The ASME POWER & ENERGY Conference 2016 took place from June 26 - 30 in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA, together with the 24th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE 24), at which numerous specialist presentations were given on current topics from research, development and application of energy technology. As part of their research activities, IPM employees Hassan Chahi, Dr. Stefan Renger and Dr. Clemens Schneider presented their work in the fields of energy storage systems and reactor safety.

The ASME POWER & ENERGY combines the international conferences: POWER, ENERGY SUSTAINABILITY, FUEL CELL, ENERGY STORAGE FORUM and GAS TURBINE FORUM with the focus on exchanging ideas on sustainable and efficient technologies for the future energy supply among experts. ICONE is one of the largest international conferences in the field of nuclear technology, where current topics of safety research as well as requirements and technical developments of the industry and industry trends are presented and discussed.

The Institute for Process Engineering, Process Automation and Measurement Technology (IPM) of the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences (HSZG) presented several papers and thus contributed to the conference program.

Dr. Stefan Renger and Hassan Chahi presented work that is being carried out as part of German nuclear safety research at the IPM under the direction of Prof. Kästner at the ICONE 24. Dr. Renger's presentation entitled "Investigations about Released Debris and Corrosion Products and their Impact to Head Loss Build up and Decay Heat Removal under Water-Chemical PWR-LOCA Conditions" summarized the work carried out at IPM over the last 14 years on the subject of loss-of-coolant accidents. He presented the test facilities set up at the IPM over this period to investigate multiphase flows and the results of completed and current experimental investigations (FKZ 150 1491) on the effect of solid particles and corrosion products on the emergency and residual cooling of pressurized water reactors. The subsequent presentation by Dr. Kryk from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf on the parallel project at TU Dresden (FKZ 150 1496) also highlighted the close international cooperation between Zittau and Dresden.

 In his lecture "Thermal-hydraulic investigations to the flow of model gases at a PWR fuel assembly dummy and overflow of air above the top of the FA-dummy", Hassan Chahi presented the structure of the DVABEG(Density-Driven Vertical ExchangeMovementsof Gases) test facility. Furthermore, Mr. Chahi presented the thermohydraulic investigations on passive heat removal in dried-out fuel element wet storage pools as part of the joint project SINABEL (Safety of wet storage for spent fuel elements), which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under the funding code 02NUK027D.

 In his presentation at the ENERGY STORAGE FORUM, Dr. Clemens Schneider first introduced the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences and its faculties as well as the research activities of the IPM. In the technical section on "Development of integration Methods for Thermal Energy Storages into Power Plant Processes", the work carried out as part of the ESF-funded research training group "New Systems for Resource Conservation" in cooperation with the ERDF-funded project "Highly Transient Thermal Energy Storage System" under the direction of Prof. Kratzsch in the Zittau power plant laboratory was presented. The concepts for making thermal energy plants more flexible by integrating appropriate energy storage systems were presented in order to compensate for load fluctuations due to volatile feed-in from alternative energy sources. Dr. Schneider also presented the THERESA thermal energy storage plant, which was officially opened in November 2015 and is used to investigate and qualify the process engineering processes and control concepts for making thermal energy plants more flexible.

By actively participating in the events, the IPM made it clear that the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences is attracting international attention as a location for teaching and research in energy technology. In an international context, the IPM thus presented its contribution to reactor safety research, which continues to be relevant, and to solutions for a sustainable and stable energy supply.

Author: C. Schneider, S. Renger, H. Chahi (HSZG)

www.asme.org/events/icone

www.asme.org/events/power-energy