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Projects

emma technologies is envolved in different european and international projects with organization and implementation.

CATRA - Submarine cable detection

CATRA - Line-following seismoacoustic submarine cable detection using seismo-acoustic technology

CATRA is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.

The Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency requires periodic verification of the burial depth of submarine cables and pipelines laid in German sea areas to ensure the ease and safety of shipping traffic.
At the start of the project, only inadequate procedures were available to cover the range of tasks. These methods are based on cable-bound and ship-guided systems, which only allow low surveying speeds, as it is always possible to survey across the course of the cable (zig-zag courses).
There is therefore a need for an economically viable surveying solution that will significantly reduce ship deployment times. An essential prerequisite for the implementation of the project are the submarine cable characteristics, in particular the cross-sections.
In the CATRA project, a prototype of a mobile 3D system is being developed that allows the exact mapping of the burial depth of supply lines and small interfering bodies with just a single traverse following the cable route. The development of a mobile carrier platform for small survey vessels, decoupled from sea surveying vessels, combined with a new algorithm for data evaluation and localization, should open up a new economical way of documenting routes. Towed below the surface, the weather window for this high-frequency signal technology is considerably wider than for a ship-based application. The integration of individual sensors in the wings made of buoyancy material will extend the 3D coverage. This provides the basis for research into whether a new type of diffraction processing of the acoustic scattering response is superior to conventional computationally intensive methods. As a reference method, the solution of the 2-way acoustic wave equation is adapted and provided for the novel measurement configuration by the so-called Reverse Time-Migration. The system enables higher standards for official approval procedures. Preliminary investigations of cable routes and the search for small buried objects (ammunition remnants, etc.) can also be improved compared to existing techniques. This system solution is to be offered as a service on the cable operator's survey vessels.


Funded by:


 

We would like to thank Projektträger Jülich for its support in project processing and coordination. We would also like to thank the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Protection for the funding, and special thanks go to our project partners GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and TEEC GmbH, Isernhagen.

 

 

 

MAUS Projekt

Natural sources and waste reduction

Our lesson learnt from the renewable energy sources act in Germany and further programs supported by the german ministry of education and research and the german ministry of economy led to a waste-to-power initiative within the emma technologies energy program.
The proven HPS - Hydrogen Pyrolyse System is heading into the direction of innovative applications offering different solutions.
Following the global discussions and needs the most important approach amongst others is the PLASTIC-TO-POWER System.
Our goal remains the innovative and successful implementation  of green technologies allowing to increase socio-economic benefits and save the environment.

 

The global need
Waste-to-energy systems comprise different system set-ups, each individually adjusted to the waste composition.
The main directive driven by the global need for substantial and sustainable solutions is the PLASTIC-TO-POWER SYSTEM.
The only solution today to achieve PLASTIC-TO-POWER is the
HPS – Hydrogen Pyrolyse System. This system is a key  component of an integrated approach, gasifying hydrogen (electrolysis) and carbon (plastic waste) in order to produce methane (CH4). Methane is ideally suited for storage and further power generation by block heat power plants.
For the first time this innovative method generates energy out of waste as shown below.

    

Brochure "Waste to Energy

QUARREE100

In diesem Verbundprojekt aus Hochschulen und Industrie werden zwei miteinander kooperierende AUVs made in „Schleswig-Holstein“ für unterschiedliche Aufgaben entwickelt und als Prototypen gebaut.

Die aus dem Projekt resultierenden Fahrzeuge sollen vielfältige Aufgaben zur Umweltparameteranalyse im Bereich der Forschung und öffentlichen Einrichtungen erfüllen, sowie Inspektion, Überwachung und Vermessung von Hafengebieten und Seeschifffahrtsstraßen meistern. Das System soll des weiteren professionelle Taucher bei ihrer täglichen Arbeit unterstützen können. Passgenau zugeschnitten auf die Wünsche des jeweiligen Anwenders.

Die AUVs sind in der Lage, untereinander zu kommunizieren und in der Gruppe koordiniert zu agieren. Sie können ohne aufwändige Logistik auch auf kleinen Schiffen und Booten bis zu einer Tiefe von 200 Metern eingesetzt werden. Durch den modularen Ansatz ist es möglich, effektiv auf unterschiedliche Anwender und deren Anforderungen zu reagieren.

Zu den Innovativen Konzepten dieses Systems zählen eine hybride Kommunikation bestehend aus akustischer, optischer und induktiver Datenübertragung und Schwarmlokalisierung.

Investition in Wachstum und Beschäftigung

Das Projekt MAUS wird gefördert von der Europäischen Union – Europäischer Fonds für regionale Entwicklung
und vom Land Schleswig-Holstein.

Übergabe des Förderbescheides durch Daniel Günther - Ministerpräsident des Landes Schleswig-Holstein (mitte)

> Pressemitteilung der Kieler Nachrichten

TRACT

Quarter development with 100% regenerative energy
The expansion of renewable energies is an important and much-discussed component in achieving our climate protection targets. The efficient and grid-compatible use of renewable energies in the electricity, heat and transport sectors will play a key role in achieving these targets.
QUARREE100 investigates how wind, solar and biomass must be converted into other forms of energy, stored and distributed in order to provide a competitive, reliable and sustainable energy supply in the urban neighbourhood. The partners of QUARREE100 want to research, model and implement this core element of the energy system transformation in the Rüsdorfer Kamp district of Heide.
The aim of the partners is to develop an energy system together with and for people and businesses in the district that will supply them with electricity, heat and mobility from 100% renewable energies. Hydrogen from renewable sources serves the project as a central storage facility and flexible form of energy. The region rich in wind energy on the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein and the city district involved offer the best conditions for this.

Convert, store, control and distribute energy
The aim of developing a sustainable and economic energy supply for cities and municipalities must be to create a resilient system that guarantees a stable energy supply under extreme situations and uncertainty. Since this can conflict with a purely efficiency-driven solution, the QUARREE100 project will identify and model the optimal balance between efficiency and security of supply.
The fundamentally cellular design also requires a high degree of system serviceability for the surrounding power grid for the supply system in the neighbourhood described in this way. This means that flexible load shifting, storage (thermal, electrochemical, chemical), and intelligent control of the neighbourhood's internal systems and consumers should relieve the load on the surrounding power grid.
In principle, as many aspects of energy supply as possible should be regulated in the neighbourhood, so that coupling with the upstream grid only takes place in bottleneck and emergency situations.
An important factor that will be decisive for the storage and flexibilisation technologies used in the implementation is the green hydrogen production approach pursued by Raffinerie Heide and in the ENTREE100 project. If there is a large surplus of wind power, there is a versatile option for energy storage. The green hydrogen will be used in the neighbourhood as an energy source for electricity, heat and transport.


Role in project

The project contribution of emma technologies GmbH lies in the development of a hydrogen pyrolysis (HPS) for the production of methane as a natural gas substitute. In order to achieve a maximum effectiveness of the HPS and under the aspect of current environmental aspects the materials polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) are to be used. In addition, the recycling of algae will be taken into account in the project.
With the development of the HPS, we aim to store renewable energies in the form of molecular hydrogen with organic carbon without the use of catalysts. In other words, this unique form of energy production is CO2 neutral, including wind power, and significantly contributes to solving the problem of reducing "plastic waste".
The Hydrogen Pyrolysis System (HPS) allows the user to store energy safely, cleanly and efficiently.  The HPS is oriented both to the difficult requirements for energy supply and to the associated environmental aspects in Germany and the EU. The new method (HPS) converts hydrogen, obtained from renewable energies, with organic carbon into methane.
Methane can be stored and transported in the existing infrastructure without limitation. This provides the energy and waste industries with a solution to their problems. HPS is also fully environmentally friendly and has a very small carbon footprint. Possible users are the energy suppliers as well as anyone dealing with plastic and algae waste. emma technologies is in close contact with potential users. They have indicated that they want to test the automated HPS. emma plans to develop an automated HPS based on the already existing manual prototype (of the licensor AIMES) to demonstrate it to all large energy suppliers and municipalities with problems with the disposal of plastic waste, sewage sludge and algae (Treibsel).   ...read more!

 

This project has received funding from:

              

wapcoast

TRACT In-Pipe Flexible Robot for water pipe Inspection


Recent studies surprisingly estimate the losses in European Water Distribution Networks to an average of around 30 to 40%, peaking to more than 50% in some Eastern European countries. It is clear that the economic impact and scarcity of public water sources mandate the development of a systemic leakage control program; while this would seem the most intuitive and feasible approach, currently no technology is reliable enough to be used to pinpoint every source of leak. To solve this issue, the TRACT project will introduce to the market an advanced water pipe monitoring system, consisting in a transport mechanism containing sensors for leakage detection and pipe condition monitoring, which can navigate and inspect water pipe structures of various diameter without the necessary precondition of shutting the process down. This valuable output of the TRACT project will be made available to water utilities clients through the successful delivery of the following Scientific and Technological Objectives:
1)Sensor system along with sensor fusion algorithms which allow the inspection robot to detect and locate pipe damages, leakages, and scaling;
2)Software for mapping the pipeline network;
3)Pipe entry mechanism for a “hot tapping” drilling process, which will allow the inspection robot to enter water pipes without the need for shutting the pipes down;
4) Transport mechanism which can carry the sensor system and navigate through water pipes in the range of 100 mm – 600 mm, covering the dimensional range of the majority of existing water supply pipes.

more... www.tractproject.eu

 

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme
for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no. 606199

Waste to Energy

Water pollution prevention options for coastal zones and tourist areas:
Application to Danube Delta front area - a Black Sea ERA.NET Project

Project duration:    24 months
Project Start:        17th October 2011
 
The objectives of the projects are:
I. Building of a GIS data management system that will be used as a support tool to accomplish the main goals but also for decision making processes of the main active stakeholers in the area of study. The GIS will provide support for the numerical model and also to represent the results of modeling;
II. Mapping of the Danube River plumes extent (sediment charge and thermal imprints) and Razelm-Sinoie plume into coastal waters; the plume dynamics is variable and we aim to have statistical view on plumes variability, based on satellite images;
III. Quantification of nutrient contents, as well as plankton and benthic organisms of superficial and shallow sediments and the exchange of sediment linked nutrients with plankton and benthic organisms in the water column;
IV. Assessment of governing empirical equations that link the nutrients load, physical and chemical parameters of the coastal waters and eutrophication
V. Building of a numerical model for water, sediment, plankton and benthos, as well as pollutants dynamics and validate it for the investigated area; a standard software for modeling will be used; this type of model is suitable to assess river plume mixing and the preferential distribution on beaches of algal bloom products;
VI. Technical workshops and summer schools for representative organizations from Romania and Ukraine (governmental, local, NGOs, etc.) in order to determine the necessary research infrastructure, suitable research methods and hot topics related to water pollution of coastal waters in front of the Danube Delta – Razelm – Sinoie complex, for the future Black Sea Research Programme. During the final workshop the overall results of the project will be presented, together with the prevention options against the pollution of coastal waters from the study area, as they resulted from runs of the WAPCOAST numerical model.
The results of this project will provide local stakeholders the necessary scientific tools for the proper choosing of prevention options regarding the pollution of coastal waters in the front of Danube Delta and Razelm-Sinoie lagoon complex.

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