Equipment for Technical Education in the Field of Energy and Environment

Abstract

GUNT Hamburg is a leading manufacturer of technical equipment for engineering education. In order to promote possible technical solutions for global challenges from climate change and progressive resource depletion, the 2E division of GUNT concentrates on didactic equipment for the field of energy and environment. The close interconnection between the fields of renewable energy, energy efficiency, and environmental technologies is a fundamental aspect of the 2E concept as indicated in the scheme below. Among the environmental technologies, the water treatment field is of special importance since it is crucial for the conservation of the human habitat. The objective of 2E is to integrate the principles of sustainability into the field of technical training. A carefully thought-out spectrum of teaching and research equipment covering high-didactic demands for the energy and environment sector has been developed.

This contribution gives an overview of the structure of the 2E curriculum, summarizes the basic didactical and technical concepts, and gives short examples of selected training units from different subject areas. The didactical concept of the development of a 2E technical training unit emphasizes the key training aspects from practice and theory with a special focus on sustainable engineering. The scope of typical experiments ranges from the commissioning and operation of important system components to the calculation and optimization of the essential key performance indicators. The energy efficiency of a process or a system is among the most important and meaningful key figures. Thus enabling the students to perform appropriate measurements for a step-by-step analysis of parameters affecting the energy efficiency is a predominant objective when preparing the instructional material.

As a typical example of this concept, our experiments in the field of photovoltaic (PV) energy conversion are presented in detail. The ET 250 trainer enables measurements on typical PV modules by means of a basic electrical circuit. Current, voltage, temperature, and irradiation intensity can be measured using a preconfigured measurement unit. Knowledge gained from these experiments serves as a fundament to understand details such as the function of maximum power point tracking systems which are typical in modern PV installations.

In the next step of our PV course, methods and practical components to compensate temporal fluctuations in the energy demand and offer are investigated. To cover the associated learning objectives, we developed the ET 255 trainer. The ET 255 provides a built-in PV simulator besides PC-based measurement and analysis software. Thus the effect of varying irradiation on the behavior of systems components such as grid-connected inverters or stand-alone charge regulators can be investigated during a laboratory course without being hampered by actual weather conditions.

At the end of this contribution, some remarks on new 2E developments are given. In the biomass energy field, the laboratory biogas plant CE 642 was successfully commissioned for two customers. In the field of energy from sea waves, our ET 270 was completed which provides a laboratory system based on the principle of an oscillating water column (OWC).