and calibration of related parameters». Proceedings of the ASME

2010 International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition, Paper no. IMECE2010-40431, 2010.

• Bernhard A., Czekaj I., Elsener M., Wokaun A., Kröcher O., «Evaporation of urea at atmospheric pressure».

Submitted to Chemical Engineering Journal, 2010.

THELMA – Technology-Centered Electric Mobility Assessment

• Simons A., Bauer C., «Life Cycle Assessment of Hydrogen Production». In: Wilhelm E., Wokaun A. (Eds.),

«Transition to Hydrogen: Pathways Toward Clean Transportation». Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,

UK (to be published in 2011).

• González Vayá M., Krause T., Andersson G., «Locational Marginal Pricing Based Impact Assessment of Plug-

in Hybrid Electric Vehicles on Transmission Networks». Paper abstract submitted to the Cigré International

Symposium «The Electric Power System of the Future». Bologna, Italy, September 13–15, 2011.

• Bauer C., «Ökobilanz von Lithium-Ionen Batterien – Analyse der Herstellung von Energiespeichern für den

Einsatz in Batteriefahrzeugen». Eine Studie im Auftrag der Volkswagen AG. Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen,

Switzerland, 2010.

Publications


• Bauer C., Simons A., «Ökobilanz der Elektromobilität: Analyse des e-Twingos der EKZ». Eine Studie im

Auftrag der Elektrizitätswerke des Kantons Zürich (EKZ). PSI, Villigen, Switzerland, 2010.

• Dietrich P., Bauer C., «Wer rechnet, hat recht? Treibhausgasemissions-Bilanz eines Fahrzeugs – Das Mass

aller Dinge?». In: Automotive Agenda 06/2010, Springer Verlag, Munich, Germany, 2010.

• Simons A., Bauer C., «Life Cycle Assessment of Battery Electric and Internal Combustion Engine Drivetrains

for a Small Passenger Car». Proceedings of the 18th international Symposium on Transport and Air pollution,

May 18–19, 2010, Duebendorf, Switzerland, 2010.

• Notter D., Gauch M., Widmer R., Wäger P., Stamp A., Zah R., Althaus H.J., «Contribution of Li- Ion Batteries

to the Environmental Impact of Electric Vehicles». Paper in Environmental Science and Technology, Vol. 44,

pp.6550–6556, 2010.

Cohyb – Customized Hybrid Powertrains

• Tomeš P., Robert R., Trottmann M., Bocher L., Aguirre M.H., Bitschi A., Hejtmánek J., Weidenkaff A., «Syn-

thesis and characterization of new ceramic thermoelectrics implemented in a thermoelectric oxide module».

J. Electron. Mater., 39, 9, 1696–1703, 2010.

CARMA – Carbon Dioxide Management in Power Generation

• Boulet C., «Life Cycle Assessment case studies of Nuclear Waste disposal and Carbon Capture & Storage».

Diploma thesis Nuclear Energy master, ETHZ & EPFL, 2010.

• Ghermay Y., Mantzaras J., Bombach R., «Effects of hydrogen preconversion on the homogeneous ignition of

fuel-lean H2/O2/N2/CO2 mixtures over platinum at moderate pressures». Combust. Flame 157, 1942–1958,

2010.

• Ghermay Y., Mantzaras J., Bombach R., Boulouchos K., «Homogeneous ignition of fuel lean H2/O2/N2 mixtures

over platinum at elevated pressures and preheats». Combust. Flame, accepted, 2010.

• Ghermay Y., Mantzaras J., Bombach R., «Experimental and numerical investigation of hetero-/homogeneous

combustion of CO/H2/O2/N2 mixtures over platinum at pressures up to 5 bar». Proceedings Combustion Insti-

tute, 33, doi:10.1016/j.proci.2010.06.135, 2010.

• Evans K., Zappone A., Deichmann N., «Injection-induced seismicity in Europe, Geothermics». Submitted on

17 Feb 2010, revised version submitted on 03 Dec 2010, as: Evans K., Zappone A., Deichmann N., Kraft T.,

Moia F., «A survey of the induced seismic responses to fl uid injection in geothermal and CO2 reservoirs in

Europe», 2010.

• Chevalier G., Diamond L.W., Leu W., «Potential for deep geological storage of CO2 in Switzerland: a fi rst ap-

praisal». Swiss Journal of Geosciences, Swiss Journal of Geosciences, 103, 427–455, 2010.

• Wallquist L., Visschers V.H.M., Siegrist M., «Impact of Knowledge and Misconceptions on Benefi t and Risk

Perception of CCS». Environmental Science & Technology, 44, (17), 6557–6562, 2010.

• Pini R., Ottiger S., Burlini L., Storti G., Mazzotti M., «Sorption of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen in

dry coals at high pressure and moderate temperature». International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 4,

90–101, 2010.

HydroNet – Modern Methodologies for the Design, Manufacturing and Operation of Pumped Storage

Power Plants

• Berten S., «Hydrodynamics of High Specifi c Power Pumps for Off-Design Operating Conditions». EPFL Thesis

N° 4642, 2010.

• Ruchonnet N., «Multiscale Computational Methodology Applied to Hydroacoustic Resonance in Cavitating Pipe

Flow». EPFL Thesis N° 4778, 2010.

• Pannatier Y., «Optimisation des stratégies de réglage d’une installation de pompage-turbinage à vitesse vari-

able». EPFL Thesis, N° 4789, 2010.

• Hasmatuchi V., Roth S., Botero F., Avellan F., Farhat M., «High-speed fl ow visualization in a pump-turbine

under off-design operating conditions». In: IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, volume

12, 2010.

Appendix

Publications


• Hasmatuchi V., Farhat M., Avellan F., «Hydrodynamics of a Pump-Turbine under Off-Design Operating Condi-

tions in Generating Mode». In: Proceedings of 1st EPFL Doctoral Conference in Mechanics, pages 111–114,

Lausanne, 2010.

• Hasmatuchi V., Farhat M., Roth S., Botero F., Avellan F., «Experimental Evidence of Rotating Stall in a Pump-

Turbine at Off-Design Conditions in Generating Mode». Submitted to Journal of Fluids Engineering, 2010.

• Zobeiri A., Avellan F., Farhat M., «Vortex Shedding from a Hydrofoil with Two Different Trailing Edge Geom-

etries». In: Proceedings of 1st EPFL Doctoral Conference in Mechanics, pages 111–114, Lausanne, 2010.

• Zobeiri A., Ausoni Ph., Avellan F., Farhat M., «Experimental investigation of the vortex shedding dynamic in

the wake of oblique and blunt trailing edge hydrofoils using PIV-POD method». Proceeding of 7th ASME Inter-

national Symposium on Fluid-Structure Interactions, Montreal, Canada, August 2010.

• Zobeiri A., Avellan F., Farhat M., «Physics behind vortex-induced vibration reduction using an oblique trailing

edge hydrofoil». 63rd Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics, Vol. 55, N° 16, USA, 2010.

• Zobeiri A., Ausoni Ph., Avellan F., Farhat M., «How oblique trailing edge of a hydrofoil reduces the vortex-

induced vibration». Submitted to Journal of Fluids and Structures, 2010.

• Ruchonnet N., «Multiscale Computational Methodology Applied to Hydroacoustic Resonance in Cavitating Pipe

Flow». EPFL Thesis N° 4778, 2010.

• Pannatier Y., Kawkabani B., Nicolet Ch., Simond J.-J., Schwery A., Allenbach Ph., «Investigation of Control

Strategies for Variable-Speed Pump-Turbine Units by Using a Simplifi ed Model of the Converters». IEEE

Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol. 57 N°9, 2010.

• Pannatier Y., Kawkabani B., Sari G., Simond J.-J., «Stability Studies of a Mixed Islanded Power Network with

Varspeed Units using Simplifi ed Models of the Converters». IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Vol

57, N° 9, September 2010.

• Müller M., Bremen L., Schleiss A.J., «Modellversuche zum Einfl uss von Pumpspeichersequenzen auf Strö-

mungsverhältnisse in einem quaderförmigen Becken». In: Weber, Fenrich, Gebler, Kramer & Noack (Eds) 12.

Treffen junger Wissenschafterinnen und Wissenschafter an Wasserbauinstituten, Stuttgart, Germany, August

11–14, 2010, Universität Stuttgart, Heft 193, pp. 72–78, 2010.

• Müller M., De Cesare G., Schleiss A.J., «Infl uence of pumped storage operation on fl ow conditions near

intake/outlet structures: in situ measurements using ADCP». In: Dittrich, Koll, Aeberle & Geisenhainer (Eds)

River Flow 2010, Braunschweig, Germany, September 8–10, 2010, pp. 1139–1145, 2010.

• Bonalumi M., Anselmetti F.S., Kägi R., Wüest A., «Particle dynamics in high-Alpine proglacial reservoirs modi-

fi ed by pump-storage operation». Submitted to Water Resources Research in 2010.


• Simrick N.J., Kilner J.A., Atkinson A., Rupp J.L.M., Ryll T.M., Bieberle-Hütter A., Galinski H., Gauckler L.J.,

«Micro-Fabrication of Patterned Cathodes with Gold Current Collectors». Solid State Ionics, in press 2010.

• Ryll T., Brunner A., Ellenbroeck S., Bieberle-Hütter A., Rupp J.L.M., Gauckler L.J., «Crystallization and electri-

cal conductivity of amorphous bismuth ruthenate thin fi lms deposited by spray pyrolysis». PCCP, in press

2010.

• Karageorgakisa N., Heel A., Bieberle-Hütter A., Rupp J.L.M., Graule T., Gauckler L.J., Journal of Power

Sources 195, 8152–8161, 2010.

• Lippert T., Wokaun A., Döbeli M., Rupp J.L.M., Scherrer B., Gauckler L.J., Journal of the European Ceramic

Society, 30 (2), 2010.

• Rupp J.L.M., Muecke U.P., Nalam P.C., Gauckler L.J., Journal of Power Sources 195 (9) 2669, 2010.

• Rey-Mermet S., Yan Y., Sandu C., Deng G., Muralt P., «Nanoporous YSZ fi lm in electrolyte membrane of micro

solid oxide fuel cell». Thin Solid Films, 4743–46, 2010.

• Rey-Mermet S., Yan Y., Sandu C., Deng G., Muralt P., «Nanoporous YSZ fi lm in electrolyte membrane of micro

solid oxide fuel cell». Thin Solid Films (2010) doi:10.1016/j.tsf.2009.12.073.

• Ryll T., Rupp J.L.M., Bieberle-Hütter A., Galinski H., Gauckler L.J., «Characterization of thin fi lms for solid

oxide fuel cells facilitated by micro-patterning». Submitted to Scripta Materialia (2010).

• Ryll T., Galinski H., Schlagenhauf L., Elser P., Schlupp M., Rupp J.L.M., Bieberle-Hütter A., Gauckler L.J.,

«Platinum thin fi lm electrodes on yttria stabilized zirconia: The role of microscopic and nanoscopic three

phase boundaries». Submitted 2010.

Publications

Appendix


• Galinski H., Ryll T., Elser P., Rupp J.l.M., Bieberle-Hütter A., Gauckler L.J., «Agglomeration of Pt Thin Films on

Dielectric Substrates». Submitted to Physical Review B (2010).

• Heiroth S., Lippert T., Wokaun A., Döbeli M., Rupp J.L.M., Scherrer B., Gauckler L.J., «Yttria-stabilized zirconia

thin fi lms by pulsed laser deposition: Microstructural and compositional control». J. of European Ceramic

Society, 30(2) 489–495, 2010.


• Fan B., Heier J., Castro F.A., Hany R., Nüesch F., «Org. Electronics». 11(4), 583–588, 2010.

• Fan B., Araujo de Castro F., Opris D., Hany R., Nüesch F., J. Mater. Chem., 20, 2952–2955, 2010.

• Parascandolo G., Bugnon G., Feltrin A., Ballif C., «High-rate deposition of microcrystalline silicon in a large-

area PECVD reactor and integration in tandem solar cells». Progress in Photovoltaics, 18, pp. 257–264,

2010.

• Bugnon G., Feltrin A., Bartlome R., Strahm B., Bronneberg A.C., Parascandolo G., Ballif C., «Microcrystalline

and micromorph device improvements through combined plasma and material characterization techniques».

Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells, 2010, in print.

• Parascandolo G., Bartlome R., Bugnon G., Söderström T., Strahm B., Feltrin A., Ballif C., «Impact of second-

ary gas-phase reactions on microcrystalline silicon solar cells deposited at high rate». Applied Physics Let-

ters, 96, 2010, in print (doi:10.1063/1.3449571).

• Legradic B., Howling A.A., Christoph C., «RF breakdown between structured parallel plate electrodes with a

millimetric gap in low pressure gases». Submitted to Physics of Plasmas, June 17, 2010.

ccem-retrofi t – Advanced Energy Effi cient Renovation of Buildings

• Daum D., Morel N., «Identifying important state variables for a blind controller». In Building and Environ-

ment, volume 45 number 4, pp. 887–900, 2010.

• Daum D., Morel N., «Assessing the total energy impact of manual and optimized blind control in combination

with different lighting schedules in a building simulation environment». In Journal of Building Performance

Simulation, volume 3 number 1, pp. 1–16, 2010.


Buildings». Status Report 9, ECBCS ExCo meeting, Copenhagen, DK, June 2010.


Buildings» Status Report 10, ECBCS ExCo meeting, Tokyo, J, November 2010.

• Daum D., Haldi F., Morel N., «A personalized measure of thermal comfort for building controls». Daum D.,

Haldi F., Morel N., in Building and Environment, article in press, 2010.

• Guillemin A., «Using genetic algorithms to take into account user wishes in an advanced building control

system». EPFL PhD thesis no 2778, available as a PDF fi le from http://library.epfl .ch/theses/?nr=2778.

• Wallbaum H., Jakob M., Heeren N., Toloumis Ch., «7-Meilenschritte – Wirkungsanalyse anhand des Gebäude-

parkmodells Stadt Zürich». ETH Zürich und TEP Energy i.A. Stadt Zürich, Amt für Hochbauten, Fachstelle

nachhaltiges Bauen, Zürich, Mai 2010.

• Wallbaum H., Jakob M., Heeren N., Gross N., Martius G., «Gebäudeparkmodell – Büro-, Schul- und Wohnge-

bäude – Vorstudie zur Erreichbarkeit der Ziele der 2000-Watt-Gesellschaft für den Gebäudepark der Stadt

Zürich». ETH Zürich und TEP Energy i.A. Stadt Zürich, Amt für Hochbauten, Fachstelle nachhaltiges Bauen,

Zürich, Mai 2010.

• Müller M.O., Ulli-Beer S., «Policy analysis for the transformation of Switzerland’s stock of buildings. A small

model approach». Proceedings of the 28th System Dynamics Conference, July 25–29, 2010, Seoul, South

Korea, online: http://www.systemdynamics.org/conferences/2010/proceed/index.html, December 14, 2010.

• Ulli-Beer S., Wokaun A., «Towards a methodical synthesis of innovation system modelling». In: Pickl S.,

Siegle M. (Ed), «Mastering complexity». Post-conference proceedings of the International Conference of

Operation Research, Munich, September 1st.3rd, 2010, Springer Dordrecht, Heidelberg, London, New York,

2010.

• Ulli-Beer S., Wokaun, A., «Towards a methodology for substantiating endogenous models on innovation

systems and induced energy technology change». Proceedings of the 28th System Dynamics Conference,

Appendix

Publications


Publications

July 25–29, 2010, Seoul, South Korea, online: http://www.systemdynamics.org/conferences/2010/proceed/

index.html, December 14, 2010.

• «CCEM Retrofi t – Nachhaltige Wohnbauerneuerung». Information Broschure for Swissbau, 2010.

ccem-house2000 – Innovative Building Technologies for the 2000 Watt Society

• Daum D., Morel N., «Identifying important state variables for a blind controller». Building and Environment,

volume 45 number 4, pp. 887-900, 2010.

• Daum D., Morel N., «Assessing the total energy impact of manual and optimized blind control in combina-

tion with different lighting schedules in a building simulation environment». Journal of Building Performance

Simulation, volume 3 number 1, pp. 1–16, 2010.

• Daum D., Morel N., «A personalized measure of thermal comfort for building controls». Building and Environ-

ment, article in press, 2010.

• Oldewurtel F., Parisio A., Jones C.N., Morari M., Gyalistras D., Gwerder M., Stauch V., Lehmann B., Wirth K.,

«Energy effi cient building climate control using stochastic Model Predictive Control and weather predictions».

Paper presented at the 2010 American Control Conference (ACC2010), Baltimore, Maryland, USA, June 30 –

July 2, 2010.

• Gwerder M., Gyalistras D., Oldewurtel F., Lehmann B., Wirth K., Stauch V., Tödtli J., «Potential assessment

of rule-based control for Integrated Room Automation». Paper presented at the 10th REHVA World Congress

Clima 2010, Antalya, Turkey, 8pp, May 9–12, 2010.

• Gyalistras D., Gwerder M., Oldewurtel F., Jones C.N., Morari M., Lehmann B., Wirth K., Stauch V., «Analysis

of energy savings potentials for Integrated Room Automation». Paper presented at the 10th REHVA World

Congress Clima 2010, Antalya, Turkey, 8pp, May 9–12, 2010.

• Oldewurtel F., Gyalistras D., Gwerder M., Jones C.N., Parisio A., Stauch V., Lehmann B., Morari M., «Increas-

ing energy effi ciency in building climate control using weather forecasts and Model Predictive Control». Paper

presented at the 10th REHVA World Congress Clima 2010, Antalya, Turkey, 8pp, May 9–12, 2010.

AQUASAR – Direct Re-use of Waste Heat from Liquid-Cooled Supercomputers

• Kasten P., Zimmermann S., Tiwari M.K., Michel B., Poulikakos D., «Hot Water Cooled Heat Sinks for Effi cient

Data Center Cooling: Towards Electronic Cooling with High Exergetic Utility». Frontiers in Heat and Mass

Transfer, 1 (2), 2010.

• Marcinichen J.B., Thome J.R., Michel B., «Cooling of Microprocessors with Micro-Evaporation: A Novel Two-

Phase Cooling Cycle». International Journal of Refrigeration, 33(7), 1264–1276, 2010.

• Zimmerman S., Tiwari M.K., Ott F., Michel B., Meijer I., Paredes S., Poulikakos D., «Experimental investiga-

tion of a hot water cooled heat sink for effi cient data center cooling: towards electronic cooling with high

exergetic utility». Proceedings of the 2nd European Conference on Microfl uidics, Toulouse, 2010.

• Marcinichen J.B., Thome J.R., «New Novel Green Computer Two-Phase Cooling Cycle: A Model for Its Steady-

State Simulation». Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Effi ciency, Cost, Optimization, Simu-

lation & Impact of Energy Systems (ECOS2010).


• Wirth K., «Climate Load Assessment». Final Report, Empa, Building Science and Technology Lab, June 2010.

• Stahl Th., Zimmermann M., Brunner S., «Wärmedämmputz». Empa-Medienmitteilung, Dezember 2010

• Zanetti I., Nagel K., «Concepts for solar integration development of technical and architectural guidelines for

solar system integration in historical buildings». Paper and poster EUPVSEC (Valencia), ISAAC-DACD-SUPSI),

2010.


Forum 2010, Bressanone.


2ndGenerationBiogas – New Pathways to Effi cient Use of Biomass for Power and Transportation

• Gassner M., «Process design methodology for thermochemical production of fuels from biomass. Application

to the production of Synthetic Natural Gas from lignocellulosic resources». Ph.D. thesis, EPFL, 2010.

• Schubert M., Regler J. W., Vogel F., «Continuous salt precipitation and separation from supercritical water.

Part 1: Type 1 salts». J. Supercritical Fluids 52 (1), 99–112, 2010.

• Schubert M., Regler J. W., Vogel F., «Continuous salt precipitation and separation from supercritical water.

Part 2: Type 2 salts and mixtures of two salts». J. Supercritical Fluids 52 (1), 113–124, 2010.

• Rabe S., Nachtegaal M., Ulrich T., Vogel F., «Towards Understanding Catalytic Reforming of Biomass in Super-

critical Water». Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (submitted), 2010.

SunChem – Bio-Synthetic Natural Gas from Microalgae

• Gassner M., Vogel F., Heyen G., Maréchal F., «Process design of SNG production by hydrothermal gasification

of waste biomass: Thermo-economic process modelling and integration». Accepted for publication after

minor modifi cations in Energy and Environmental Science, 2010.

• Gassner M., Vogel F., Heyen G., Maréchal F., «Process design of SNG production by hydrothermal gasification

of waste biomass: Process optimisation for selected substrates». Submitted for publication in Energy and

Environmental Science, 2010.

novatlantis – Sustainability at the ETH Domain – Promotion of Transdisciplinary Science

• Dos Santos Pinto M., Frei F., «Waldstadt Bremer – Vergleichsgebiete», September 2010.

• Kasemir B. et al., «Summary Report of the ISCN Symposium 2010 in Shanghai, China». Co-published by

Novatlantis, Tongji University, and the University of Luxembourg, Symposium Summary, ISCN Symposium

2010, July 27–28, 2010.

• Sioshansi F. P., «Swiss 2000 Watt society: A sustainable Energy». In «Energy Sustainability and the Environ-

ment: Technology, incentives and behavior». Elsevier Verlag USA, 2010.

• Stulz R. et al., «Leichter Leben – Auf dem Weg zu einer nachhaltigen Energiezukunft – am Beispiel der

2000-Watt-Gesellschaft». Novatlantis, sia, EnergieSchweiz, July 2010.

• Stulz R. et al., «Waldstadt Bremer – Strategische Ziele». September 2010.

• Alvarez R., Schlienger P., Weilenmann M., «Effect of Hybrid System Battery Performance on Determining CO2

Emissions of Hybrid Electric Vehicles in Real-World Conditions». Journal Energy Policy, 2010.


social behavioral norm building process». Technological Forecasting and Social Change, (resubmitted 2010).

• Bretschger L. et al., «How rich is the 2000 Watt Society?». Center of Economics Research at ETH Zurich,

2010.

• Müller M., Ulli-Beer S., Grösser S., «Identifi cation of Important Agents in Fragmented, Complex Social Sys-

tems». European Journal of the Operations Research Society, (resubmitted 2010).

• Ruiz de Castañeda Fleischmann C., «Public-Private Partnership as an instrument for the implementation

of hydrogen powered municipal vehicles». Masterthesis submitted to the University Fribourg, Switzerland,

2010.

• Schlienger P., «Wasserstoffantrieb – erste Zwischenbilanz», UmweltPerspektiven Februar 2010.

• Vollmer M.K., Walter S., Bond S.W., Soltic P., Röckmann T., «Molecular hydrogen (H2) emissions and their

isotopic signatures (H/D) from a motor vehicle: Implications on atmospheric H2». Atmospheric Chemistry

and Physics, 2010.

• Vogt U., Wagner G., Broenstrup A., Dimopoulos P., Gorbar M., Colombo P., «Improving the Properties of Ce-

ramic Foams by a Vacuum Infi ltration Process». Journal of the European Ceramic Society, 2010.

• Ulli-Beer S., Bosshardt M., Wokaun A., «Fleet dynamics». In: Wokaun A. et al (Ed.), «Transition to Hydro-

gen». Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK., (submitted) 2010.

• Ulli-Beer S., Wokaun A., «Towards a methodical synthesis of innovation system modelling». In: Pickl S.,

Siegle M. (Ed), «Mastering complexity». Post-conference proceedings of the International Conference of

Operation Research, Munich 2010, September 1–3. Springer Dordrecht, Heidelberg, London, New York,

(submitted) 2010.

Appendix

Publications


Publications


namics Review, 2010.

• Walter S., Bach C., Ulli-Beer S., Ruiz de Castaneda C., «Buchers Brennstoffzellen-Kehrmaschine als sozio-

technische Lernplattform: Die CityCat H2, ein wasserstoff-betriebenes Kompaktkehrfahrzeug, befi ndet sich

im Alltagstest». Kommunalmagazin Hauptbeitrag, Januar/Februar 2010.



• International Patent Application fi led by the end of 2006: PCT/CH2006/000679. The patent researching re-

vealed only 5 contradictory claims, which have been offi cially confuted from our side. Current status: Pending.

CEMTEC – Computational Engineering of Multi-Scale Transport in Small-Scale Surface Based Energy

Conversion

• Thampi K.R., McEvoy A.J., El-Roustom B., «Desensitized SOFC». International Patent Application No. PCT/

IB2008/050729.

• Hotz N., Poulikakos D., Studart A., Bieberle-Hütter A., Gauckler L.J., «Porous ceramic catalysts and methods

for their production and use». European Patent Application No: EP 08 012273.

• Stutz M.J., Stark W.J., Poulikakos D., «Method for starting up a fuel cell assembly». European Patent Applica-

tion No: EP 07012131, publication: 21.6.07.


• «Start of Combustion Detection». Applied by Schmauder & Partner AG in behalf of Empa (inventor: Thomas

Thurnheer) at the German Patent Offi ce with the number 102009027889.3 at July 21, 2009.


• Hotz N., Poulikakos D., Studart A., Bieberle-Hütter A., Gauckler L.J., «Porous ceramic catalysts and methods

for their production and use». European Patent Application No: EP 08 012273.

• Gauckler L.J., Beckel D., Mücke U.P., Müller P., Rupp J.L.M., «Verbund eines Dünnfi lms und eines Glaskera-

mischen Substrats als Miniaturisiertes Elektrochemisches Gerät». Publication date: 26.4.2007 (priority:

October 19, 2005).

• Gauckler L.J., Beckel D., Mücke U.P., Müller P., Rupp J.L.M., «Dünnfi lm und damit hergestelltes Verbundele-

ment». Publication date: 26.4.2007 (priority: October 19, 2005).

• Beckel D., Gauckler L.J., «Poröser keramischer Dünnfi lm». Publication date: 24.5.2007 (priority: 21.11.2005).

• Rey-Mermet S., Muralt P., Baborowski J., «Metallic supporting grid or thin electrolyte membrane in solid oxide

fuel cells». 2006: PCT/EP2006/069688 Priority: 12.2005 and extension to sensor, priority 12. 2006.

• Stutz M.J., Stark W.J., Poulikakos D., «Method for starting up a fuel cell assembly». European Patent Applica-

tion No: EP 07012131, publication: 21.6.2007.


• Kroll U., Legradic B., «Plasma Processing Apparatus and Method for the Plasma Processing of Substrates».

Patent WO/2009/133189 fi led April 2009.

• Fan B., Hany R., Nüesch F., «Multi layer organic thin fi lm solar cell». Patent application CH-01475/09.


• Stahl Th., European patent 2010 for moisture adaptive panels, Empa license agreement with industry partner.

WoodGas-SOFC – Integrated Biomass – Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Cogeneration

• Facchinetti M., Favrat D., Marechal F., «Sub-atmospheric Hybrid cycle SOFC-Gas Turbine with CO2 separation».

Submitted patent June 2009.

SunChem – Bio-Synthetic Natural Gas from Microalgae

• Gassner M., Vogel F., Maréchal F., «A process and a plant for hydrothermal SNG production from waste bio-

mass». Patent 2010P10758EP, pending, 2010.

Patents

Appendix

Contact

Competence Center Energy and Mobility CCEMc/o Paul Scherrer Institute5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland

Phone: +41 56 310 2111Fax: +41 56 310 2717

E-mail: [email protected]: www.ccem.ch

Dr. Philipp Dietrich, Managing DirectorPhone: +41 56 310 4573E-mail: [email protected]

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