Pictures of the Future Fall 2007
Materials for the Environment
In Brief
? Materials research is undergoing a revolution. Nanotechnology is opening the door to a host of innovative materials with completely new properties
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? New materials make it possible to generate, transmit and use energy more efficiently. Special coatings protect the blades in gas and steam turbines against heat and corrosion. This enables higher operating temperatures and thus higher efficiencies. Fuel consumption and environmental impact are both cut as a result. The goal is to introduce combined cycle power plants in 2011 that will use more than 60 % of the energy in gas. The world’s most powerful gas turbine, which will start test operation in Irsching, Germany, this year, will produce enough electricity to power the households in a city the size of Hamburg more at Optimizing Turbine Blades and Unmatched Efficiency
? In the lighting sector, the focus is also on further cutting power consumption, eliminating pollutants, and increasing lamps’ service life. Mercury-free LEDs are particularly environmentally friendly, consume little electricity, and last up to 50 times longer than incandescent lamps more
? Siemens is the world’s leading supplier of offshore wind power systems. In 2008, the company will install the world’s largest such wind farm off England’s east coast. The facility will supply up to 180 MW of environmentally-friendly electricity from 54 turbines. Siemens’ one-piece rotor blades are extremely robust and up to 90-% recyclable more
? Advanced technology can cut energy consumption by planes, ships, cars, and trains. Siemens continuously improves vehicles by using lightweight engineering, better drive systems, and, in many cases, new materials. Improved energy storage systems also make regenerative braking an increasingly attractive option more at Transportation and Energy Storage
? Bioplastics from bacteria should also make electronic products more environmentally compatible in the future more
PEOPLE
Nanotechnology / materials in general
Dr. Thomas Grandke, CT MM
thomas.grandke@siemens.com
Nanotechnology, NanoBase project
Dr. Jens Dahl Jensen, CT MM
jensdahl.jensen@siemens.com
Turbine blade coatings
Dr. Werner Stamm, PG
werner.stamm@siemens.com
Coal-fired steam power plants
Dr. Ernst-Wilhelm Pfitzinger, PG
ernst-wilhelm.pfitzinger@siemens.com
Ceramic heat shields, CHS
Dr. Holger Grote, PG
holger.grote@siemens.com
World’s largest gas turbine
Hans-Otto Rohwer, PG
hans-otto.rohwer@siemens.com
Green PC, Fujitsu Siemens Computers
Hans-Georg Riegler-Rittner, FSC
hans-georg.riegler-rittner@fujitsu-siemens.com
Green circuit boards
Dr. Peter Demmer, CT MM
peter.demmer@ siemens.com
Bioplastics, BioFun project
Reinhard Kleinert, CT MM
reinhard.kleinert@siemens.com
Wind power plants
Henrik Stiesdal, PG, Dänemark
henrik.stiesdal@siemens.com
Lighting systems, Osram
Dr. Steffen Köhler, Osram
steffen.koehler@osram-os.com
Christian Wittig, Osram c.wittig@osram.com
Pollutant analysis, analytical laboratory
Dr. Helmut Oppolzer, CT MM
helmut.oppolzer@siemens.com
Metro Oslo, lifecycle assessment
Dr. Joachim Pargfrieder, TS Österreich
joachim.pargfrieder@siemens.com
Syntegra, drive systems for trains
Dr. Lars Löwenstein, TS
lars.loewenstein@siemens.com
LINKS
The EU’s Joint Research Center www.jrc.ec.europa.eu
U.S. National Academy of Engineering www.nae.edu
