New turbine generator is an important component in the fight against climat
Innovative research project by DEPRAG sends a signal:
Generating electricity from small amounts of process gas
Time is pressing. Global temperatures have been rising unrelentingly for 30 years. Experts expect 2010 to set a new temperature record, since weather records began. The continued growth in the number of extreme natural disasters speaks clearly. At the climate summit in Cancun, the world community took a small step forward and officially set a limit for global warming to a maximum of two degrees Celsius. In the European Union, there are efforts under way to reduce emissions of the climate killer CO2 by 2020 not just by 20 percent, but by 30 percent, and to make this a binding target. Research and industry are called upon to draw up and implement innovative climate protection projects.
There are a variety of different approaches. Many industrial processes release and waste surplus energy. The recovery of untapped energy potential is therefore a crucial part of the fight against global warming. An ambitious energy recovery research project, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology under a resolution by the Deutsche Bundestag (Germany’s parliament), is soon to start production at DEPRAG SCHULZ GMBH & CO. Managing Director Dr. Eng. Rolf Pfeiffer explains the underlying concept: “In many industrial processes, process gas escapes unused into the atmosphere. Our basic idea was to tap these gases for the further generation of energy.” Energy recovery from process gases, however, is not a new concept. Rolf Pfeiffer: “What is new with our development is that it enables the conversion of even small amounts of residual energy in the range of 5 to 20 kilowatts into electricity using a small, compact and decentralised energy recovery unit.”
As a result of the extensive research, the first prototypes of the innovative DEPRAG turbine generator are now finished in the development lab. The patent has been registered; test series with the prototypes have been successfully concluded. Dr. Eng. Rolf Pfeiffer says: “We can now go into production with our product and are looking for partners who want to use this innovative system for energy recovery in their facilities. Our recovery system can be used in a variety of applications to convert process gases into electricity or even to utilise unused surplus heat.”
In the initial studies, the DEPRAG team under development manager Gerd Zinn determined that the new energy recovery system should be a small, simple, and robust system for
