20 NEWS BRIEFING

Superconductive
cable reduces
the number of
transformer
stations needed
by 40 per cent

the cooling station through the

outer channel and returns back
through the inner path,”
Sauerbach explained. “That’s
2km to complete the circle there
and back to the cooling station,
after which the liquid nitrogen
returns 3-5K warmer than when
it left. About 2.5m3 of liquid
hydrogen are circulating inside
the cable at any given time.”
High-temperature
superconductors achieve
superconductive properties at
ENERGY around -200°C. Before the

FIRST SUPERCONDUCTOR discovery of the first HTS in the

1980s, it was thought

INTEGRATED INTO URBAN GRID superconductivity could only

exist near absolute zero (-273°C).

‘WORKS WITHOUT A HITCH’ The discovery of HTS by

BY TEREZA PULTAROVA “During the first 180 days, the
AmpaCity cable performed with
THE WORLD’S LONGEST 100 per cent reliability and we
superconductive cable and the hope that when we complete two
first to have been integrated into years of testing, it will be
an urban electricity grid has around 99.9 per cent,” said
celebrated six months of Frank Merschel, project
flawless operations. manager for new technologies at
Part of the AmpaCity project, German utility company RWE,
the 1km-long 10kV high- which runs the grid in Essen.
temperature superconductive During the first six months,
(HTS) cable was built into the the project partners, including
inner city grid in Essen, RWE, cable manufacturer
Germany, at the end of April Nexans and the Karlsruhe
2014. Institute of Technology,
Replacing a ten-times thicker encountered surprisingly few
110kV copper cable, the 15cm problems.
diameter ceramic-based “We had to switch off the
superconductor does not only cable only once for a very short
transmit as much electricity as time during the first 180 days of
its predecessor, but also enables operation,” said Oliver
simplification of the city grid Sauerbach, RWE’s head of grid
scheme, reducing the number of planning in the Ruhr region. “It
transformer stations required was during the power outages
by 40 per cent. caused by the Ela storm, which
disabled the cooling system of
the superconductor. However,
the data later showed we could
have left it on as the temperature
wasn’t rising that fast.”
The cable, made of three
layers of bismuth strontium
calcium copper oxide, is cooled
down to -207°C to achieve the
superconductive state, which
eliminates electrical resistance
allowing for 100 per cent
efficient energy transmission.
The 15cm diameter cable,
developed by Nexans, includes
an inner and outer channel
through which liquid nitrogen
flows providing efficient
cooling. The structure is
insulated from its outer shell by
a layer of vacuum to prevent
thermal energy transfer to the
surrounding environment.
“The liquid nitrogen flows
through the 1km-long cable from
German scientists Georg
Bednorz and Alex Müller in
1987 opened new possibilities
for the practical use of
superconductivity as it allowed
using the cheaper and quite
easily storable liquid nitrogen
as a coolant instead of helium
needed to achieve absolute zero.
According to Frank Schmidt,
head of Nexans’ Superconductor
Division, the cost of the
superconductive cable was only
twice as high as that of a
similarly powerful copper cable.
The whole system, Nexans said,
can perform more efficiently
than a conventional one,
reducing operational cost by
€10m over a 40-year lifetime.
“With a copper cable system
with all its transformer
stations, twice as much
energy is lost than we need
to power the cooling system
of the superconductive
cable,” Schmidt said.

TRANSPORT
SOLAR POWER TO IMPROVE HYDROGEN FUEL CELL CARS’ CARBON FOOTPRINT
BY TEREZA PULTAROVA is an expansion of an existing Hydrogen fuel cell cars range of applications.”
site opened in Swindon in 2011. can be refuelled in as In addition to being
THE FIRST commercial-scale “This enhancement to our little as five minutes emission-free, hydrogen fuel
refuelling station using solar refuelling station positions this cell cars can be refuelled in as
energy to drive electrolysis to facility as the best in class in the little as five minutes – a major
produce hydrogen for fuel cell UK,” said Nick Rolf, innovation advantage over the more
cars has been launched in manager for hydrogen systems popular electric vehicles and
Swindon. at BOC, a member of the Linde their charging times. However,
Taking sustainability to the Group.“No other facility in the the technology is deemed less
next level, the station, located at UK has the capacity to refuel viable by many due to its high
Honda’s UK manufacturing site, vehicles with green high purity cost and the fact that the
will produce clean and hydrogen on a commercial cheapest way to produce
renewable hydrogen using scale.” aligned with Honda Motor’s hydrogen is from natural gas,
clean and renewable power, Honda, hosting the Environmental Vision,” said which diminishes the overall
minimising the overall carbon refuelling station at its site, is Jason Smith, director of UK environmental benefit.
footprint of fuel cell cars. a pioneer in fuel-cell vehicle manufacturing at Honda. The UK government
A joint project of several technology. The company “Through this project we, as a outlined its intentions to boost
technology companies started commercial production consortium, have made great development of infrastructure
including Honda, Fuel Cell of its hydrogen-powered advances in proving the for hydrogen fuel cell
Systems, Revolve Technologies FCX Clarity model in 2007. commercial viability of truly powered cars in October
NEXANS

and the Linde Group, the facility “This project is absolutely green hydrogen for a wide with a £11m pool of funding.

Engineering & Technology December 2014 www.EandTmagazine.com