Linking Water, Energy and Environmental Sustainability: Siemens R&D Projects Hit Key Milestones [Press Releases]

Water treatment and transportation is a high consumer of energy and produces a significant amount of CO2. Advanced treatment technologies therefore have to link water, energy and environmental sustainability through innovation. In its global R&D center based in Singapore, Siemens Water Technologies is striving to increase process and energy efficiency by both developing new, and constantly improving existing technologies. Some of these projects have reached important milestones. At Singapore International Water Week (SIWW), the company will give an update on key projects like the energy selfsufficient biological wastewater treatment process, electrochemical desalination, a micro media column for contaminant removal and the membrane bioreactor (MBR) Changi pilot plant. Read more

Siemens Successfully Concludes R&D Project on Low-energy Seawater Desalination: Technology Ready for Full-scale Testing [Press Releases]

Having set a new energy saving benchmark for seawater desalination, Siemens is now poised to transition their ground-breaking technology to the product development phase. As a result of an R&D initiative that commenced in October 2008, a demonstration plant was built in Singapore to treat seawater to drinking water quality. The results, which will be presented at Singapore International Water Week, show that the new process reduces desalting energy by over 50% compared to best available technology. The next step for Siemens is to set up a full-scale system in cooperation with Singapore’s national water agency PUB by 2013. Read more

Siemens gears up for green tech demand [News]

The world is ready for the big switch to renewable energy, according to German conglomerate Siemens.

The engineering company, which is Europe’s largest, is gearing up for an expected huge surge in demand by investing billions in research, said chief executive and president Peter Loescher.

He told The Straits Times that Siemens is setting aside a quarter of its €4 billion (S$7.1 billion) in total research and development funds solely for green technology research.

This covers everything from improving energy efficiency to research into renewable energy and water technology. Read more

Megacity Singapore is Asia’s Greenest City [Press Release]

Singapore is Asia’s greenest metropolis. This is the conclusion of the Asian Green City Index – a study commissioned by Siemens and performed by the independent Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). For the study, which was carried out over the past few months, the EIU analyzed the aims and achievements of 22 major Asian cities with respect to environmental and climate protection.

Singapore stands out in particular for its ambitious environmental targets and its efficient approach to achieving them. “The country’s many policies, incentive programs and public awareness campaigns have worked well in improving its urban environment. What is even more commendable about Singapore is that the government is constantly partnering with the private sector to find new and innovative ways to boost the sustainability of the island-nation,” commented Lothar Herrmann, CEO of Siemens Pte Ltd, Singapore. Read more

Siemens City of the Future

We visited the Siemens City of the Future recently to learn more about Siemens’ portfolio of innovative solutions for a sustainable future. City of the Future was inaugurated in March 2009 at the Siemens Center in Singapore, led by Siemens’ Center of Competence for City Management and working with other business divisions. It includes a public gallery and the City Management Solutions Center.

At the public gallery outside, visitors can use the interactive UBIQ touch screens to navigate the content using their fingers, like Tom Cruise in Minority Report. The gallery showcases Siemens’ innovative portfolio of Green, Smart, Mobile and Safe city solutions.

Inside the City Management Solutions Center, we found several interactive applications on city management:

City Game

This interactive game is to help participants understand the importance of cross-functional collaboration across city departments and agencies, when building and managing a sustainable city. They must consider aspects such as water, energy, transportation, finance and security, which is dynamic and changes according to the decisions made.

Green IT Solutions

A holistic approach towards exploiting IT across communication, energy, real estate and other platforms can help individuals and companies reduce costs and be green at the same time. One solution is the use of smart energy meters and appliances that can monitor energy and water consumption, and suggest usage during periods when the energy prices are lower.

Smart Solutions

City authorities can use information technology to help deal with the complex and growing challenges within a city. One solution is the City Cockpit, which is an integrated Management Information and Decision Support System to assist authorities in managing the growth of a city based upon key performance indicators such as traffic, environment, and finance, and to ensure that the city is sustainable for the future.

Mobile Solutions

Mobile solutions, from intelligent real-time information systems and fleet management for public transportation to traffic offence management, can help to reduce a city’s transportation and congestion problems. One solution is the Mobile Parking, which allows car users to pay for parking fees using their mobile phones, instead of using parking coupons. This solution is convenient for car users, and helps the authorities to reduce the infrastructure and maintenance costs.

After touring the Siemens City of the Future, we gained new and better insights on how cities can manage their challenges and growth, and plan for a sustainable future through the use of innovative IT solutions across different industries and platforms. We look forward to seeing some of those solutions being implemented in Singapore in the near future.

Source and images credit: Siemens Pte Ltd

CCS – Climate-Friendly Power Plant Technology

By Siemens

Power supply over the next few decades will be marked by a balanced mix of centralized and decentralized power plants, and of power taken from all available resources. Efficient and innovative technologies will become more important than ever for climate-compatible electricity generation.

Increasing importance of CCS Technologies for carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) in coal-fired power plants will provide a crucial bridging solution, enabling substantial reductions in carbon dioxide emissions from coalfired power plants.

Up to 90 percent of carbon dioxide emissions produced in the combustion process can be reduced with this technology. CCS describes the chain of processes whereby carbon dioxide is sequestered from the power plant process before or after combustion, compressed, and then stored in geological formations.

Siemens is developing two technologies in the area of clean coal electrification for existing and new power plants. The first, for existing steam power plants and new plants, is the scrubbing and capture of carbon dioxide after combustion.

The other technology, carbon dioxide capture before combustion, is used for new IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle) plants. These are combined cycle power plants with integrated coal gasification and upstream carbon dioxide capture. Having acquired the coal gasification business of the Swiss Sustec Group, Siemens can offer the GSP entrained-flow gasification process, which forms a central element of climate-friendly IGCC power plants.

Siemens technologies are also used for carbon dioxide transport and subsequent storage. Compressors supply the necessary pressure in the pipelines, and the pressure required for forcing the carbon dioxide deep underground. Here again, efficiency is called for, to minimize line losses.

State of the art

The various processes for carbon dioxide capture are presently being developed and tested. From today’s technological viewpoint, flue gas scrubbing is the main process available as a retrofit for existing power plants (if these plants are capture ready).

However, to enable CCS technology to be used on a large scale, a reliable political and regulatory framework must first be put in place for implementing CCS and for constructing CCS demonstration plants to verify environmental compatibility and economic viability. If this succeeds, the zero-carbon-dioxide coal-fired power plant will be able to play an important role in delivering climate-friendly and reliable energy from 2020 onward.

This article and image is contributed by Siemens Pte Ltd.