Although software products are immaterial goods, their use can bring about significant materials and energy flows. Software characteristics determine which hardware capacities are made available and how much electric energy is used by end-user devices, networks, and data centers. The connection between software characteristics and the demand for natural resources caused by the manufacture and use of ICT systems has been the object of little scientific study to date. The present study breaks new ground by exploring the effects of software on the indirect use of natural resources by hardware. The study identifies starting points in the realm of software that can contribute to conserving natural resources or at least to slowing further growth of their use by ICT systems. Veröffentlicht in Texte | 23/2015.
Das Projekt "Stand-alone PV and wind power in Freiburg" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Landesgartenschau Freiburg durchgeführt. Objective: To demonstrate that pv and wind generators can be used in a reliable way as stand-alone power supplies for various applications. The pv generator is used to power an Information Pavilion at an exhibition centre in Freiburg where technology transfer can be supported by the nearby Fraunhofer Institute. PV and wind powered water pumping are also being demonstrated in the exhibition centre. General Information: PV and wind power projects are installed as part of the Landesgartenschau Freiburg 1986 exhibition in Freiburg, to demonstrate that such systems are reliable and easy to install and operate. The water pumping system consists of two KSB Aquasol 50 L pumps with electronically commutated dc motors which are powered by 45 pv modules in 9 strings of 5 modules (rated array power 1710 Wp) and a wind generator rated at 600 W. The combined generator is connected to a battery bank operating in two strings at 64 V, 175 Ah capacity each to give 10 hours of continuous water pumping per day. The PV array is mounted on a 10 m mast, on the top of which is mounted a 12 bladed American wind generator. A reserve pump safeguards against stoppages due to pump failure. COST in ECU: actual 1990-re-build estimata PV components 30460 16100 Batteries 6479 6479 Conventional components 12862 12862 Construction 40300 25900 Project management 16800 7200 Total(for 1730 Wp system) 106901 68541 Cost per peak Watt (ECU/pW 62 40 Data were monitored in accordance with JRC Ispra Monitoring Guidelines. Readings were taken every two seconds and recorded by a data logger. A IBM-PC was used to read the memories and calculate the energy flow. Achievements: The system started operation as foreseen for the opening of the State Garden Show on April 18th, 1986 and operated on a manual basis until September 1986. In October 1986 the two years monitoring phase started and the system operated under automatic control. The monitoring data were sent to CCR/Ispra and were analysed there. During this two-year period 3401 kWh pv power were produced. For comparison: A rule of thumb says, that in central Europe a plant produces in the average the energy corresponding to the rated peak power multiplied by 10 per cent of the time. This rule would give for this 1.73 kW plant in 0.1-2x365x24 hours an energy of: 3031 kWh. Both pumps had to be replaced during the two year operation, one for electrical, the other one for sealing problems; they work without problems since the replacement. The data acquisition system worked perfectly. Concerning reliability of such a system, for instance for water supply in developing countries, it can be said, that skilled technical maintenance must be available, especially for the electronic regulation and the pumps. However technical simplifications could be applied to improve the reliability. Prime Contractor: Landesgartenschau Freiburg; Freiburg; Germany.
Das Projekt "Ein Beitrag zur Oekologie des Tiefbeckens des Weissen Meeres" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Stiftung Alfred-Wegener-Institut für Polar- und Meeresforschung e.V. (AWI) durchgeführt. General Information: The deep water ecosystem of the White Sea is exposed to perennial Arctic water temperatures and covered by winter sea ice. It will be studied as an example of Arctic seas emphasizing the relationships between the different sub-systems (coupling of ice biota, pelagos and benthos) and focussing on the question, how a presumably oligotrophic deep water fauna is sustained and regulated by input of particulate organic matter during the limited productive season. For this, the whole biotic system will be analysed from spring till autumn (primary producers including ice-algae, pelagic consumers including remineralising micro-organisms, larger copepods and near-bottom zooplankton, and the main macro-and meio-benthos groups). Oceanographic conditions and plant nutrients will be monitored, and the vertical particle flux be measured by short and longer term exposures of sediment traps. Benthic responses to food input will be investigated by life cycle analyses (e.g. gonad maturation, spawning and spat fall of macrofauna), composition of the meiofauna (e.g. dominances of different feeding types) and also changes in diversity patterns. The overall benthic respiration (oxygen uptake rates) will be obtained from sediment core incubations, which will allow estimates of remineralisation activities of the bulk small fauna and micro-organisms. From these measurements and consumption estimates of the larger animals from their biomass and laboratory/literature data about metabolic rates, benthic budgets of energy flow will be derived. The benthic demands will be compared with the data obtained about primary production, pelagic consumption and from the vertical fluxes estimated by the sediment trap exposures. As the White Sea is well accessable even during winter, additional studies (e.g. on ice organisms and on winter metabolism of selected bottom fauna) are intended to better understand biological activities during the non-productive season. Such data as well as investigations of the entire ecosystem during the whole productive season are lacking for Arctic seas, for which the Deep water White Sea system will be regarded as a model. Prime Contractor: Alfred Wegener Institut for Polar and Marine Research, Sektion Biology I, Arctic Benthos Ecology Group; Bremerhaven; Germany.
Das Projekt "The role of sympagic meiofauna for the flow of organic matter and energy in the Antarctic and Arctic sea-ice foodwebs" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Kiel, Institut für Polarökologie durchgeführt. The brine channels in sea ice (Fig. 1) of both polar regions are the habitat of sympagic (ice-associated) bacteria, algae, protozoans and small metazoans greater than 20 mym (meiofauna, Fig. 2), including copepods, plathyelminthes, rotifers, nematodes, cnidarians, nudibranchs and ctenophores. Primary production of sympagic algae forms the basis of the sea-ice food web, which is coupled to the pelagic ecosystem and higher trophic levels. The overall objective of this project is to reveal the qualitative and quantitative role of sympagic meiofauna for the flow of organic matter and energy in the Antarctic and Arctic sea-ice foodwebs. The major focus is on sympagic meiofauna because this group could, due to in part very high abundances, play an important role within the sea-ice ecosystem. Moreover, since sympagic metazoans are a food source for higher trophic levels (e.g. larger zooplankton, fish), they probably occupy a key position in coupling processes between the sea ice and pelagic ecosystems. Sympagic meiofauna can thus be supposed to significantly contribute to the flow of organic matter and energy in polar marine food webs. In spite of this, little information on the feeding ecology of this group is available as yet.
Das Projekt "Ocean Energy Web-GIS" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Fraunhofer-Institut für Windenergie und Energiesystemtechnik (IWES) - Institutsteil Kassel durchgeführt. Das Ziel dieses Projekts ist das Design und die Implementierung eines interaktiven, webbasierten GIS (Geographisches Informationssystem) auf der OES-Homepage. Der Zweck dieser Anwendung ist es, interessierten Webseitenbesuchern detaillierte und weltweite Informationen mit Bezug zu Meeresenergien in Form einer optisch eindrucksvollen Kartenanwendung zu liefern. Die verfügbaren Informationen umfassen Meeresenergieanlagen, -Ressourcen und -Infrastruktur sowie weitere relevante geopolitische und geographische Informationen, allesamt dargestellt in Verbindung mit ihrem jeweiligen Standort bzw. Ausdehnung bzw. Verteilung auf einer weltweiten Karte.
Das Projekt "Polymeric meat exchangers for heat recovery of sour coal refuse combustion gases and hot water utilization at 80-120 deg. C" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von GEA Luftkühlergesellschaft Happel, Hauptabteilung Forschung und Entwicklung durchgeführt. Objective: - Recovery of waste energy, presently destroyed in a FGD or in the atmosphere, shall be demonstrated with the use of modern heat exchangers. - With the selected combination of cost-optimized polymeric materials, the region of widely encountered heat exchanger wall temperatures of less than abt. 150 deg. C shall be utilized economically to produce hot water up to abt. 120 deg. C and to allow heating of gas using zero-leckage recuperative systems. - Acid condensation on the heat exchangers shall be provoked (low pollution) and withstood over a long service life. Disadvantages of the materials PFA and PTFE shall be avoided. Service life is compared with different materials by applications made in parallel and purposely performed secondary tests. General Information: - Suitability of novel polymeric material combinations compared with single-wall polymeric materials will be demonstrated. - Waste hot flue gases from coal fired stations/refuse incinerators are cooled down to a region where acids would condense for the purpose of energy recovery and reduction of environmental pollution. The recovered energy is introduced operationally safe into a cleaned gas flow. - In a Munich power station the flue gas that was cleaned to a low SO2/m3 level before is heated up with flue gas energy without the use of operation steam and without transferring acid-containing ashes. - Individual operation parameters of the heat exchangers and of each cycle can be seen from Flow Sheet 33 99 0528 01 Rev.1. For the purposely performed secondary tests two recuperative heat exchangers of an adjacent plant operating purely as refuse incinerator are used. - The flow sheet 'GEA DAGAVO for FGD', is an example for a conventional clean gas heating system with steam at 10 bar. - In order to achieve a global market introduction of energy saving heat exchanger systems with tubes made of polymeric materials, the following properties of the various tube materials shall be successfully demonstrated. 1. FLUE GAS - Price/performance ratio/service life of, for instance, a PVDF/FEP tube wall = 150 C wall temperature was to be inferior to that of solid-wall PTFE tubes. While both the tested combinations/the pure PTFE tubes do not exhibit a sufficiently safe operation, the PFA tube with advanced QA parameters are complying with the requirements. - The problems of frequent failures on PTFE tubes shall be reduced towards zero by applying novel fabrication, quality assurance procedures of the compound material tubes. Characteristic data for e.g. 160 C PFA/PTFE tube wall temperature should be superior to the solid-wall PFA tubes exposed to similar stress. However, it emerged that optimized PFA tubes used in this programme performed best. Inappropriate behaviour of unsuitable PFA tubes was demonstrated. And by way of the improved QA programme used, this malfunction could be detected at a very early stage before the tubes were actually installed in the heat exchangers. This required...
Das Projekt "Two blade propeller turbine suspended under a barge using kinetic energy of river flows" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Bodan-Werft Metallbau durchgeführt. Objective: To demonstrate how a two bladed propellor turbine suspended under a barge can exploit the kinetic energy of a river to produce electricity. General Information: The barge will be moored in the river and the kinetic energy of the river used to drive the propellor turbine, thus eliminating the need for expensive civil works. It is expected that the main application would be to supply local communities not connected to the national grid system, particularly in developing countries. A further advantage of the scheme is that, unlike conventional hydro systems, it can be very easily replicated. Initially a suction tube to concentrate water flow was envisaged, but this has now been omitted as it became apparent that it was only of advantage in very deep rivers. Suitable control mechanisms are being investigated to match the requirement for constant generator speed to variable river flow rates. Head 0 metres River velocity 2-3 m/second Turbine propellor (1. 44 metres diameter) Turbine power 40 kW Generator synchronous End-use isolated system Achievements: The apparatus proved very successful concerning manufacture, transport, sea-going quality (local velocity of current up to 4 m/s were tested). stability with propeller swung up. Propeller support with lifting device and foundations for gears and generator. The two-bladed propeller could cope well with stripping off driftage. The chain (L approx. 2,8 m) is extremely suitable for the transmission of the high torque and can be adapted to suit power output. Fluctuations during the turning moment probably caused by vibrations of the chain can be reduced by baffle rods. Presumably turbulences around the 'suction pipe' contribute to the fluctuations. These turbulences could possibly be avoided or at least reduced by the profiling of the 'suction pipe' on the descending current side. By means of the demonstration model it can be proved that, in principle, the system functions. In case of a series production the control system must be improved appropriately. The turning moments left of the optimum of the moment curves, plotted against the rotations per minute, could not be determined, as the propeller dragged in the optimum area and either came to a stand-still or operated right of the optimum. Operation costs were estimated at approx. 7,5 per cent of the investment expenses, whereby it was assumed that paint work would have to be done every 3-4 years. The operation expenses could be brought down under good water conditions. The efficiency of the propeller could be maintained by regular cleaning. (Slight roughness caused by marine fouling causes a loss of up to 20 per cent). Whereas the entire floating body and the main parts of the machinery and the transmission have been developed for quantity production, the control system must still be further developed in this respect. The presumable service life is estimated to be approx. 15 years. The power output depends very strongly upon the flow...
Das Projekt "Exzellenzcluster 80 (EXC): Ozean der Zukunft" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Kiel, Institut für Ökosystemforschung, Abteilung Polarökologie durchgeführt. Sea temperature is a major environmental factor controlling the distribution and metabolism of benthic organisms. It is well established that cold-water species from both deepsea and polar regions are adapted to low ambient temperatures but mostly exhibit a rather narrow physiological temperature tolerance (Clarke & Fraser 2004). Hence, even small changes in temperature are likely to have a large effect on the metabolism of those species and, at a community level, might alter the partitioning of the benthic carbon and energy flow pattern at a community level (Piepenburg et al. 1996). Moreover, as climate change will not only lead to a pronounced temperature rise but also to a significant decrease in pH (ocean acidification) and, at local scales, salinity (e.g., the temperatureinduced freshwater release), the synergetic impacts of these interacting abiotic parameters on one or a few leverage species are expected to cause sweeping community-level changes (Harley et al. 2006). As such shifts are difficult to study and predict at this level, particularly in remote cold-water environments, we propose to start with examining the short-term response (at a level of hours to days) of the metabolism of benthic organisms to changes in temperature, salinity and pH, combining an experimental approach and a small-scale field study.
Das Projekt "Nutzung der Meeresenergie in Deutschland" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Ecofys Germany GmbH - Niederlassung Berlin durchgeführt. Die Studie aus dem Jahr 2010 verfolgte das Ziel, die Grundlage für eine Neubewertung der Möglichkeiten zur Nutzung der Meeresenergie in Deutschland zu schaffen und die Bundesregierung damit hinsichtlich einer zukünftigen Förderungspraxis zu beraten. Der erste Teil der Studie umfasste die Bestimmung der Potentiale zur Nutzung der Meeresenergie in der deutschen Nord- und Ostsee. Ausgehend von einer detaillierten Recherche des weltweiten Stands der Technik und aktuellen Projekten zur Nutzung von Energie aus Strömung, Wellen, Gezeiten, Salz- und Temperaturgradienten wurde für jede dieser Energieformen das technische Potential in Deutschland bestimmt. Außerdem wurde eine Branchenumfrage unter deutschen Firmen und Experten mit Interesse an der Nutzung der Meeresenergie durchgeführt. Damit wurden die Möglichkeiten des Exports deutscher Meeresenergie-Technologie ins Ausland bewertet. Der dritte Teil der Studie umfasst eine detaillierte Analyse des deutschen Rechts- und Genehmigungsrahmens mit besonderem Fokus auf mögliche Barrieren zur Nutzung der Meeresenergie. Die Studienergebnisse bestätigten, dass das theoretische Potential für die Nutzung der Meeresenergie in Deutschland sowohl im Vergleich zu anderen Standorten auf der Welt als auch mit Blick auf die deutschen Ziele für den Ausbau der Erneuerbaren Energien zur Stromerzeugung gering ist. Allein das Potential des Tidenhubs, der Wellen- und der Strömungsenergie scheint an einzelnen Standorten kleinere Anwendungen zur Erprobung von Technologien möglich zu machen.
Das Projekt "Teilprojekt 2.4: Steuerung von Flottillenkraftwerken" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von D-I-E Elektro AG durchgeführt. Ziel des Teilprojekts ist die Entwicklung der Steuerungskomponente, Fernüberwachung/-wartung, Einspeisung und Verschaltung der Flottillenkraftwerke. Hauptaugenmerk dieser Technologieentwicklung liegt auf der adaptiven Verschaltung und Steuerung der Einzelanlagen zu einer Gesamtanlage, unabhängig von der der Anzahl der Einzelwasserkraftanlagen. AP 2.4.1 - Anforderungsanalyse und Einsatzbedingungen für die Steuerungskomponente eines Flottillenkraftwerkes (M1 - M3) AP 2.4.2 - Entwicklung eines adaptiven generischen Steuerungsmoduls (M3 - M7) AP 2.4.3 - Konzeptentwicklung einer wirtschaftlichen Gesamtanlagensteuerung (M6-M12) AP 2.4.4 - Labortechnische Feldversuche (M11-M17) AP 2.4.5 - Entwicklung und Umsetzung - Ferndiagnose und Fehlersteuerung (M16-M20) AP 2.4.6 - Konzeptentwicklung zur dezentralen Einspeisung in das öffentliche Netz von elektrischer Energie variabler Quantität (M21-M25) AP 2.4.7 - Evaluation des Systems (M24-M33) AP 2.4.8 - Abschlussanalyse und Optimierung des Steuerungsmoduls (M31-M35) AP 2.4.9 - Evaluierung der elektrotechnischen Testergebnisse (M35-M36).