SUSTAINABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES SUSTAINABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES

RESEARCHRESEARCH

- WIND- WAVE/TIDAL- WASTE HEAT RECOVERY- ENERGY EFFICIENCY- INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES- ELECTRICAL DRIVE TRAINS- HEAT EXCHANGERS- BUILDINGS

create economic

value

create economic

value

GHENT UNIVERSITY

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GHENT UNIVERSITY

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ContentsContents

Preface

The IOF Framework

UGent SET: the story

The pillars of SET

Our areas of focus

Resarch groups in the cluster

A strong partnership

Ghent University

Energy.ugent.be

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Human EnergyHuman EnergyGreet Van Eetvelde, INEOS & professor UGent, 1st prize 55 Energy contest

Human energy, that is what SET is all about. It brings forth bright minds,

it generates power, it flicks the light and makes us sizzle. It is inspiring,

ingenious, inductive. It is the driving force of new ideas, technologies, pro-

cesses and products, to be used today and in our common future. Sustain-

able energy technologies indeed.

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PrefacePreface

Ghent University’s Sustainable Energy Technologies (SET) consortium has now been in existence for five years. After 5 years of quietly cultivating, nurturing and building our future, we have decided to speak up more loudly and to show you how we take up our responsibility towards the community by transferring, translating and making available our knowledge, know-how, expertise and infrastructure with the aim of creating added value. SET has become a unique single point of contact for companies confronted with multidisciplinary challenges in the domain of energy. Through SET, access is provided to more than 10 research groups from Ghent University!

After 5 years, “speaking up loudly” has been made concrete in three different ways. Firstly, you are looking at our first brochure elaborating on our main activities, and highlighting some major achievements of the last 5 years. Secondly, on our SET5Y event on 28/01/2014 we meet with you, our network, and we provide you with our 5Ys (why’s), our 5 reasons of existence, and explain to you what we are doing, and how and why we do it. Almost all our researchers are available on this event to discuss with you. Thirdly, in anticipation of this event we invited our network to provide us with a ‘55Energy’, a story of exactly 55 words related to energy. What a success this has turned out to be! A selection of the most energetic stories can be found in this brochure. The complete list can be consulted on the event site www.set5Y.ugent.be.

Finally, we want to express our sincere gratitude. First of towards you, our industrial network. You have been open to discussing your challenges, and through our joint projects you have provided a pathway for our knowledge to be commercialised. We sincerely hope to be able to keep meeting each other in the coming years to continue building a strong local industrial web. Secondly, we would like to thank the IOF for funding this kind of activities and also Ghent University for all the support SET has experienced over the last 5 years. Here, we would like to mention explicitly the (vice-)chancellors, the deans of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, the director of research affairs and last but not least the team of UGent’s TechTransfer. Finally, our thanks go to all the researchers and responsible professors, for many of whom valorisation has been a valuable learning process. We are so glad we have been able to walk the pathway towards valorisation with each of you and we sincerely hope to continue to do so in the future! In this respect I would like to express a special thanks to the current and past members of the steering committee of SET for their insights and reflection over the years.Looking forward to 5 more energetic years.

28 January 2014Jeroen De Maeyer, Business Development Manager SET

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Welke energie is duurzaam?Welke energie is duurzaam?Annick Dhont, OCAS, 2nd prize 55Energy contest

Weten welke energie duurzaam is? Wel, het is die energie waarvan wij men-

sen gaan stralen. Fietsen met de zon op je gezicht, de wind in de haren. Met

de kinderen op een zonnig strand de vlieger laten spelen in de wind. Duur-

zame energie: daar wordt de hele aardbol beter van, nu en in de toekomst.

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The IOF FrameworkThe IOF Framework

In 2005, the Flemish government in Belgium created its Industrial Research Fund (IOF). This new univer-sity-oriented instrument aims at accelerating regional innovation by closing the gap between research and industry. Today, a budget of about €20M is annually distributed among the 5 Flemish universities. Using these funds, Ghent University has devised a unique strategy to strengthen its existing Technology Transfer activities.

Business Development Clusters

UGent splits the annual funding into two parts, with one part earmarked for proof-of-concept funding and the other to finance Business Development Clusters (BDC) that complement its present central Technol-ogy Transfer Office (TTO). Ghent University’s Sustainable Energy Technologies, i.e. UGent SET, is one of the 20 currently established BDCs illustrated in the figure below.

Each BDC is coordinated by a Business Development Manager (BDM). BDMs are technology transfer professionals with the relevant technical background but also with a business orientation, i.e. they have “their heart in industry, but their head in the university.”

A key decision of the university was to organise these BDCs in the close proximity of the researchers involved and with a thematic focus. The BDCs consist of research groups with complementary expertise that offer a multi-disciplinary approach within a specific theme. The BDM has a double interface function with respect to the researchers in their cluster: on the one hand they are in close contact with the (ma-jor) industrial players, providing industrial real-life challenges to the researchers and a market for their research results. On the other hand, BDMs have regular contacts with the central Technology Transfer Office, and in this way create a bridge between the scientific community and the TTO.

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Technology Transfer Office

The Technology Transfer Office provides expert functional support in legal, IP, and business development matters. The BDMs focus on creating valorisation opportunities, be it licensing, collaboration projects, or spin-off creation, using the research results of their BDC. The BDMs are assisted by the experts of the central TTO during the different steps of the tech transfer process and can apply for financial support for proof-of-concept funding from the IOF budget.

This organisational set-up allows for a differentiation in procedures, focus, … between the different BDCs. In this way opportunities can be created for individual technology transfer projects and research tuned to the companies linked to the cluster. It facilitates the interaction between university and industry and maximises technology transfer.

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SET officially started on 01/12/2008 with the appointment of the first Business Development Manager (Jeroen De Maeyer). However, we are only able to tell the story of SET today thanks to the enthusiastic impulses of prof. Greet Van Eetvelde and prof. Lieven Vandevelde earlier in 2008. They took the initiative of writing the application for setting up the SET cluster. It was due to their insights and efforts that SET was able to take off. Over the past 5 years the cluster has obviously evolved and even changed drastically. This booklet is a way of celebrating this, and on the occasion of our 5-year anniversary our logo has been

subtly changed into:

UGent SET: the storyUGent SET: the story

Industrial collaboration

Over the past five years we have established a balanced project funding portfolio. Fundamental research projects initiated at the university are complemented with applied research projects triggered by our in-dustrial partners. Often co-funding is provided by industry. Hence we can ensure sustainable fundamental research and long-term industrial collaboration. On average, about 6 PhDs per year (9 in 2013) are being realised within SET. A complete list of PhDs can be found on our website. Our current budget of industri-ally relevant projects (bilateral projects, IWT funded projects, industrial EU projects … ) amounts to about €3.5M/year.

The pillars of SETThe pillars of SET

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Patents

We have been able to increase our patent portfolio from 2 to 14 patents. These 14 patents are in different phases of the patent procedure (internal evaluation, priority filing, granted patent). Three of these patents are co-owned by an industrial partner. In the last 5 years 2 additional patents were transferred to industry. Today we identify about 3 new inventions per year. Most of them actually make it to the patent application phase and finally to the status of granted patent. These patents are available for licensing or technology transfer. More information: www.set.ugent.be/en_Offers.html

Spin-offs

Since the start of SET 3 successful spin-offs have originated from the work of the involved research groups.

Alenco was our first spin-off, established in 2009. Alenco developed a com-bined heat & power system for households and SMEs. The starting point of this spin-off was a patent filed within the research group of the Electrical En-ergy Laboratory. Alenco is based in Lokeren and was acquired by The Heating Company in 2012.

Mind4Energy was established in 2011 and is located in Ghent. It uses soft-ware developed within SET to monitor solar power plants. This allows them to benchmark the operation of several solar power plants and to improve the energy yield of existing plants.

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Argus Technologies is located in the Greenbridge science park in Ostend. The team be-hind Argus Technologies originally developed the software used by Mind4Energy. Now Argus Technologies is exploring new markets for this software. More information: www.set.ugent.be

A multidisciplinary approach

Due to an increased focus on application-oriented research activities we were able to bring together sev-eral research groups with different expertise, know-how and skills. Several projects were set up in which more than one research group from SET participated. Key examples are the IWT R&D project FlanSea (4 SET groups involved), the IWT SBO project ORCNext (4 SET groups involved), the IWT SBO project OptiWind (2 SET groups involved), EU FP7 INCREASE, … Hence, we are now able to tackle your application-specific challenges using a multidisciplinary approach, which we call “horizontal research valorisation”.

Focus on 4 areas

We have understood the need to focus and make choices. This has led to SET focussing its activities on 4 areas:

• Wind energy, including small, medium, onshore and offshore wind energy.

• Blue energy, i.e. wave and tidal energy.

• Waste heat recovery. After all measures have been taken to internally optimise a process, heat can still be available, which is most of the time a waste to the environment. We work on technologies to transform this heat into electricity or process heat.

• Energy efficiency: we mainly look at the efficiency of individual components (such as electrical machines and drive trains, heat exchangers, internal combustion engines, … ) in ‘small’ systems (buildings, industry, decentralised energy systems, microgrids, … )

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In addition we have decided to focus on the “T” in SET, complementing other IOF clusters (see IOF Frame-work) and the other energy-related activities within Ghent University (see section energy.ugent.be). Equal-ly important is that we understand that we are only one (key) piece in the energy research puzzle in Flan-ders. Hence, we reach out to other research institutes in Flanders for collaboration. We consider it of the utmost importance to understand our complementarity. In this way we can direct an industrial partner to where he will be helped best in his challenge, whether this is in or outside SET or even outside Ghent University.

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Wind energy - “The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind” (Roussos)

Introduction - GOwind!

Wind energy is becoming a major player in the energy mix, covering over 7% of Europe’s energy needs in 2012. Europe is clearly in the lead with an installed base of 106GW in 2012. The sector has grown to an estimated 250,000 people working in it. Trends are to go to even larger wind turbines offshore and to look at the poten-tial of small and medium size turbines in urban and rural areas or in hybrid (with diesel engines) generation set-ups.

In April 2011 we set up the multidisciplinary initiative GOwind! (Ghent Ostend Wind Research Institute). This initiative groups all research and demonstration activities of more than 11 Ghent University depart-ments and research groups. Both small, medium, large and on and offshore wind turbine technology is the topic of our research. Some examples of our activities are:

Offshore mono-pile constructions: design and analysis of scour protection, wave run-up around mono-piles

Blades: Finite element modelling, mode prediction, fatigue analysis.

Drive trains: energy efficiency of electrical generators, power electronics

Grid coupling: analysis of DC, AC vs. HVDC grid connection strategies, ancillary services and power quality.

Condition monitoring of drive trains and wind turbine blades

Noise propagation during the installation and operation of wind turbines

Small wind turbines

Our areas of focusOur areas of focus

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GOwind! provides a single point of contact for industry with respect to the activities at Ghent University. Where possible we align our activities with the Flemish OWI lab initiative. More information: www.gowind.ugent.be

IWT-SBO-project OptiWind (2012-2016)

OptiWind is an IWT SBO project. SBO projects are research projects of high scientific value but with industrial opportunities in the (near) future (5 to 10 years). Industry representatives (e.g. Belwind, CG, Nexans, DEME, …) are in-volved through an Industrial Advisory Board. In OptiWind we are looking at large offshore wind turbines (i.e. towards 20MW) together with the OWI lab partners. Within OptiWind SET is responsible for two work packages: one on blades and one on grid connections.

With respect to the blades we are looking at segmented blades. In order to be able to assess such seg-mented blades, we have started with methodologies to generate a finite-element (FE) mesh. We have developed such a custom meshing tool. It is able to create a clean mesh, including specific details of the turbine blade, starting from 2D air foil sections or a 3D CAD design.

The created mesh allows us to simulate the important modes of a blade when submitted to certification tests. A validation by a blade manufacturer revealed that we are able, as required, to predict the behaviour of each of the modes within 5% accuracy. The latter is especially challenging for the torsional modes as in this mode the influence of the adhesives (typically difficult to model) is the highest.

With respect to the grids we are currently looking at the possibility for offshore wind farms to provide ancillary services (frequency control, voltage control, power quality and black start, …). The most recent

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blackout in Europe (Italy, Switzerland) was in 2013, as shown in the figure below. The challenge is to re-store grid power given the absence of electricity on the grid (a so-called black start). We are studying how offshore wind turbine farms using the free power of wind can assist in this.

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Design of generators

Upon request of a major steel manufacturer we looked into the impact of two different magnetic steel grades on the performance of a wind turbine. For each of the materials we designed a turbine generator for a 1MW turbine using state-of-the-art techniques. From this study we have learned that for the same mass the more expensive magnetic material causes a 1% increase in efficiency. This allows us to further evaluate the balance between CAPEX en energy yield.

Small wind turbine research

We provide services to many small wind turbine manufacturers. In the EU framework we have a running FP7 R4SME project (WINDUR, 2013-2015) focussing on increasing the performance of vertical axis wind turbines integrated in buildings. Several European SMEs (such as Mastergas, FuturEnergy, DVE Tech, Solute) are involved in this project. Our role relates to the control of these turbines (maximum power point tracking), i.e. how to extract the maximum amount of energy in turbulent wind conditions, without pitch control and in the absence of wind speed measurements.

A key element in this research is our Small Wind Turbine Field Lab (SWTFieldLab) located in the Green-bridge Science Park in Ostend. This open test&R&D infrastructure is used to look at the impact of the generator current waveforms, noise propagation, blade monitoring and microgrid operation.

More information: www.swtfieldlab.ugent.be

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Blue energy - “Surfing the waves” Introduction

Wave energy is an emerging source of energy with a potential estimated at 3.7TW. Different road maps indicate that by 2020 about 3.5GW will be installed in Europe. It is expected that this will increase to about 180GW in 2050. Currently, the market of wave energy is not consolidated at all, with lots of concepts and devices running the race. Big challenges are: what type of concept to use in which conditions, how to in-crease the energy yield, how to increase robustness, how to operate devices in a farm layout, …

Within the framework of the BELSPO projects OPTIEP and BOREAS we have evaluated the potential of wave, tidal and offshore energy on the Belgian Continental Shelf (BCS). It was concluded that on the BCS there is little potential for tidal energy, while for wave energy there are some zones that could be charac-terised as having a moderate wave climate. Such a climate is an ideal starting ground given the state of the technology.

EU-project SEEWEC (ended 2010)

We were involved in the EU FP6 project SEEWEC. The consortium included industrial players such as Fred Olsen and Bosch-Rexroth but also the local SME Spiromatic. The project developed an actual wave energy converter. Our involvement was related to e.g. the behaviour of composite buoys slamming the water, for which we have done cor-relation tests at the “Watersport-baan” in Ghent.

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FlanSea – Flanders Electricity from the Sea (2010-2013)

FlanSea is an IWT R&D project led by our industrial partner DEME Blue Energy, with a budget of about €3.7M. The consortium further includes a number of Flemish SMEs and Ghent University. The goal of this consor-tium is to develop a Flemish wave energy converter adapted to moderate wave climates. As a starting point, a test buoy, the Wave Pioneer, was developed in order to validate the simulation models, to understand the economics behind wave energy, to experience the challenges (e.g. effi-ciency of the drive train, the forces on the components, … ), … During the winter of 2013-2014 the Wave Pioneer will be placed just outside the Port of Ostend. The consortium is planning to include the lessons learned and the knowledge obtained in a subsequent project.More information: www.flansea.eu

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WECWakes

The WECWakes project is funded by the EU FP7 HY-DRALAB IV programme, and is coordinated by Ghent University as part of a consortium of 7 international partners. Commercial exploitation of wave energy will require the installation of large numbers of wave energy converters (WECs) arranged in an array or a farm. Within WECWakes we are validating simulation models predicting the interaction between WECs in an array through measurements on a large array of 25 scaled WECs placed in the DHI wave tank. Our soft-ware is available in a semi-commercial way.

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Gen4Wave

Gen4Wave is an initiative originating in Ghent University, within the framework of Generaties, the Flemish innovation platform for renewable energy. In the meantime, the partner-ship has been extended with major players both from aca-demia, industry and government. Gen4Wave wants to ensure that Flemish industries can position themselves within the value chain of wave and tidal energy. There is still quite some potential to operate in this value chain given the fact that the market has not yet been consolidated.

Gen4Wave consists of three pillars. A first pillar is the Gen-4WaveTank, a coastal and ocean basin, open test&R&D in-frastructure that includes a water basin in which waves, currents and wind can be generated. A second pillar is the Gen4Wave Energy Platform, a platform set up to inform the stakeholders on the potential of the Gen4WaveTank, new trends in wave and tidal energy, … and to initiate new R&D projects. Supporting the start-up of such R&D projects is the third pillar. At the end of 2013 the possibilities to finance this were being explored.

More information: www.Gen4Wave.ugent.be

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Waste heat recovery - “Valuable waste heat”

Introduction

Today’s process industries (cement, glass, paper, plastic, chemical, …) have to cope with an enormous amount of waste heat. Experts assume that the annual unused industrial waste heat potential amounts to 140TWh in Europe alone, implying a CO2 reduction potential of about 14M ton of CO2 per annum. This waste heat is typically available at a low(er) temperature. We are studying two technologies to recover this waste heat:

In the form of electrical power with Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) technology.

Using industrial high-temperature heat pumps to upgrade waste heat in order to process heat

To align all our efforts related to waste heat we have established a waste heat valorisation centre. More information: www.wasteheat.eu

ORCNext (2012-2016)

ORCNext is an IWT SBO project with as project partners UGent, University of Antwerp, Université de Liège and Atlas Copco. SBO projects are research projects of a high scientific value but with industrial opportunities in the (near) future (5 tot 10years).

That’s why industries are involved through an Industrial Advisory Board. Several aspects are being stud-ied. First, research is aimed at new cycle architectures with the aim of raising efficiency. One promising step is to go towards supercritical cycles, using supercritical fluids. The progress will be realised through thermodynamic modelling and experimental validation. An improvement of about a factor of 1.20-1.25 is envisaged. These improvements are and will be validated on our test rig in UGent’s campus Kortrijk (see figure).

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Secondly, the aim is to investigate efficient systems for smaller power ranges, which would open the po-tential for a lot of small-scale systems on the market. Therefore, specific expander technology has to be developed by means of advanced Computational Fluid Dynamic algorithms (see figure). This development is done in close cooperation with an industrial partner.

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Thirdly, it is of great importance to develop smart control algorithms which can take care of varying load values. The project results again open up further possibilities for these cycles as a lot of heat sources have a strongly variable nature. Finally, the financial and economic constraints and possibilities have to be clearly understood. More information: www.orcnext.be

CPV Rankine (FP7 2013-2014)

In 2013, the European FP7 SME CPV Rankine project started with as one of the partners De Coninck in Gavere. As part of the project, UGent designed a supercritical heat exchanger for a solar-driven ORC which was built by De Conick. Test are currently running on this cycle in Athens. More information: www.cpvrankine.aua.gr

W2PHeat (2012-2013) and HP4Drying (2013-2015)

W2PHeat (Waste to Process Heat) and HP4Drying (Heat Pumps for Drying) are both IWT ERANET CORNET pro-jects. These projects aim at technology transfer to-

wards industry, providing them with new technology and new technological insights, and informing them about the potential impact on their energy usage.

Within W2PHeat heat pumps are studied. By using heat pumps, waste heat can be upgraded to a higher temperature level. Currently, the limited maximum output temperature of approximately 80 to 90°C and the unfavourable electricity/fuel price ratios are predominant reasons for the lack of heat pump applica-tions in industry. Therefore, high-temperature heat pumps need to be developed, the main goal of the project. This includes the selection of suitable working fluids, the definition of a proper cycle architecture, the retrofitting of an existing compressor to make it compatible with high temperature operation, the op-timisation of heat exchangers and the elaboration of economical compressor driving technologies.Within HP4Drying we intend to use heat pumps explicitly for drying processes. The starting point of this project was to create a closed-loop drying process aiming at increasing energy efficiency. The project will start in the spring of 2014.More information: www.cornet-w2pheat.eu

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Energy Efficiency - “Efficiency First”

Introduction

Sustainable energy production and waste heat recovery are important elements in the transition towards a more sustainable society. Avoiding excess energy use and increasing energy efficiency is even more important. We start our research with the design and modelling of basic components of systems, electri-cal machines, heat exchangers, internal combustion engines, individual homes, … and as such we try to assist in providing the technology for the smart cities of the future.

GUCCI – Internal Combustion Engines

The internal combustion engine with com-pression ignition (type diesel engines) is still the most important source of traction for heavy duty transport, railway transport, ma-rine applications and generator sets. We per-form research on the use of alternative fuels in those medium-speed combustion engines. An important tool in this research is our con-stant volume combustion chamber, which is optically accessible. It was baptized the “Ghent University Combustion Chamber I”, shortened to “GUCCI”. With it, we are able to

visualise the whole process of both atomisation and combustion and to measure all necessary param-eters to characterise the diesel process.

We complement this with advanced modelling. Most models for diesel atomisation and combustion still have some shortcomings, even more so if the same models are used for other fuels than conventional (fossil) diesel. The results of experiments on the GUCCI set-up are used to modify models for the use of alternative fuels. The research is performed in close collaboration with the Anglo Belgian Corporation (ABC), a manufacturer of internal combustion engines located in Ghent. We are also in contact with software developers and other stakeholders.

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Energy efficient electrical machines and power electronics

The patent application ‘High Efficient Axial Machine’ is a typical example of our activities in the field of energy-efficient electrical ma-chines. We have designed this special type of permanent magnet electrical machine from scratch. Both thermal and electrical as well as magnetic aspects were investigated. The re-sult is a very high efficiency of more than 95%, with a rated power of 4kW and 2500rpm. It is a very compact machine with only 10cm axial length and 20cm of diameter. We are currently looking for industrial partners for the licensing or transferring of the technology.

We are also investigating other exotic ma-chines and drive-train combinations as well as more traditional permanent magnet ma-chines, switched-reluctance machines, step-per motors … We provide both services in the design process and in the selection process: what type of electrical machine, power elec-tronics and gearing is best suited for a specif-ic application to reach maximum efficiency? For the chosen configuration, we predict ef-ficiencies of the machine, power electronics

and gearing for the specific torque-speed characteristic using e.g. contour maps measured in our re-search facilities (see figure below). Several IWT Technology Transfer (TeTra) projects and bilateral projects have been coupled to this research. More information: www.Xiak.be

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Advanced heat exchangers

We are modelling, designing and simulating compact heat exchangers. To improve the heat transfer rate, different strategies are being used. We investigate the interaction between the flow behaviour and the resulting heat transfer and pressure drop. This way we can optimize and design units for specific applica-tions. Experimental data are used to develop heat transfer and pressure drop correlations. The data also provides reliable benchmarking data for numerical codes. The numerical results provide a more detailed look into the flow physics resulting in a more complete picture of the relevant phenomena.

A very special and advanced compact heat exchanger is one that uses metal foam such as aluminium foam. The foam consists of interconnected poly-hedrons. Hence the name Alhedron for our activities, which include the set-

ting up of a new company as a spin-off. Alhedron optimizes applications by combining our best-in-class proprietary design tools with our expertise in thermal systems and know-how about metal foam. Alhe-dron creates fully-integrated and customer-specific designs and makes sure your application benefits in the best way from the unique advantages of open-cell metal foam (metal foam makes an application lighter, more robust, more compact and visually appealing).More information: www.alhedron.com

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Two phase flow heat transfer

During the evaporation of a refrigerant in heat exchang-ers, the refrigerant behaves as a two-phase flow in which the void fraction is an important parameter. We have developed a patented technology to determine di-rectly, online, in-situ and automatically the void fraction using capacitive sensor output. This allows us to either optimise the design and to reduce oversizing or use this signal as a control signal for controlling the evapora-tion process. With this sensor we are also looking at the behaviour of two-phase flows in hairpins which are pre-sent in compact fin and tube heat exchangers, in order

to reduce the oversizing of the heat exchanger and to increase the coefficient of performance of heat pumps and chillers.

Smart light domes – natural light for free

We have developed a control algorithm for the Light-Catcher of the Ghent-based company EcoNation. The LightCatcher is a light dome that tracks the brightest spot in the sky and reflects the light from this spot into the room. In the morning, in the evening and on cloudy days this makes the difference between needing or not needing to put on the artificial lights, saving on the en-ergy bill in the process. More information: www.econation.be

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Energy efficiency in buildings

Buildings account for 40% of EU final energy demand. Making these buildings more efficient is a key to reaching the EU’s 2020 goals. We are contributing to this in many ways, most often in collaboration

with industry and in relation to real life. In order to do so, we have been developing in-situ measurement techniques and excellent know-how on the interpretation of the measurement signals. We combine this with modelling skills and look e.g. at the influence of inhabitants on the actual energy performance vs. the predicted performance. In the ECO life project (2010-2016) we are responsible for measuring the performance of innovative in-tegrated energy concepts in towns. One of the sites we are following up is in Kortrijk with 1,200 ECO life inhabitants in the community. More information: www.ecolife-project.eu

We have assisted the company Wienerberger in developing an atlas of ‘bouwknopen’, i.e. important (interconnection) elements in a building. This atlas provides an overview of more than 100 such elements typically used in buildings. It indicates which elements are accepted by the local ‘Energy Performance of Buildings’ (EPB) regulations and which are not. For elements not (yet) accepted by EPB, we have calculated the relevant parameters with numerical software, and this in varying conditions such as type of brickwork, type of insulation, insulation thickness, … .More information: www.bouwknopenatlas.be

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With students and industrial partners we also entered the Solar Decathlon compe-tition in 2011 with the E-Cube, an afford-able, do-it-yourself building kit for a solar-powered house which is pre-engineered, factory-built, and easily assembled with-out special skills. More information: www.solardecathlon.ugent.be/en

Electrical grids

We coordinate the FP7 project INCREASE (2013-2017). INCREASE wants to focus on how to manage renewable energy sources in low and medium-voltage networks, provide ancillary services at the level of the distribution and transmission grid, in particular voltage control and un-

balance mitigation. The massive increase of the intermittent renewables in low and medium-voltage net-works has led to a bidirectional power flow. There is an urgent need for such new operational and control strategies in order to maintain the ability of the system to provide consumers with a reliable supply of electricity at an acceptable power quality level and network cost.

Within the project we will be using our research infrastructure consisting of a real-life grid that can be transformed into several grid topologies with 18 connection points onto which a single residence can be emulated. This grid further consists of typical domestic appliances, distributed generation systems, electrical emulators, … More information: www.project-increase.euMore information: www.lemcko.be/en/testfield-on-distributed-generation

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Industrial parks

Together with several industrial park developers and owners, we have been working on aspects with respect to interconnecting the stakeholders in an industrial park and optimizing their combined energy usage. This is not only a technical challenge as challenges also reside in the legal, economic, social and spatial aspects. This is the core subject of the ACE project. More information: www.ace-low-carbon-economy.eu/en/

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Morgen is de tweede helftMorgen is de tweede helftGuillaume Crevecoeur, postdoctoral scientist UGent, 3rd prize 55Energy contest

Vuur vuur van morgen besta jij morgen uit kolen? Ontgloeilampt de als-

maar jonger wordende jeugd en keert de wind naar de molen of was het

omgekeerd? Verspaarlampt de aldoor bonkig wordende bank en schijnt

de zon achter de wolken verscholen of was het omgekeerd? Morgen is de

tweede helft daar het tij is gekeerd! Wederomgekeerd.

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Research groups in the clusterResearch groups in the clusterSET is a cluster of research groups from Ghent University, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture. The following research groups are supported by SET in their industrial activities related to energy.

Electrical Energy LaboratoryProf. Lieven Vandevelde, prof. Alex Van den Bossche, prof. Luc Dupré, prof. Jan Melkebeek

High efficient electrical machines including SRM, (axial flux) permanent magnet machines, …

Electrical generators, e.g. for micro-CHP and wind turbines

Power electronic converters and control strategies for grid coupling of (small-scale) production units

Power quality and control of power systems (e.g. microgrids) with distributed energy generation

Energy efficiency of electrical drives

Labo LemckoProf. Jan Desmet, prof. Jos Knockaert

Power quality of distributed grids with large amounts of renew-able energy

Use of small and large-scale storage and the impact of the power quality of grids

Real-life infrastructure for testing the impact of renewable en-ergy sources on the grid

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Electrical EnergyProf. Peter Sergeant

Electromagnetic and thermal design of electrical machines

Advanced electromagnetic drive trains

Ultra-light weight urban electrical vehicle

XIAKProf. Kurt Stockman

Energy-efficient automation

Energy-efficient control of electrical machines

Efficiency of electromechanical drive trains: contour maps

Applied Thermodynamics and Heat TransferProf. Michel De Paepe

Heat exchangers: design, optimization, new fin types, metal foam, refriger-ants

Heat and mass transfer in complex geometries in e.g. buildings, engines, compact heat exchangers and electronics cooling

Thermodynamics of small-scale energy conversion systems: fuel cells, Com-bined Heat and Power (CHP) Organic Rankine Cycles (ORC), heat pumps, chillers ....

Energy efficiency in buildings and HVAC&R systems

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Thermal Energy in IndustryProf. Martijn van den Broek, prof. Bruno Vanslambrouck

Thermodynamic cycle and process analysis of industrial thermal energy systems

Organic rankine cycles and industrial heat pumps

Volumetric compressor and expander design

Industrial energy efficiency and waste heat recovery

Building Physics, Construction and ServicesProf. Arnold Janssens

Energy-efficient building design: performance prediction and evaluation

Advanced in-situ measurements of façade elements

Impact of occupants on the energy performance of buildings

Heat, air and moisture (HAM) transfer in buildings and building components

Transport TechnologyProf. Sebastian Verhelst

Advanced modelling and analysis of internal combustion engines

Focus on methanol, ethanol, alcohol blends, hydrogen etc. as alternative fuels for spark-ignition engines

Focus on straight vegetable oils, animal fats, biodiesel, waste streams etc. as alternative fuel for diesel engines

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Fluid MechanicsProf. Joris Degroote, prof. Jan Vierendeels

Advanced CFD modelling of expanders and compressors

CFD modelling for reducing energy losses in components

Fluid-structure interaction (FSI) modelling e.g. for wind turbine blades

Mechanics of Materials and SystemsProf. Wim Van Paepegem, prof. Joris Degrieck

Numerical modelling and experimental characterisation of the dy-namic behaviour of materials and structures, with an important focus on fibre-reinforced composite materials

FE mesh generators for large wind turbine blades including joints such as in segmented blades

Development of techniques for non-destructive research, non-de-structive characterisation and permanent monitoring of the behav-iour of materials and structures such as the ones used in small wind turbines

Coastal EngineeringProf. Peter Troch, prof. Andreas Kortenhaus, em. prof. Julien De Rouck

Potential of wave and tidal energy in Belgium

New wave energy converter concepts and wave energy converter control

Farm layout of wave energy converters

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SYSTeMSProf. Robin De Keyser

Control algorithms for sustainable energy systems

Use of non-linear predictive modelling techniques for energy systems

Solar CellsProf. Alex Devos

Modelling of thin-film polycrystalline solar cells: CdTe, CuInSe2, CuInS2

Environmental and Spatial ManagementProf. Greet Van Eetvelde

Development of sustainable business parks from a LESTS (legal, economic, spatial, technical and social) perspective

Energy management clustering, park management

Spatial aspects of distributed heating networks

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A strong partnershipA strong partnership

Network, demonstration activities & entrepreneurship

SET has a partnership with Power-Link and Greenbridge.

In 2005 Ghent University established the science park Greenbridge in Ostend, some 50km from Ghent. Its focus is on cleantech. The park, closely located to the renewable-energy Port of Ostend, is home to the Greenbridge NV incubator. Greenbridge NV provides an area for demonstrating new and innovative cleantech products as well as real-life test infrastructure.

The incubator also houses UGent Power-Link. This is the energy knowledge platform acting as a network partner. Activities include the administrative support of scientific projects and the execution of demon-stration and educational projects.

More information: www.power-link.ugent.be/en‎More information: www.greenbridge.be

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Ghent UniversityGhent University

Ghent University, abbreviated as UGent, is one of the major universities in the Dutch-speaking region of Europe. It distinguishes itself as a socially committed and pluralistic university in a broad international perspective.

Ghent University is a so-called fully comprehensive university with faculties ranging from Art and Philoso-phy over Economics and Business Administration to Pharmaceutical Sciences. The Faculty of Engineering and Architecture (FEA) is one of the major faculties of Ghent University. In 2012 it had more than 2,200 students, 150 professors and 800 researchers.

Unlike similar schools abroad, the faculty is not divided in education-linked divisions. Its 17 departments are organised around research topics and are involved in different study programmes offered by the Fac-ulty of Engineering and Architecture. Each of the departments consist of one or more research groups. All research groups in the SET cluster are part of the faculty of Engineering and Architecture (FEA).

The Faculty is (and so are the activities of SET) located at 4 campus locations: Campus Technicum, in the centre of the city of Ghent; Campus Zwijnaarde, in the science park Zwijnaarde in one of Ghent’s suburbs, Campus Schoonmeersen, formerly part of HoGent, near the city railway station; Campus Kortrijk, for-merly part of HoWest, at some 50 km from Ghent.

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Energy.ugent.beEnergy.ugent.be

Research activitiesWithin Ghent University, complementary energy research activities are being performed. The figure below gives an overview. This overview shows that SET focuses on the technological aspects of Sustainable En-ergy Technologies. Within the grids of the future, ICT will be an important aspect, and this aspect of ICT is covered by a cluster similar to SET, i.e. FUSION. Another cluster, Ghent Bio-Energy Valley, is working on the production of alternative biofuels. SET is using these fuels in their research on internal combustion engines. The economic aspects are covered by the research group ‘Centre for Environmental Economics and Environmental Management’ headed by prof. Albrecht; the legal aspects are taken up within the fac-ulty of Law. Finally, the Centre for Sustainable Development (CDO) investigates sustainability transitions, indicators and monitoring, complex decision-making and governance, future scenarios and visions.

More information: www.energy.ugent.be

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Ze lachte liggendZe lachte liggendRik Van de Walle, Dean Faculty of Engineering and Architecture

Ze lag te. Te goed ingeduffeld om goed zichtbaar te zijn. Maar hoorbaar was ze

wél. Dat ze blij was met zijn thuiskomst, zei ze. En of hij ook onder het deken

kwam? Gelukkig staat de thermostaat niet te hoog, dacht hij. Anders was er

geen samen-induffelen en -dommelen geweest. Tuurlijk, zei hij. Ze lachte.

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Het blonde meisjeHet blonde meisjeFreddy Mortier, Deputy vice-chancellor

De aanblik van het meisje dat, de bejaarde componist dood, het San-Marcoplein

monsterde vanop zijn lievelingsbankje, zou zijn hartzeer hebben verscherpt. De

levensgloed doofde snel. Het meisje dacht: kunnen het water en de wind van de

lagune de kracht leveren om eeuwig jonge muziek te schrijven en een zinkende

stad uit het slijk te trekken?

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LachLachIgnace Lemahieu, Director of Research Affairs

“De wind heeft zijn liedjes. En de vis heeft zijn schel. De par heeft zijn kietjes.

En de frika zijn del.” Zo zong Toon Hermans. Maar, de wind heeft zijn molen.

De golf heeft zijn slag. De tur heeft zijn bine, en het kind houdt zijn lach. Dat is

duurzame energie, zo zingen we nu.

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Dr. ir. Jeroen De MaeyerBusiness Development ManagerUGent – SET c/o UGent EELABSint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41B 9000 Ghent, BelgiumT +32 (0) 9 264 79 14M +32 (0) 471 58 88 32Jeroen.DeMaeyer@UGent.bewww.set.ugent.be@jpdmaeyeSET LinkedIn group

ContactContact

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