OST power line and catalyst win innovation award
Two research projects of the OST - University of Applied Sciences of Eastern Switzerland have received innovation prizes from the Futur Foundation. The main prize goes to an air-insulated power line for underground grid expansion. The recognition prize went to a catalyst for renewable energies.
The 19th Innovation Awards of the Foundation for the Promotion and Support of Technology-Oriented Entrepreneurship Rapperswil(Futur) go to two student projects of the University of Applied Sciences of Eastern Switzerland. Since the autumn semester 2008, the foundation has been offering an innovation prize among the students of the OST – University of Applied Sciences of Eastern Switzerland in Rapperswil. The prize is awarded and supports particularly innovative concepts that can later be marketed.
The main prize of 10,000 Swiss francs goes to the air-insulated power line called Hivoduct. It was developed by students led by Prof. Dr. Michael Schueller at the Institute of Energy Technology. “With it, we were able to develop a low-loss, invisibly laid and easily installed solution for the urgently needed expansion of power grids and for energy-intensive industries,” Schueller is quoted as saying in a media release from the University of Applied Sciences. According to the information, the Hivoduct cable is already in use in a pilot project in Zurich’s Seefeld and in a high-current facility in Germany. The SBB wants to use it in a transformer station.
The catalyst SelfCat, which regenerates itself, was awarded the recognition prize of 6000 Swiss francs. It was developed by the Advanced Materials and Processes group led by Prof. Dr. Andre Heel. According to project leader Heel, all that is needed to restore the catalytic converter to its original state is to aerate it briefly at high temperature. It can be adapted to numerous processes and therefore plays an important role in exhaust gas purification and in the production of sustainable synthetic energy sources.