Eurailmag - #15 - March 2007 - (Page 118)

Rolling Stock (page 115) “We know how to improve the efficiency, but it means more volume and weight”, he added. Although industrial electric motors achieve 99% efficiency, the maximum for locomotive motors having equivalent power is about 95%. Some improved magnetic materials allow stronger induction, thus decreasing weight while increasing efficiency, but costs go up. “Zero Oil” is the code name for the research on biofuels for railway diesel engines. Starting in 2006, the B30 fuel (70% diesel/30% biofuel) will be tested on a captive fleet of ten regional railcars and three or four freight locomotives. Why a captive fleet? Because the first problem is the fuel supply and logistics. “The system is new. The B30 used here or there by truck fleets does not meet SNCF’s requirements. We are looking for a longterm product with precise standards”, said Thierry Cami, at the Equipment Engineering Alstom appears to be getting good results NANOTUBES ARE Centre. Experiments will begin in late 2006. with its permanent magnet motor. Reducing CONSIDERED ONE OF SNCF Research will be working with the rotor loss improves efficiency from 95 to Institut Français du Pétrole and two engine 97%. And reducing the motor’s mass gives THE MOST IMPORTANT suppliers (ENERIA (Caterpillar) and SEMT the ideal equation: 700 kg for 700 kW. PIELSTICK) in the OZONE (Orientation Zero Oil MATERIALS IN NANO for New Energies) project. This large-scale, It was silicon that brought a revolution in the 42-month programme on B100, a 100% early 1960s, with the advent of power TECHNOLOGY biomass fuel, will have three phases: laboratory electronics. Semiconductors can be either research by the IFP to define the best test fuel; insulators or conductors and play the role of intensive use in test-bench trials; and operatio“static switches”. They provide modulated transmission of electricity that eliminates the resistances causing voltage nal trials with a BB 460 000 shunting locomotive (a high-power drops. They also do away with heavy, energy-hungry electromechanical Caterpillar engine) and a BB 67 400 (Pielstick engine). devices, replacing them with thin silicon discs. Power electronics permits high-frequency current modulation using a small disc through which NANO TECHNOLOGY: A SOLUTION FOR ENERGY 4,000 to 5,000 A of current can pass, delivering about 10,000 V. PRODUCTION AND STORAGE The most recent silicon-based technology, the IGBT (insulated gate bipolar transistor) is going to be used by Alstom on the TGV East. Assembled in water-cooled power modules weighing about 60 kg, these components deliver over 1 MW of power per axle for each Researchers believe that nano technology has a great future in the field of energy, with the potential to improve fuel cells, increase hydrogen production and storage capacities, boost the transmission and storage of electricity and develop new materials. Storing hydrogen has always been a problem with fuel cells. With current technology, it is stored under pressure, a method that has several drawbacks, including small storage volumes and a risk of explosion. Adsorbing the gas on a surface has emerged as a promising way to increase storage capacity. This solution consists of increasing the concentration of a gas at the interface of extremely porous materials. SNCF Research and Gaz de France have done research on active carbon in the studies camed out for the gaspowered railcar. Now, the rapidly growing field of nano technology is going to provide a way to develop this idea of adsorption with the extremely surface-rich structure of carbon nanotubes. © DB AG/Louis 50,000 times smaller than a human hair and 100 times stronger than a cable Only two forms of carbon – graphite and diamond – were known until Richard Smalley, winner of the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1996, discovered fullerenes. Fullerenes are spheres of stable carbon that resemble a football. They can be used to make a nanometric material (10-9 m), the cylindrical carbon nanotube. Nanotubes are considered one of the most important materials in nano technology. They are 50,000 times thinner than a human hair and 100 times stronger than a cable. They can bend and deform without breaking, properties that make them suitable for over 60 applications in very diverse fields such as textiles, paints, high-performance concrete, and computers. And their surface allows nanotubes to adsorb large volumes of gas. The many research projects being conducted today on energy are poised to offer important industrial uses in the near future motor. “The losses from commutation or conduction are extremely small”, noted Mr Debruyne. The TGV East will run at 320 km/hr. Alain Jeunesse, who works at CIM, says that to increase its speed to 360 km/hr, the power would have to be increased by 60% by adding motors. “If we want to keep the current power reserve, the number of bogie-motors must be increased from four to six, providing power of 12 instead of 8 MW.” BIOFUELS: SO WHEN ARE THE “GREEN” LOCOS ARRIVING ? SNCF operates on 15,000 km of non-electrified track. Improving the environmental performance of diesel traction by using biofuels is a key goal. Biofuels will supply 10% of the power for locomotives with recent engines as of 2007. In the OZONE project, SNCF Research is looking further ahead with the aim of developing “zero oil” technologies. Jean-Yves Jadot Issue 15 EURAILmag Business & Technology

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Eurailmag - #15 - March 2007

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