Competitive and sustainable growth

6 Contribution to Community Social Objectives

6.1 Employment, education and training, working conditions

The key objective of the virtual institute is to ensure that up-to-date and appropriate temperature and thermophysical properties information and expertise is readily available and easily accessible to European industrial and research organisations, in particular SMEs, in order to increase the skills level of their technical staff and to improve the organisations’ products and processes and thereby increase their industrial competitiveness. This objective and the fact that thermal metrology finds application in most industrial sectors including aerospace, engineering, food and related materials, combustion, construction, materials manufacture and medical gives a clear indication that EVITherM has the potential to make a considerable impact on the skills level of the European workforce and on the subsequent quality of products and competitiveness of industry.

In today’s information technology-led society the Internet is playing an increasingly important part in most walks of life. This is certainly true of education and training and it is expected to be particularly significant in future with respect to these areas in industry because of the need for instant information and the pressure on employers to maximise the output and efficiency of their employees.
The need for instant information and technical data and the difficulty of identifying the most appropriate source of this often results in the use of unqualified or inappropriate information to the detriment of end-product performance or suitability for the intended task. This results in increased scrap rates or poor products and therefore higher per-unit costs and business lost to more efficient competitors. In extreme cases the use of unsuitable data, for example in the design of highly stressed components used in aero engines, could result in failure of the product in service with potentially catastrophic results to users.
The need to continually reduce costs and improve the output and efficiency of the workforce can sometimes mean that time spent away from an organisation for training is relegated to the ‘not essential’ list of activities by the employer. This shortsighted approach is common in industry and leads to the skill levels of the employees falling to such low levels that it impacts on the quality and performance of the company’s products.
EVITherM is expected to make considerable improvements to both these situations. It will achieve this by establishing itself as a focal point for information and knowledge transfer for European organisations working in the thermal metrology field and will use the Internet as the primary communication medium for this activity. It will provide the latest information on measurement techniques, standards, thermal properties and best practice and provide a forum for the interchange of ideas and technology between members. Where appropriate, the information will be qualified by experts in the field (EVITherM members) and guidance given on its suitability and use. The EVITherM website will be set up so that it is easily searchable from the perspective of an industrial user, making it possible for any organisation to quickly identify the information that they need and to be confident that it is appropriate for the intended task. The result is that instant data could become a reality and 24-hour per day availability of information from any computer terminal would enable more organisations, especially SMEs, to be able to take full advantage of the available expertise without compromising the efficiency of their operation. To ensure that SMEs do in fact see EVITherM membership as a cost-effective and worthwhile activity the business plan will develop a fee structure that is particularly favourable for such organisations. This fee structure will naturally be reviewed during years 2 and 3 of the project and revised, if necessary, according to market feedback from SMEs.

6.2 Environment

Thermal technology plays an ever-important part in preserving and enhancing the environment we all live in. This includes both the external and internal environments and impacts on issues such as global warming and air quality. It is also becoming increasingly apparent that the quality and health of the environment cannot be separated from human activity. This is especially true in relation to activities related to the burning of fossil fuels for domestic, commercial and industrial purposes. It should therefore be no surprise that thermal technology plays its biggest role in preserving and enhancing the environment by developing improved methods and measurement techniques to facilitate more efficient and less polluting combustion processes, to produce more effective insulation products for domestic and industrial use and to improve the energy efficiency of industrial processes that are heavy energy users. Some examples are:

Energy efficiency standards for residential and commercial buildings – The traditional energy generation cycle in most industrialised countries is based on the combustion of fossil fuels to generate electricity which is then used to power ventilation systems, lighting, air conditioners and dehumidifiers and a wide variety of other equipment for buildings. Nearly half the energy use in these countries is due to buildings, with half of it used for heating and cooling and overall about 10% of the world's energy consumption is used for air-conditioning! Redesigning buildings, and eventually our cities, to use current best practice in energy conservation and insulation could potentially halve their energy usage and hence greenhouse gas emissions, and running costs.
Advanced cooling, heating, and power (CHP) systems are examples of how thermal technology can make a positive impact on the environment. These use waste heat to cool and heat buildings, significantly increasing system efficiency from around 33%, typical for a conventional system, to as high as 80% for a cooling, heating, and power system. About 7% of U.S. electricity is currently provided by CHP systems and, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, CHP systems could reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25 million tonnes of carbon dioxide if goals to double U.S. installed capacity by 2010 were met. CHP systems can also improve indoor air quality since they can provide better humidity control than conventional systems and hence reduce the potential for growth of moulds and bacteria.
Combustion Technology – Many thermal energy conversion processes, even at "world best practice", are not very energy efficient and produce unnecessarily high emissions in domestic, commercial and industrial applications. Advances in thermal processes and techniques can play a significant role improving this situation. Pulsating combustion technology is one such way, offering reduced energy consumption, pollution and greenhouse emissions. Examples of its application include:
Cooling - pulse-combustion absorption refrigeration could reduce emissions by 70% over existing technologies, and by 47% over the newer proposed fossil fuel fired electric generation systems with reverse-cycle refrigeration systems, the latter being the main cooling technology in use today.
Calcining - pulse-combustion-fired calcining kilns would reduce CO₂ emissions and energy use per unit of product by up to 50%. They may also eliminate dust problems.
Spray drying - pulse combustion can provide the atomisation process as well as provide the heat for the rapid drying of many materials including heat sensitive ones. CO₂ emissions can be lowered by between 15 and 30%.
Fluidised beds - in the case of heating fluidised beds, pulse combustion can reduce the greenhouse gas emissions between 20 and 60%.
Process Heat Transfer Fluids - pulse-combustion systems can be used in heat transfer processes and produce steam with thermal efficiencies of 90-95 % and with 10-20% less CO₂ emitted
Global warming - The market for energy technologies, in particular for power generation technologies, is huge and demand for electricity is expected to grow worldwide at an annual rate of 2.3% over the next 20 years. This is equivalent to building a new 250 MW power plant every 3 days during this period, not accounting for replacement of existing power capacity. The EU total CO₂ emissions (1000t of CO₂) has increased from around 3.09M to 3.26M (+5.5%) in the period from 1985 to 1996, with road transport and conventional thermal power accounting for around 50% of total carbon emission. The ever increasing demand for electricity and use of motor vehicles and the equally pressing need to reduce CO₂ emissions to control global warming make this a critically important issue for the world and one where use of advanced thermal processes and techniques could play a significant role in achieving solutions to these problems.
In addition, advanced thermal metrology is required to enable measurement of the very small climatic temperature changes that are needed to quantify the extent of global warming and to enable accurate predictions of its impact on the environment. The accuracy of these temperature measurements influences major political decisions leading to the formulation of environmental protection policies and the commitment of billions of Euros worth of effort.
In summary, thermal technology plays an important role in developing solutions to the above and many other environmental issues. EVITherM will provide the mechanisms and infrastructure to make dissemination of advanced thermal technology and expertise possible and is therefore expected to play an important role in preserving and enhancing the environment.