The role of eco-efficient products

Getting more from less

Everything ABB does amounts to meeting customers’ needs in new ways that deliver better performance while using less energy, less raw materials and creating less waste. Continuous improvement in these areas is necessary to raise the living standards of people throughout the world while protecting the environment.

Much of ABB’s research and development focuses on new technologies that reduce environmental impact – particularly those that help curb CO₂ emissions. Equally important is continuous improvement to raise the environmental performance of existing products.

However, making products that deliver more from each unit of input with less environmental impact is not enough. The products must also offer high economic performance over their complete life cycles. Only if they save time, labor and capital will they replace traditional, less eco-efficient products.

Each working day, ABB manufactures nearly one million products, ranging from simple switches to sophisticated industrial robots. All are closely linked to the extraction of primary energy and the generation, transmission, distribution and use of electricity.

Eco-efficiency affects the entire industrial process from product design and material selection through manufacturing and distribution to waste management. The greatest environmental impact - often 99 percent or more - usually occurs from energy consumption during the useful life of the product. Therefore, continuously increasing the electrical efficiency of our products - delivering more to society from each unit of energy - is a principal aim for ABB.

The following examples illustrate how new ABB technology contributes to reducing environmental impact.

Wind power comes of age
Once dismissed as a fringe technology, wind power is becoming a commercially viable, middle-of-the-road source of electricity.

Fifty years from now, as much as 50 percent of all electrical power may come from renewable sources such as biomass, solar energy and wind power. The European Union has committed to generating more than 20 percent of its electricity from these sources by 2010.

Wind power is by far the most mature of these sources. Denmark already gets almost 15 percent of its electricity from wind, with a goal of 50 percent by 2020. In the U.S., wind generates less than one percent of the nation’s electricity. However, in 2001, nearly 1,700 MW of new wind power capacity was installed. This included more new wind capacity, 915 MW, in a single state, Texas, than had ever been installed in the entire country in a single year.

The technology has improved dramatically during the past few years. Electricity is already being produced for as little as four to five cents per kWh. By comparison, electricity from coal costs three tofour cents per kWh, five to six cents per kWh from oil and three to five cents per kWh from natural gas.

Increasingly, megawatt-class wind turbines are erected in offshore, utility-scale wind farms. Since the output of such farms considerably exceeds the local power demand, their impact on the quality of the grid is becoming a major issue for utilities as well as consumers of electricity.

To maximize return on investment, wind power will have to be built for a service life of at least 40 years. Components that are subject to high fatigue and wear have to be replaced or refurbished after a predicted service life. However, major parts can be built for a service life that exceeds 40 years.


A fast-growing business
For the past 20 years, ABB has been a leader in developing the new technologies that make wind power increasingly competitive with conventional power. Much of the research and development is conducted in close cooperation with major suppliers of wind turbines. This has made ABB by far the world’s largest supplier of components for wind technology, with a product range that includes all electrical equipment required.

Wind Center, ABB’s center of excellence for wind power, is located in Denmark, the leading nation in the development and use of wind power. About 50 percent of all wind turbines are manufactured in Denmark. Wind Center supports and coordinates research and development in other ABB countries.

Twenty-seven ABB plants throughout the world supply customers with, among other things, generators, transformers, control systems, cables and substations. Advanced power electronics for conversion of the electricity to the required voltage and frequency is an ABB specialty, and the new HVDC Light technology transmits power to the grid with low losses. Over the past few years, ABB’s wind power business has been growing on average by 25 percent per year and the growth rate is accelerating.

Copenhagen harbor ABB has supplied generators and other electrical equipment and acted as general contractor for the Middelgrunden wind farm, located in shallow water just two kilometers from Copenhagen harbor. The 20 x 2 MW wind turbines provide 40 MW of clean power for the city of Copenhagen.

Microturbines for distributed power production
Deregulation is under way and monopolies are dissolving in the electrical utilities industry. Demands for lower emissions are increasing. Power quality and reliability of supply are becoming more important. So are speed and ease of construction and short payback times.

This creates a demand for small-size power plants to supply local needs, for example in areas not connected to power grids. However, such distributed plants can also be connected into micro-grids, monitored from a single center and serve users at other locations.

Microturbines, fuelled by natural gas, are ideal for such applications. Turbec, an independent company established by ABB and Volvo Aero, is a world leader in microturbine technology.

A microturbine is a combination of a small gas turbine and a direct-driven generator, both mounted on the same shaft. An integral power converter changes the electricity generated into the required voltage and frequency. An exhaust gas recuperator improves the efficiency of the system. Hot gases leaving the turbine can heat water or air for heating or cooling.

Turbec supplies complete 100 kW combined heat and power plants, ready to run, measuring only one by two by three meters (3 x 6 x 9 feet). These small-scale plants achieve a total efficiency of up to 80 percent, with 50 percent of the energy going to heat production and 30 percent to electricity production. Harmful emissions are low and so is noise, making it possible to install them almost anywhere.

Typical applications include continuous power production for hospitals, hotels, schools and housing complexes. Turbec microturbines also provide standby power and peak shaving. In addition, they can improve the capacity, quality and reliability of weak grids.

Variable speed drives reduce CO2 emissions
Households use about half the electricity generated in the world and industry uses the other half. In industry, electrical motors are responsible for about 65 percent of industrial consumption.

Most motors that drive pumps, fans and conveyor belts are fixed-speed devices. They are designed for maximum capacity requirements and always run at full speed – although requirements are usually lower. The output of the pump or fan may be controlled by mechanical throttling. This is like controlling the speed of a car only by braking. The efficiency of such a system is poor.

Varying motor speeds to match process requirements raises system efficiency. In some cases, variable speed control can save as much as 70 percent of the energy. Less CO₂ is released into the atmosphere because less electricity needs to be produced.

Coal is the electricity fuel with the heaviest impact on the environment. When electricity consumption is reduced, environmentally responsible electricity suppliers take coal-fired capacity out of production. It requires at least 360 tons of coal to generate one GWh of electricity; the burning of one ton of coal produces about 2.3 tons of CO₂. ABB drives reduce global CO₂ emissions by over 50 million tons every year. The reduction is equal to the annual CO₂ emissions of a city of six million inhabitants.

Variable speed compressors cut electricity consumption
Power System S.p.A. In Vicenza, Italy, manufactures screw compressors in the 4 kW to 315 kW power range. The ABB electric motors that drive the company’s compressors are fitted with variable speed drives to save energy and improve performance.

Screw compressors, which use intermeshing rotors instead of reciprocating pistons, are widely applied to compress air. Many processes use compressed air round the clock. However, the demand often varies. Despite this, many compressors run at full speed even when no compressed air is consumed. Unloading devices suspend compression until more air is required. But the compressor still consumes energy.

By using a variable speed drive for the electric motor, it is possible to supply the exact quantity of air required at any given time. This reduces electricity consumption. Field tests by Power System S.p.A. have shown that 35–40 percent can be saved using variable speed drives instead of conventional on-off devices. In addition, startup is smoother and wear on the mechanical parts is reduced, cutting maintenance costs.

Because less electricity is consumed to compress air, less needs to be generated and transmitted. This, in turn, reduces CO₂ emissions. Throughout the world and in most branches of industry, air compressors consume large quantities of electricity. Introducing variable speed drives can contribute considerably to protecting the environment.

New ACS 800-02 drive This innovative drive, available in the 90–150 kW power range, is only one-sixth the size of comparable drives from other manufacturers. The reduction in size has been achieved by using new, advanced electronic components in combination with the latest insulation and cooling technologies.

Innovative high voltage motor reduces operating costs and improves environmental performance
The basic design of large electrical motors that drive compressors, pumps and fans has not changed much since they were introduced more than a century ago. All have used conventional windings in the form of rectangular copper bars. Improvements in insulation technologies have offered only limited opportunities for increasing voltage ratings.

Raising the voltage would bring many benefits. The efficiency would increase and the motor could be connected directly to the electrical network, greatly simplifying the installation. This would have both economic and environmental advantages.

A number of ABB innovations have led to the introduction of the world’s first high-voltage motor. Instead of conventional stator windings, it uses high-voltage cable insulated with crosslinked polyethylene (known as XLPE or PEX). This makes it possible to increase the voltage in the windings so that power can be taken directly from the high-voltage grid.

Motorformer, as the new motor is called, can be designed for voltages up to 150 kV. Conventional motors cannot be connected directly to these voltages. Instead, the voltage must be stepped down by transformers. The Motorformer eliminates the need for transformers, medium-voltage switchgear and other ancillary components normally used with large electrical motors. This reduces system losses – often by as much as 25 percent.

Important savings
The Motorformer will save significantly on operating costs over its working life, in contrast to large motors which often operate continuously and use great quantities of energy. Fewer components mean that the costs of servicing, maintenance and spare parts are reduced. Motorformer also takes less space than conventional motors.

An added benefit is that the Motorformer can produce reactive power continuously to support the network. The reactive power generated in alternating-current networks causes instability and losses of active power. Reactive power cannot do useful work, but is necessary to build up magnetic fields, for example during startup of motors. However, transporting reactive power over transmission lines reduces their capacity for transporting active power and increases system losses. Reactive power from the Motorformer can support the startup of other large motors in the area, thus improving network efficiency.

The environmental benefits are considerable. For example, replacing a conventional 20 MW motor with a Motorformer in continuous operation for 20 years on a European Electricity Mix would reduce CO₂ emissions by approximately 7,500 tons. The elimination of oil-filled power transformers also contributes to reducing environmental impact and the risk of fire.

Motorformer - significant savings In ABB’s new Motorformer, cables insulated with crosslinked polyethylene (XLPE) replace the square, epoxy-insulated conductors used in conventional electric motors. The cooling ducts shown in this cross-section are also made of XLPE. Most of the materials in the Motorformer can be easily recycled.