THE POWER TO PROTECT TOMORROW’S INNOVATIONS
James O’Brien, product group director, M&I Materials identifies the innovations that could transform the way we transport people and goods, and explains how the rapid and safe discharge of batteries using varistor technology will be an important enabler... The world is electrifying at a rapid pace. Whether it’s a developing country delivering power to underserved communities for the first time, or the internal combustion engine giving way to electric vehicles (EVs), tomorrow is powering up. Even industries that are already significantly electrified, such as rail, look to energy-intensive technologies such as maglev or hyperloop for their next great leap forward. But tomorrow’s high-energy technology can
only become today’s if we can guarantee safety and performance, protecting both assets and people. New technologies will throw up new challenges for us to solve. For example, consider an EV crash.
Emergency services responding to a fuel- powered car crash today have well-established methods and tools for the scenario. However, EVs create a new risk to manage: potentially up to 800V buzzing around the chassis if the battery has been damaged. Of course, petrol-powered engines have
their own risks, and there’s no reason to say EVs are inherently more dangerous, but to safely intervene without risk of electrocution or causing a fire, responders need a way to safely discharge the battery. And they need to do so quickly. One technology that shows promise is the
silicon carbide non-linear resistor (varistor), such as those made by Metrosil. These varistors have high energy and power capacity and have been used for decades for surge protection in some of the world’s largest power plants and various high-energy industries. In other words, Metrosil varistors are capable of high energy absorption and superfast discharge. Equipment using this technology could in
theory be used to quickly discharge the battery, enabling emergency services to continue their job in safety. There of course remains research to be done and technical challenges to overcome, but it’s a promising place to start. If successful, it’s an approach that could be
replicated across tomorrow’s battery-enabled energy landscape. Imagine a fire at a
The Metrosil 8000 Series Excitation Protection Unit
commercial building or apartment block with a battery in the basement – or even at a single house with a domestic battery mounted on the wall. Given lithium-ion batteries’ high fire risk, it could similarly be a top priority for
fire services to discharge the battery before it can be ignited. Even in non-emergency scenarios there
could be needs for rapidly discharging batteries. Grid-scale batteries are a good example. It may be necessary to discharge the battery to enable engineers to safely work on adjacent equipment, or in the event of a fault in the system so as not to damage the battery. However, while batteries are an obvious
example, they are far from the only form tomorrow’s high energy world might take. Many are excited about the widespread adoption of maglev (magnetic levitation) trains, capable of incredible speed improvements versus conventional rail, as well as lower maintenance requirements, noise and vibration. There are still many barriers to widespread maglev uptake, one being the very high-power demands, as the levitation is produced by large amounts of energy pushed into the magnet – the sweet spot for silicon carbide non-linear resistors. The other technology fuelling hopes for
transport futurists is the hyperloop, most famously under development by Elon Musk’s Boring Company. Musk’s concept relies on creating a partial vacuum to eliminate air resistance and achieve immense speeds, while other approaches such as that taken by Virgin’s Hyperloop One incorporate maglev technology too. Either way, large power requirements create a clear need for surge protection. So, what does tomorrow hold? Hopefully
some truly transformative innovations in how we transport people and goods, and balance the demands of our electricity networks. To make these prospects reality however, we need to pay serious attention to how we will protect people close to these new assets, as well as the infrastructure itself. But it’s not a matter of waiting on some new enabling innovation: with a history in non-linear resistors stretching back to 1936, Metrosil may already have the properties today to solve the problems of tomorrow.
www.mimaterials.com
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www.aquameter.co.uk quameter.co
A REWARDING EVENING...
Michel Podevyn, co-chairman and president at Spiroflow, a manufacturer of dry ingredients conveying and bulk bag handling equipment, has been presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the recent PPMA Industry Awards. The event was held at the National Conference Centre, Birmingham at the beginning of October. During a 45 year career in the industry, Michel was
an innovator of the ‘flexible screw conveyor’ and its successful application in the food, chemical and mineral industries. The contribution to industry from Chris Holland of
Holmach was also recognised, as he too was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the ceremony. Other winners included Jenton Group for Innovative
Processing System, TrakRap for Innovative Packaging Machinery, Brillopak for Innovative Robotics Solution, Scorpion Vision for Innovative Vision Solution, Clearmark Solutions for Innovative Ancillary Equipment, Farleygreene for Exporter of the Year, and CME for Exceptional Sales Performance. The PPMA BEST Award was presented to Mettler
Toledo Safeline, while Garçon Wines won the award for Environmental Initiative of the Year. OAL was presented with the Outstanding Customer Service award and Jack Woolmer of Mettler Toledo Safeline was recognised as Apprentice of the Year.
www.ppmashow.co.uk
PROCESS & CONTROL | OCTOBER 2019
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